After a three-judge appellate panel reinstated a property owner's class action alleging that oil and chemical companies contributed to Hurricane Katrina's ferocity, the Fifth Circuit granted the defendants' motion to rehear the case en banc. Then, because it couldn't muster enough judges to hear it, the appellate court dismissed the appeal.

By a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court held that pharmaceutical pay-for-delay deals aren't presumptively illegal under antitrust laws, but the government can still try to make a case that individual settlements are anticompetitive. In other words, the pharma industry will be keeping its lawyers very busy.

Start consoling your child now. Lady Gaga-inspired Bratz dolls, complete with a zombie outfit and a removable head that reveals a bloody stump, may not be on store shelves in time for Christmas.

Electronic Arts has invoked a California law designed to protect citizens' constitutional rights to lash back at rival Zynga in the gamemakers' ongoing legal tussle in federal court. The dispute between the competitors has become increasingly combative since EA sued Zynga for copyright infringement. The latest fusillade came Friday as EA asked a judge to throw out Zynga's counterclaim and award fees and costs under California's anti-SLAPP law.