Coverage of privacy decisions as they issue, with the docket cited so the reasoning can be checked against the opinion itself.
Privacy Litigation
November 2, 2026
Ohio's 2023 budget bill added a rule requiring social platforms to get a parent's verifiable consent before a child under 16 could sign up. A federal judge in Columbus blocked it before it took effect and entered a permanent injunction in April 2025. In June 2026 a divided Sixth Circuit panel reversed, and NetChoice has until December 3, 2026 to seek Supreme Court review.
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Privacy Litigation
October 19, 2026
In 2015 the Supreme Court held 5 to 4 that the Los Angeles ordinance letting any police officer inspect a hotel's guest registry on demand was facially invalid under the Fourth Amendment, because operators had no opportunity for precompliance review. The city amended the provision in 2017 so that officers request the operator's consent.
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Privacy Litigation
October 12, 2026
In 2021 the Supreme Court held 6 to 3 that California's demand for every registered charity's Schedule B, the IRS form listing major donors, violated the First Amendment on its face. The Court required narrow tailoring under exacting scrutiny and found none. California's regulation now states that Schedule B is not required.
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Background Checks
September 7, 2026
Four published Ninth Circuit opinions have construed a single sentence of the Fair Credit Reporting Act: the requirement that an employment background check disclosure appear in a document that consists solely of the disclosure. Read in sequence, Syed, Gilberg, Walker and Luna map what may sit on the page, what the page is, and where the line still has not been drawn.
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Standing & Damages
September 7, 2026
Decided 25 June 2021 by five votes to four, TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez took a jury verdict that had already been returned and removed three quarters of the class from federal court. This post reads the case as a case: the OFAC Name Screen product, the six-day trial, the arithmetic of the award, the reasoning on each of the three claims, and the two dissents.
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VPPA
September 7, 2026
One phrase in the Video Privacy Protection Act ("goods or services from a video tape service provider") has produced an open split among three courts of appeals over who may sue. The Supreme Court granted review on 26 January 2026 and has set argument for 14 October 2026. This post sets out what each opinion actually reasoned.
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HIPAA
September 1, 2026
HHS finalised a rule in April 2024 restricting disclosure of information about reproductive health care to law enforcement and in litigation. In June 2025 a federal judge in Amarillo vacated nearly all of it, holding HHS had exceeded its authority. The government did not appeal, and the Fifth Circuit dismissed the intervenors' appeal in September 2025.
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TCPA
September 1, 2026
The FCC's 2023 order would have required consumers to consent to telemarketing robocalls one seller at a time, and limited each call's subject matter to the site where consent was given. The Eleventh Circuit vacated both restrictions on January 24, 2025, before the rule took effect, and the Commission removed the text from the CFR in August 2025.
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BIPA
August 31, 2026
Two 2023 decisions of the Illinois Supreme Court set the outer bounds of exposure under the Biometric Information Privacy Act, and the legislature answered one of them in 2024. The reasoning in each is more revealing than the result: both courts reached conclusions the statutory text compelled while acknowledging the consequences.
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