Analysis

Exceptions May Help New Border Rules Survive Litigation

By Britain Eakin

The new border regime that President Joe Biden rolled out this week relies on legal provisions that courts largely barred the Trump administration from using to restrict entry, but exceptions in Biden's policy could offer insulation from adverse rulings this time.

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Ga. Trump Election Case On Hold For DA DQ Appeal

By Kelcey Caulder

The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday temporarily halted proceedings in the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants while it reviews a trial judge's ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis to continue prosecuting the case.

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Trump Gag Order Still Needed Through Sentencing, DA Says

By Elliot Weld

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has asked a judge not to lift the gag order on Donald Trump before the convicted former president's sentencing next month, arguing in a letter released Wednesday that there is still a need to "protect the integrity" of the hush money case.

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Analysis

5th Circ. Private Funds Ruling Could Rewrite SEC Agenda

By Jessica Corso

The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday vacated U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations that would have required private fund advisers to provide detailed disclosures to investors, in a sweeping decision that could upend the regulator's approach to promised rules on climate, artificial intelligence and crypto assets.

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FTC Can't Pause Novant's $320M Bid To Buy NC Hospitals

By Hayley Fowler

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday lost its bid to block Novant Health from buying two local hospitals in North Carolina for $320 million while it conducts an in-house review, with a federal judge reasoning that competition would actually fare better if the merger advanced.

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From Small Town To 11th Circ., Nominee Pledges 'Open Mind'

By Jake Maher

A nominee for an Eleventh Circuit seat on Wednesday discussed his small-town upbringing, award-winning career as a prosecutor and the "obligation" he feels to be a role model for others considering a career in the law, saying he would approach cases with an "open mind" if confirmed to the federal appeals court.

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After Judge Takes Trip To Israel, Attys Want Him Off Gaza Case

By Cara Bayles

Palestinian rights activists asked a Ninth Circuit judge to recuse himself from a case claiming that the Biden administration flouted international laws barring genocide by supporting Israel's military efforts in Gaza, noting that the judge recently took a trip to Israel sponsored by the World Jewish Congress.

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NY Gov. Denies Cop-Shoving Judge New Term

By Frank G. Runyeon

A Buffalo judge censured for brawling with neighbors, shoving a police officer and bragging about his ties to power was denied a second term by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took the unusual step of rejecting the judge's request for reappointment.

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CFPB Opens Door To Open Banking 'Standard Setters'

By Jon Hill

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made more progress Wednesday in its efforts to lay the groundwork for open banking in the U.S., adopting a mechanism that will allow "open" and "balanced" organizations to begin setting official, industry-wide technical standards for financial data sharing.

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Tokenizing Real Assets Touches Crypto Concerns, Reps Say

By Aislinn Keely

Putting stocks and other real-world assets on the blockchain is markedly different from issuing cryptocurrencies, but federal lawmakers on Wednesday showed that the debate about how to regulate so-called tokenization is decidedly similar when it comes to weighing its potential efficiencies against threats to privacy and consumer protection.

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Brief

Bank Group Takes Fight Over FDIC Fee Letter To 8th Circ.

By Emilie Ruscoe

A Minnesota bank industry group is appealing its federal district court loss in litigation over Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guidance proscribing non-sufficient funds fees, or NSF fees, the organization said Wednesday.

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Feds Say $1B Power Line Permit Challenge Should Be Zapped

By Keith Goldberg

The Biden administration and developers of a proposed $1 billion transmission line that would ship hydropower from Quebec to New England are urging a federal judge to dump challenges to federal approvals for the project, saying there's no question they were lawfully issued.

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FCC Looking Into Reports Of AT&T Wireless Service Outage

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission said it is trying to find out what happened when AT&T wireless customers lost service in several states Tuesday due to what the company described as an interoperability problem.

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Ga. Panel Sides With State In County Fire Contract Fight

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia Court of Appeals panel on Wednesday backed the state's Department of Behavioral Health in a dispute over a fire-protection services contract with a county government, ruling the department couldn't be held liable for canceling the contract because it has no statutory power to enter into it.

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Lawmakers Endorse Solar-Cell Duty Petition As Curb To China

By Rae Ann Varona

Bipartisan lawmakers told the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission Tuesday that new duties on solar-cell imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam could help thwart China's global solar supply-chain domination.

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BIA Escapes Washington Ranch's $48M Wildfire Suit

By Greg Lamm

A federal judge in Washington state on Wednesday tossed a ranch's $48 million negligence lawsuit alleging the Bureau of Indian Affairs is liable for damages from a 2020 wildfire, ruling that agreements between the bureau and a Native American tribe did not spell out a specific firefighting duty.

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USPTO Fee Hike Finds Ally In Google, But Others Have Gripes

By Andrew Karpan

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's plan to increase many patent-related fees beginning next year has received support from Google, but dozens of other comments came from patent litigators of all stripes who argue that the proposal is a bad idea.

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Google Cleared From Suit Over Animal Abuse YouTube Videos

By Mike Curley

A California appeals panel has tossed a nonprofit's suit alleging that Google LLC breached its contract by allowing animal abuse videos on YouTube, saying Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act blocks all its claims.

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Scrutinize Gag Order On Trump's Twitter DMs, X Tells Justices

By Ali Sullivan

X Corp. is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to review a court order allowing special counsel Jack Smith to obtain messages from Donald Trump's account on the social media platform while barring X from alerting the former president beforehand.

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NY Gov. Indefinitely Halts Manhattan Congestion Pricing

By Linda Chiem

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday shelved congestion pricing just weeks before officials were set to implement a fee for vehicles entering Manhattan's busiest corridor, in a dramatic about-face following intense backlash and litigation from residents and business owners grappling with the high cost of living.

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Q&A

Miami Developer Maintains Pioneering Touch In Latest Moves

By Nathan Hale

Miami-area developer Masoud Shojaee spoke with Law360 Real Estate Authority about his project strategy and how it has led to longevity for his firm Shoma Group and given him confidence in helping to address a housing crisis and various challenges in the market.

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3rd Circ. Debates Length Of Breaks In $7M Wage Case

By Matthew Santoni

A Third Circuit panel tried on Wednesday to pin down when the U.S. Department of Labor and an in-home care agency believed that employees were off-duty or just traveling between jobs, and whether the company's lack of travel-time records left it open to a $7 million judgment based on government estimates.

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VA Asks To Appeal Refusal To Toss Systemic Discrimination Suit

By Aaron Keller

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs wants a Connecticut federal judge to green light an immediate appeal of his decision declining to dismiss systemic discrimination claims by a Black Marine Corps veteran, saying the Federal Tort Claims Act is an improper route for relief.

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House Votes To Block Vets' Access To Gender-Affirming Care

By Kellie Mejdrich

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a $147.5 billion spending bill along mostly party lines funding military construction and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which would block veterans' access to gender-affirming care and which the White House has already threatened to veto.

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Brief

Public Input On EEOC/NLRB Memo A Must, US Rep. Says

By Benjamin Morse

A coming joint memorandum from the nation's federal discrimination and labor law watchdogs addressing when workplace speech qualifies as unlawful harassment should be opened to public comment before being published, the Republican chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee said. 

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4th Circ. Says SC Agency Must Give Google Ad Docs

By Matthew Perlman

A South Carolina agency must respond to Google's document request after the Fourth Circuit ruled Wednesday that the state waived its sovereign immunity by joining a case accusing the tech giant of monopolizing key digital advertising technology.

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Epic Accuses Apple Of Stalling Antitrust Doc Production

By Dorothy Atkins

Epic Games accused Apple Inc. at a hearing Wednesday of dragging its feet on producing internal documents that a California federal judge recently ordered the tech giant to hand over to help decide if Apple complied with her ban on App Store anti-steering rules.

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Texas AG Sets Up New Team To Enforce Data Privacy Laws

By Allison Grande

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is "doubling down" on efforts to curb companies' misuse of residents' personal information by establishing a new team dedicated to enforcing the state's data protections, including a comprehensive consumer data privacy law that's set to take effect next month. 

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State-Funded Preschools In Colo. Can't Bar LGBTQ+ Kids

By Daniel Ducassi

A Colorado federal judge has granted Catholic preschools a narrow injunction blocking the state from requiring that they allow students to enroll without regard for their religious affiliation in order to receive funding from a universal preschool program but upheld the state's nondiscrimination requirements regarding LGBTQ+ students.

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New Rule Bars Self-Certification As Disabled, Vet-Owned Biz

By Daniel Wilson

The U.S. Small Business Administration issued a rule Wednesday effectively barring federal contractors from self-certifying as service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, or SDVOSBs, amid ongoing concerns about fraud in veteran-owned contracting programs.

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Chamber Says New Docs Show Transparency Issues At USTR

By Caroline Simson

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is expressing transparency concerns about certain policy decisions after documents provided under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that Biden trade officials are utilizing a "deferential and highly coordinated approach" in their relationship with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

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Citibank Can't Avoid Paying $6M Wash. Biz Tax

By Rachel Riley

Washington's high court won't spare Citibank from a $6 million business tax bill, declining to revisit a ruling that the bank's money-making activities amounted to a physical presence in the state despite not having any local branches open at the time.

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Ill. Budget Has Higher Cap On NOLs, Sports Betting Tax Hike

By Maria Koklanaris

Illinois will extend a cap on corporate net operating loss deductions, increase its sports betting tax and reduce sales tax rebates for retailers under a $53.1 billion fiscal year 2025 budget signed Wednesday by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

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Colo. To Exempt Modular Homes From Sales Tax

By Jaqueline McCool

Colorado will exempt new modular home sales from state tax under a bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis.

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Biden Asylum Halt Contradicts Border Wire Suit, Texas Says

By Spencer Brewer

Texas tore into the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, saying a new executive order that halts asylum claims from immigrants who cross the border illegally directly contradicts the agency's argument before the Fifth Circuit over Texas' use of concertina wire fencing at the border.

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'Miracle Worker': Menendez's Wife Was Given New Car, Jurors Told

By Carla Baranauckas

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's wife received a $67,000 Mercedes-Benz convertible thanks to the efforts of two of the congressman's associates, one of whom she called a "miracle worker," jurors heard Wednesday in the government's bribery case in New York federal court.

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Utah Tribe Wants 'Depleting' State Water Contract Drained

By Donald Morrison

Utah entered into a water contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior without properly considering the Ute Indian Tribe's water rights, the tribe told a federal court in a request to set aside the deal.

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Panel To Pick Venue For FCC Net Neutrality Challenges

By Christopher Cole

The federal courts are poised to randomly pick which circuit court will initially hear more than half a dozen legal challenges to the Federal Communications Commission's recently adopted net neutrality rules.

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Catholic Broadcasters Angry Over FCC 'Gender Ideology' Rule

By Nadia Dreid

The Catholic Radio Association is up in arms over the Federal Communications Commission's new workforce diversity reporting mandates that will require broadcasters to report how many nonbinary people they employ, telling the agency they're being forced to record something that "does not comport to reality."

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NY Cannabis Head Looks Ahead Following Critical Audit

By Sam Reisman

The chair of New York's cannabis regulatory body told stakeholders Wednesday at a marijuana business expo that the agency was working to streamline its operations following an investigative audit ordered by the governor's office that blasted the office for inefficiencies.

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Best Practices For Responding To CBP's Solar Questionnaire

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's recently introduced questionnaire to solar importers imposes significant burdens, with the potential for supply chain disruptions and market consolidation, but taking certain steps can assist companies in navigating the new requirements, say Carl Valenstein and Katelyn Hilferty at Morgan Lewis.

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Parsing Controversial Del. General Corporation Law Proposals

In response to issues raised in three recent high-profile Delaware Court of Chancery decisions, many amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law were quickly proposed that, if enacted, would bring significant changes likely to be hotly debated — and litigated — for the foreseeable future, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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A Look At US-EU Consumer Finance Talks' Slow First Steps

The unhurried and informal nature of planned discussions between the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the European commissioner for justice and consumer protection suggests any coordinated regulatory action on issues like AI and "buy now, pay later" services is still a ways off, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

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Exploring Alternatives To Noncompetes Ahead Of FTC Ban

Ahead of the Sept. 4 effective date for the Federal Trade Commission's noncompete ban, employers should seek new ways to protect their proprietary and other sensitive information, including by revising existing confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, says Harvey Linder at Culhane.

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Opinion

It's Time To Defuse The Ticking Time Bomb Of US Landfills

After recent fires at landfills in Alabama and California sent toxic fumes into surrounding communities, it is clear that existing penalties for landfill mismanagement are insufficient — so policymakers must enact major changes to the way we dispose of solid waste, says Vineet Dubey at Custodio & Dubey.

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5th Circ. Venue-Transfer Cases Highlight Mandamus Limits

Three ongoing cases filed within the Fifth Circuit highlight an odd procedural wrinkle that may let district courts defy an appellate writ: orders granting transfer to out-of-circuit districts, but parties opposing intercircuit transfer can work around this hurdle to effective appellate review, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.

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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence

The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.

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Google Legal Dept. Goes From Crisis Mode To Long Term

By Bryan Koenig

As much of the major antitrust litigation against Google winds down, the company is shuffling around its in-house legal departments to add more people and settle from crisis mode into the more sustainable posture of a technology giant where lawsuits have likely become a permanent feature of its existence.

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Rutgers Law Students Must Provide Comms In Bias Suit

By Madison Arnold

A pair of Rutgers Law School students must turn over recordings and messages in a Jewish classmate's lawsuit accusing the school of antisemitic bias for opening a disciplinary investigation against him after he spoke out against the same two students for allegedly spreading antisemitism, a New Jersey state judge has ruled.

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Federal Judges Facing Scrutiny For Clerk-Hiring Boycotts

By Jack Karp

The federal judiciary must take a look at its judges' hiring practices in the wake of some jurists' public refusal to hire students from certain law schools over on-campus political activity over the Israel-Hamas war, a nonprofit government watchdog said Wednesday.

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Interview

DLA Piper Atty, Ex-UK Official On Practicing Across The Pond

By Alison Knezevich

In returning to the United States after nearly two decades in London, former Serious Fraud Office official Judy Krieg says DLA Piper was the ideal place to serve clients and leverage the skills she has gained from working on both sides of the Atlantic.

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An Ex-BigLaw Atty Shot His Wife. Who Gets Her Settlement?

By Kelcey Caulder

The administrator of the estate of Diane McIver, who was fatally shot by her husband, former Fisher Phillips partner Claud "Tex" McIver, while driving through Atlanta in 2016, has asked a Georgia state court to decide who is entitled to settlement funds from a wrongful death case brought by the estate.

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Brown Rudnick Partner's 50% Fee Hike Nixed In Ch. 11 Case

By Hilary Russ

A Brown Rudnick LLP bankruptcy partner Wednesday had his 50% fee increase rejected by a Delaware judge, who took issue with the proposed hike to $1,500 an hour for representing the creditors' committee in Kidde-Fenwal Inc.'s Chapter 11 case.

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Hunter Biden's Ex-Wife, Ex-Lover Testify About His Drug Use

By Leslie A. Pappas

Hunter Biden's trial on felony gun charges continued in Delaware federal court on Wednesday with testimony from his ex-wife, a former girlfriend and the salesman at the shop where he bought the Colt Cobra revolver on Oct. 12, 2018.

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Atty Carried Gun, Rope During Attempted Break-In, Police Say

By Lauren Berg

Police in Royal Oak, Michigan, said Tuesday they have arrested a Dearborn personal injury attorney after he allegedly tried to break into the home of a former co-worker while carrying a firearm, knife, handcuffs and other "concerning items."

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Lippes Mathias Merges With Syracuse Health, Business Firm

By Andrea Keckley

Buffalo, New York-based firm Lippes Mathias LLP said this week that it had created one of the state's largest healthcare attorney teams outside New York City in combining with Syracuse business and healthcare boutique CCBLaw, a move that will ultimately add 11 lawyers and eight nonlawyer professionals to its ranks.

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AAA Says Fee Critique 'Flawed' For Missed Eclipse Day Depo

By Lynn LaRowe

An attorney sanctioned for missing a deposition in Florida while he was in Arkansas viewing April's solar eclipse used "guesswork" in a response asking a federal judge in the Sunshine State to whittle a request for $7,800 in fees down to just over $1,200, according to a reply filed this week by AAA in a lawsuit by a former employee.

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Ex-Sacks Weston Atty Blames 'Toxic' Firm For His Theft

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Philadelphia attorney convicted of defrauding his former law firm told a state ethics panel Wednesday that he was remorseful for his deeds, but he noted he was driven to his crime by being owed money by his firm for too long.

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PwC Asks Calif. Justices To Revive $2.5M Sanction Against LA

By Gina Kim

PwC urged the California Supreme Court on Wednesday to revive a $2.5 million sanction against the city of Los Angeles for yearslong discovery misconduct in an underlying utility billing dispute, arguing the trial court's inherent authority to pose such penalties isn't limited to nonmonetary sanctions.

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