Dealbreaker: The U.S. Justice Department won't look past Swiss bank UBS AG's alleged violations of a 2012 deal with the feds over interest-rate manipulation. “The unprecedented move to void a settlement with a major financial institution comes after more than a year of talks between UBS and the Justice Department. It is a sign of the department's increasingly aggressive negotiating posture with financial institutions, and calls into question the staying power of past bank settlements if they run into trouble.” [Wall Street Journal] From Reuters: SEC a stumbling block in banks' forex guilty pleas. And from Bloomberg: Barclays Said to Face US Fine for Breaching Libor Settlement.

Amtrak's liability: “Lingering over the liability claims expected to be raised by victims of the Amtrak 188 derailment is a 1997 federal law that creates a $200 million damages cap to be paid out for any single railroad accident.” [The Legal Intelligencer] An Amtrak employee who was on the derailed Northeast Regional 188 filed suit Thursday in Philadelphia federal district court. [NBC10]

Fuming over ATF stings: The Justice Department on Thursday asked the Ninth Circuit to reinstate several ATF stash-house cases in California—prosecutions that, across the country, are under fire as judges question the use of government resources to concoct stings over fake drugs. Prosecutors not only asked the appeals court to revive a series of cases but also to reassign them to a different federal district judge “to ensure impartiality and the appearance of impartiality.” The government wrote in its brief: “This case's procedural history reveals that the court may not follow this Court's dictates on remand, and that it assumed the role of an advocate below, made statements that create the appearance of impartiality, and will likely be unable to put out of mind prior rulings. Moreover, because there has been neither a trial nor significant evidentiary development, there would be little waste entailed in reassignment.”

Supreme advocate: Kannon Shanmugam of Williams & Connolly reflects on high-court advocacy. “If you had told me when I was in law school that one day I'd wake up and have argued a number of cases in front of the Supreme Court, I would have said you were crazy.” [Harvard Law Today]

'No doubt': “Any one of these transgressions … might justify sanctions,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal in California wrote in a sanctions order this week in a trade secrets case. “Taken together, there can be no doubt.” Grewal slapped a $212,000 hit on four investors in San Jose-based Clear View Technologies for, among other things, failing to preserve relevant documents. [The Recorder]

Frats and the Fourth Amendment: “Ruling that a fraternity house should be considered a private residence, Kentucky's Supreme Court on Thursday set aside a college student's drug conviction after campus police entered without a search warrant and were pointed to his room, where they found marijuana.” [Associated Press] Read the Kentucky Supreme Court ruling here. “A citizen's greatest fortification against government intrusion into his or her home is the Fourth Amendment itself, not a lock,” the court wrote.

Promoted: Vice dean Melanie Leslie will become dean of the Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law—the school's first female leader—on July 1. [The National Law Journal]

Reinstated: “The Transportation Security Administration has reinstated an air marshal who was fired after disclosing proposed agency cutbacks, but was later deemed a justified whistle-blower by the Supreme Court.” [USA Today] Read the Supreme Court ruling here. Earlier from the NLJ's Marcia Coyle: High Court Bolsters Whistleblower Protection.

'I almost shot him': A Virginia Court of Appeals judge recounts how close he came to shooting an intruder last month at his home in Fredericksburg. “I would have lived the remainder of my life in despair and regret had I shot him,” Judge James Haley Jr. “The thought that I almost shot him, more than the intrusion itself, is what haunts me. How close I was.” [The Free Lance-Star]

'Loving,' the film: Virginia is for lovers and for “Loving,” the film. State officials said the movie, based on the 1967 Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which overturned the ban on interracial marriage, will be filmed in the state. [HamptonRoads.com]

'Stupid' commentary: “A plaintiffs lawyer's persistent 'inappropriate commentary' throughout a personal injury trial, including calling defense counsel's questions during cross-examination “'stupid,'” required an award of more than $2.5 million to be overturned and the case to be retried, a New Jersey appeals court has ruled.” [New Jersey Law Journal]

Upheld: “A federal appeals court has upheld the core of a law requiring makers of pornography to keep records of the ages and identities of people appearing in such photos or videos.” [Politico] Read the ruling here in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.