Here is some of the legal news making the headlines this week:

Five individuals, including two doctors, were indicted in connection with the drug overdose death of Friends actor Matthew Perry.

• Perry died on October 28, 2023, at 54 years old. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Perry’s death an accident due to “the acute effects of ketamine.” The Drug Enforcement Administration classifies ketamine as a Schedule III non-narcotic substance. It is used medically for anesthesia. 
• The indictment focuses on two individuals: Jasveen “The Ketamine Queen” Sangha and Salvador “Dr. P” Plasencia. Three others, including another doctor and Perry’s live-in assistant, pled guilty to charges over the past week. 
• According to prosecutors, Sangha provided the ketamine that resulted in Perry’s overdose, while Plasencia was responsible for obtaining the ketamine from Sangha and other distributors, administering the drug, and teaching Perry’s assistant how to administer it. Sangha and Plasencia are each charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. In addition, Sangha faces multiple other drug possession and distribution charges, and Plasencia faces ketamine distribution charges and two counts of altering and falsifying documents.

Former President Donald Trump has filed a claim against the Department of Justice seeking $100 million in alleged damages from the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search.

• The FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on August 8, 2022. Court filings and reports have revealed that, for months, DOJ investigators asked Trump to voluntarily return classified records he retained after leaving the White House. After Trump rebuffed DOJ’s requests, a federal magistrate judge approved the search warrant. Evidence seized from Mar-a-Lago became the foundation for the criminal charges brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the indictment last month on procedural grounds related to Smith’s appointment. Smith is appealing that order.
• In Trump’s current claim, he argues that the FBI’s 2022 search has made him the victim of “intrusion upon seclusion, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process.” The claim cites the Federal Tort Claims Act, which permits an individual to seek compensation from the federal government due to injuries sustained from wrongdoing by a government employee.
• Trump also criticizes Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, who greenlit the search, for their involvement, writing, “Notwithstanding the fact that the raid should have never occurred, Garland and Wray should have ensured their agents sought consent from President Trump, notified his lawyers, and sought cooperation. Garland and Wray decided to stray from established protocol to injure President Trump.”

The Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene in a dispute over a student loan forgiveness and repayment program.

• The Biden administration implemented the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan last year, after the Supreme Court invalidated Biden’s previous student loan cancellation proposal. The SAVE program’s loan repayment model provides a more favorable payment calculation formula than earlier plans and offers an expedited route to loan forgiveness after a number of years. Republican attorneys general from over a dozen states, led by Missouri and Kansas, filed lawsuits challenging the program. 
• Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit issued a sweeping injunction blocking implementation of the SAVE plan, as well as previous student loan repayment and forgiveness programs. The Circuit Court wrote, “The SAVE plan is even larger in scope than the loan-cancellation program at issue in [the earlier case],” thus, “The Government’s ‘interpretation’ of [The Higher Education Act] to authorize loan forgiveness of this magnitude “is questionable.’”
• The Biden administration quickly petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene. In her brief to the Court, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote, “The rule is a straightforward exercise of the Department’s express statutory authority to set the parameters of income-contingent repayment plans — just as it has done for three decades.” Prelogar also called the 8th Circuit’s injunction, “vastly overbroad,” writing, “The Eighth Circuit has now issued a sweeping universal injunction blocking the rule’s other challenged provisions — as well as any forgiveness under the preexisting plan, even under the longer prerule timelines adopted in 2015. That extraordinary injunction has scrambled the Department’s administration of loans for millions of borrowers.”

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