By Lauren Berg

The Boeing Co. has finalized its agreement to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud safety regulators about the 737 Max 8's development, avoiding a criminal trial over a pair of deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019, according to a U.S. Department of Justice court filing Wednesday evening.

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5th Circ. Strikes Down FCC's Universal Service Fund

By Christopher Cole

The full Fifth Circuit struck down the Federal Communications Commission's system for subsidizing telecommunications service for rural and low-income users as unconstitutional Wednesday, reversing a panel decision and triggering a circuit split with three other appeals courts that upheld the fee regime.

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DC Circ. Nixes Medicare Hospital Inpatient Payment Rule

By Theresa Schliep

The D.C. Circuit has vacated a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rule that inflated Medicare reimbursements for inpatient care at low-wage hospitals, saying the agency made an "unprecedented, expensive, broad, and possibly never-ending" change to a policy articulated by Congress.

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3rd Circ. Says NJ Temp Worker Law Is Constitutional

By Irene Spezzamonte

Staffing industry groups can't halt a New Jersey law strengthening protections for temporary workers because it doesn't discriminate between out-of-state and in-state companies and is therefore constitutional, the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday, affirming a district court's ruling.

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Analysis

Where Biden Stands On Judicial Noms Compared To Trump

By Courtney Bublé

With President Joe Biden now set to be a one-term president, it appears he can match President Donald Trump's record on district court nominees, but it's not likely he will on nominees to circuit courts.

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Analysis

Patent Cap In Drug Pricing Bill Seen As Having Muted Effect

By Ryan Davis

The U.S. Senate recently passed a bill aiming to lower drug prices by limiting the number of patents that can be asserted in cases over biosimilars, but attorneys say the measure's numerous exceptions make it unlikely to have a major effect on litigation or consumer costs.

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IRS Sets Criteria For Carbon Capture Credit Life Cycle Report

By Kat Lucero

The Internal Revenue Service detailed standards and procedures Wednesday for a written report on a carbon sequestration facility's greenhouse gas emissions that project owners must submit and get agency approval on before claiming the carbon oxide tax credit.

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Watchdog Clears DOJ In 'Unusual' Roger Stone Sentencing

By Phillip Bantz

The Justice Department did not bow to political pressure to push for a more lenient sentence for former President Donald Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone, but the way in which the department handled the sentencing was "highly unusual" and the result of a U.S. attorney's poor leadership, according to a watchdog report released Wednesday.

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Pa. Judge Won't 'Chase' Deadline-Flouting ADA Case Attys

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Wednesday told attorneys in an Americans with Disabilities Act case against Tommy Bahama that he wasn't going to "chase" lawyers flouting scheduling orders, warning that the consequences might hurt more than just complying with the plan.

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CFIUS Reviews Slumped In 2023, Penalties Increased

By Phillip Bantz

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States experienced a significant drop in the number of cases it reviewed in 2023, but levied a record number of penalties last year, according to an annual report to Congress.

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Atty Can't Deduct Car Racing Costs As Ads, US Tells 10th Circ.

By Anna Scott Farrell

A personal injury lawyer who also races cars shouldn't be allowed to deduct about $300,000 for racing-related costs as ordinary business advertising expenses because they're unrelated to his law practice, the U.S. government told the Tenth Circuit on Wednesday.

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Fla. Groups Argue Racial Gerrymandering Suit Is Valid

By David Minsky

A trio of South Florida civic groups urged a Miami federal judge Tuesday to deny a request to dismiss their gerrymandering lawsuit against state officials, arguing that each claim "easily clears the plausibility threshold" and that the Florida House of Representatives hasn't grasped their "well-pleaded allegations."

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FDIC's Hill Says Basel Plan Needs New Draft With All Aboard

By Jon Hill

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s second-in-command called Wednesday for federal regulators to move in unison as they revise their controversial Basel III endgame plan for tougher big-bank capital requirements, saying any next draft should be comprehensive and backed by all the agencies involved.

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CFPB Warns Of Anti-Whistleblower Risk In NDAs That 'Muzzle'

By Jon Hill

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cautioned Wednesday that banks and other financial firms risk violating federal law if they require their employees to sign broad nondisclosure agreements that don't clearly allow them to talk freely with regulators or law enforcement.

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EPA Moving Toward New Regulations For 5 Chemicals

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday kicked off the process to fast-track new health risk evaluations for five chemicals, including vinyl chloride, a substance that raised alarm after the Norfolk Southern train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, last year.

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Boulder Wants Suncor Back In Colorado Climate Suit

By Daniel Ducassi

The city of Boulder, Colorado, and Boulder County have asked a Colorado state judge to certify part of his judgment dismissing Canadian oil and gas company Suncor Energy from the municipalities' climate change lawsuit so they can appeal that decision and bring Suncor back in.

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Native Hawaiian Midwives Gain Relief From Licensing Law

By Dan McKay

A Hawaii judge blocked parts of a state law regulating midwives Tuesday, ruling it violates the constitutional rights of Native Hawaiians by denying them a reasonable pathway to securing approval for traditional prenatal care.

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By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. House failed to advance legislation to let the private groups that set standards for a variety of safety matters keep copyright protections when their works are incorporated by reference into laws as long as the standards are still available for free online.

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Parts Of Klehr Harrison Bills Not Privileged, Pa. Panel Finds

By Emily Sawicki

Pennsylvania journalists can view the subject lines of invoice requests sent to the Pennsylvania Office of General Counsel by outside law firms, including Klehr Harrison, with a state appeals court panel determining the information falls under the state's Right-to-Know Law and is not privileged, nor is it protected by a court order.

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Delta Air Targeted In DOT Probe Following Global Tech Outage

By Gina Kim

Delta Air Lines is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Transportation over its handling of massive flight cancellations since the global outage Friday that left passengers stranded in airports waiting hours to reach customer service representatives and resulting in thousands of complaints, the agency announced Wednesday.

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Roundup

Top Texas Real Estate News In 2024 So Far

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on the hottest real estate news out of Texas so far this year, from data center construction and roadblocks in a major rail project to a Texas landowner's win in a takings suit and the U.S. Department of Justice's first predatory mortgage suit.

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Ga. Sheriff Wants $11M Groping Arrest Suit Tossed

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia sheriff accused of using excessive force against a man who says he was falsely accused of groping the lawman's wife asked a federal judge Tuesday to dismiss the civil rights claims against him, arguing he was well within his rights to tackle the man and take him into custody.

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Judge Sets Up 2-Tier Counsel Access In DOJ Live Nation Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A New York federal judge on Tuesday set up a two-tiered system for document access in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, limiting sensitive information from other market participants from Live Nation in-house counsel.

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DOJ Says NY Judge Muffed Standing In DirecTV Price-Fix Case

By Nadia Dreid

Paying inflated prices isn't the only way someone can be injured by price-fixing, and a New York federal court was wrong to rule that it was in a case brought by DirecTV over retransmission fees, the U.S. Department of Justice has told the Second Circuit.

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Tire Biz Can't Delay Duties Under Relief Order For Other Cos.

By Alyssa Aquino

An importer that hadn't participated in a lawsuit challenging duties on Chinese tires can't benefit from a court order temporarily suspending duty collection while the case was underway, the U.S. Court of International Trade said.

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Senate Tees Up Votes On Two Tax Court Nominees

By Asha Glover

The U.S. Senate set the stage Wednesday for the chamber to proceed with votes on two of President Joe Biden's picks for U.S. Tax Court seats.

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Pfizer's Fuel Cells Can't Be Taxed, Conn. Justices Rule

By Brian Steele

A fuel cell module that powers Pfizer Inc.'s research campus in Groton, Connecticut, is not subject to personal property taxes, the state's high court ruled Wednesday, upholding a lower court decision that allowed FuelCell Inc. to avoid several multimillion-dollar local tax assessments and penalties.

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Feds Say Immigration Orgs Can't Sue Over 2020 Asylum Rule

By Ali Sullivan

The federal government told a D.C. federal judge that two immigration advocacy groups have no standing to press their legal challenge to a Trump-era rule that narrowed asylum eligibility, saying the overhaul does not directly regulate the organizations.

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Feds Say They're Shielded From Family Separation Damages

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Department of Justice told a California federal judge on Wednesday that the federal government was immune from claims brought by families seeking damages for emotional trauma after being separated at the border under the Trump administration.

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ICE Contractor Hit With Class Action Over Family Separations

By Alyssa Aquino

A father and son who were separated for six years under the Trump administration's policy of "zero tolerance" for unlawful border crossings have brought a proposed class action against the private contractor responsible for transporting children, seeking to make it pay for the emotional trauma families have endured.

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Brief

USCIS Updates Immigrant Entrepreneur Requirements

By Britain Eakin

Immigrant entrepreneurs hoping to take advantage of the international entrepreneur parole program will now have to meet higher investment and revenue thresholds, according to an updated U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services regulation.

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Brief

DHS Settles Fight Over Docs On Detained Immigrant Abuse

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has settled a University of Washington lawsuit seeking documents that could shed light on human rights abuses on federal immigration detainees and others subject to deportation, the parties told a Washington federal judge.

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Ex-AT&T Exec Wants Madigan Bribery Charges Dropped

By Lauraann Wood

A former AT&T executive who's accused of scheming to illegally influence former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan's policy decisions argued that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent bribery ruling warrants chopping a conspiracy and bribery charge from his case.

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Nonprofit Sues Former CFO Over Alleged $40M Embezzlement

By Danielle Ferguson

The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy on Wednesday sued its former CFO William Anthony Smith and his wife, mother and sister over their purported involvement in a scheme to steal almost $40 million from the nonprofit, claiming they used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle and buy plane tickets for professional athletes.

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Navajo Coal Co. Appeals FINRA Arbitration Order In $11M Fight

By Joyce Hanson

A Navajo coal-mining company has wasted no time in appealing a Pennsylvania federal judge's order refusing to grant the tribe-owned business's bid to halt arbitration proceedings against a private equity firm in an $11 million dispute over their financing agreement.

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Senate Dems Demand Scrutiny Of T-Mobile, UScellular Deal

By Nadia Dreid

T-Mobile's plan to buy the wireless operations of yet another mobile network operator — this time, United States Cellular Corp. — several years after it was allowed to merge with Sprint to become the third biggest carrier in the country is a bad idea, a handful of Democratic senators have told the U.S. Department of Justice and FCC.

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Hemp Cos. Get Stay Of DEA Subpoenas Seeking Records

By Mike Curley

A Texas federal judge on Wednesday stayed enforcement of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration subpoenas seeking financial and other records from a group of hemp and vape sellers, who had argued earlier this week that the subpoenas were overbroad and unlinked to any federal investigation.

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A Closer Look At New SDNY And EDNY Local Rules

New local rules in the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York went into effect earlier this month, and include both stylistic changes to make legal writing more accessible, and substantive changes to make processes and filings more efficient, say Andrew Van Houter and Jennifer Montan at Faegre Drinker.

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Opinion

The FTC Needs To Challenge The Novo-Catalent Deal

Novo's acquisition of Catalent threatens to substantially lessen competition in the manufacturing and marketing of GLP-1 diabetes and obesity drugs, and the Federal Trade Commission should challenge it under a vertical theory of harm, as it aligns with last year's merger guidelines and the Fifth Circuit decision in Illumina, says attorney David Balto.

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Series

After Chevron: Slowing Down AI In Medical Research

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision overturning the Chevron doctrine may inhibit agencies' regulatory efforts, potentially slowing down the approval and implementation of artificial intelligence-driven methodologies in medical research, as well as regulators' responses to public health emergencies, say Ragini Acharya and Matthew Deutsch at Husch Blackwell.

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Opinion

Conception Is The Proper Test For AI-Assisted Inventions

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office should adopt the conception standard for reviewing AI-assisted inventions, and require the disclosure of artificial intelligence prompts and responses because they are material to patentability, which would then simplify the patent examiner’s invention decision, says Thomas Hamlin at Robins Kaplan.

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Avoiding Legal Ethics Landmines In Preindictment Meetings

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez's recent bribery conviction included obstruction charges based on his former lawyer's preindictment presentation to prosecutors, highlighting valuable lessons on the legal ethics rules implicated in these kinds of defense presentations, say Steve Miller and Hilary Gerzhoy at HWG.

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Series

Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

When I’m not working as an appellate lawyer, I spend my spare time building guitars — a craft known as luthiery — which has helped to enhance the discipline, patience and resilience needed to write better briefs, says Rob Carty at Nichols Brar.

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NALP Says Pandemic Hasn't Hindered 2020 Law Grads

By Lauren Berg

Despite entering the workforce during a pandemic, most 2020 law school graduates are thriving, with high rates of employment and a dip in educational debt, but some still feel negative effects on their mental health, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Association for Law Placement Inc.

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Dentons Brings On Former Big 4 Exec As New Global CEO

By Aebra Coe

Global law firm Dentons, which has made a name for itself by aggressive growth through combinations, has tapped a new global chief executive officer with leadership experience at accounting giant EY, the firm's first change at the top in over a decade.

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Mintz Reelects Bodian To Final Term As Managing Member

By Tracey Read

Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC announced Wednesday that Bob Bodian, who was already the longest-serving managing member in the firm's 91-year history, has been elected to a sixth and final three-year term.

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Jenner & Block Wants Out Of COVID Vax Refusal Firing Suit

By Katryna Perera

Jenner & Block LLP has asked an Illinois federal judge to toss a former employee's claims that she was fired after being denied a religious exemption from the firm's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, saying she didn't do enough to spell out her religious beliefs or how they conflict with the vaccine.

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FTC Chair Wary AI Tools Can Be Used For Corporate Collusion

By Dorothy Atkins

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan weighed in on a host of topics during a discussion Wednesday at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, expressing concerns about the agency's high legal bills for expert witnesses and describing AI price-setting tools as a potential loophole for collusion.

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Solicitor General Warns Against Feds 'Winning At All Costs'

By Dorothy Atkins

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar underscored the importance of the federal government ensuring justice is served and not "winning at all costs" during a keynote speech Wednesday at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, defending the DOJ's changed position in a high court case concerning a criminal defendant's right to a jury trial.

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Harvard Vow To Tackle Antisemitism Can't Nix Suit, Court Told

By Julie Manganis

Harvard University's arguments to dismiss claims it fails to protect Jewish students from antisemitic intimidation and threats boil down to telling the plaintiffs "cool your jets" while the school tries to address the issue, a lawyer for the students told a Massachusetts federal judge Wednesday.

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Legal Tech Co.'s $1.3M Data Privacy Deal Gets OK'd

By Andrea Keckley

A Kansas federal judge granted preliminary approval to a proposed $1.3 million settlement between a data and professional services company catering to law firms and a class of thousands of its customers and employees, who said their personal information was stolen in a March 2023 data breach that exposed 200 gigabytes of sensitive information.

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Ex-McElroy Deutsch Exec Says Ch. 11 Doesn't Pause Claims

By Emily Lever

A former McElroy Deutsch executive told a New Jersey state court that just because her husband — former McElroy Deutsch chief financial officer John Dunlea — has filed for bankruptcy does not mean she needs to pause her claims against the firm for discrimination and retaliation.

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SF DA Sued By Staffer Fired Over 'Panties' Reply-All Snafu

By Bonnie Eslinger

A San Francisco District Attorney's Office staffer who says he was fired after accidentally sending a risqué reply-all email at work has filed a state court lawsuit accusing his former boss and the county of defamation and standing in the way of his getting future employment.

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