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Public Policy
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March 12, 2025
Property Tax Can Fund Retired Cops' Insurance, Panel Says
A Michigan state appeals court on Tuesday said property taxes imposed by four municipalities to cover the cost of health insurance for retired firefighters and police officers are not illegal, finding a law established before a constitutional amendment barring new taxes without a public vote allowed taxation for broad retirement benefits.
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March 12, 2025
White House Urged To Back Patent Eligibility Bill To Aid AI
The Council for Innovation Promotion has urged the Trump administration to support a legislative overhaul of patent eligibility law and reconsider patent office guidance on the issue as the White House aims to ensure the U.S. plays a dominant role in artificial intelligence.
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March 12, 2025
Ex-Smartmatic Execs Seek FCPA Reprieve After Trump Order
Two former executives of electronic-voting system developer Smartmatic asked a Florida federal judge on Wednesday to push back the schedule in their bribery case while the U.S. Department of Justice reviews pending Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases.
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March 12, 2025
As Perkins Coie Fights Order, How Will Other Firms Respond?
Perkins Coie LLP, represented by Williams & Connolly LLP, is challenging President Donald Trump's executive order revoking its security clearance and launching investigations into its diversity efforts. But other firms have remained silent, raising questions about the order's potential effects on how firms handle public policy litigation, publicly support their right to defend all clients and pursue hiring initiatives.
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March 12, 2025
Arizona Lawmakers Reintroduce $5B Tribal Water Rights Act
A bipartisan group of Arizona federal lawmakers reintroduced a bill to finalize a $5.1 billion water rights settlement for three Indigenous tribes in the Colorado River Basin that, if approved, will resolve one of the Grand Canyon State's longest-running water disputes.
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March 12, 2025
HHS To Eliminate 6 Regional Offices For Legal Staff
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday it will close six out of 10 regional offices where attorneys for the agency work.
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March 12, 2025
Harvard Docs Say Gov't Censored Articles With Gender Terms
A pair of Harvard Medical School researchers sued the Trump administration in Massachusetts federal court on Wednesday, claiming their work was erased from a government-run patient safety website because their articles contained terms like "LGBTQ" and "transgender."
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March 12, 2025
UK Enforcers Double Down On Apple Mobile Browser Worries
A new report from British competition enforcers claims that Apple and Google's dominance in mobile operating systems and browsers limits competition and innovation in the United Kingdom, while encouraging regulators to consider imposing pro-competition requirements on the tech giants.
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March 12, 2025
Catholic Charity Group Says Frozen Refugee Funds Abnormal
Catholic Charities Fort Worth argued before a D.C. federal judge on Wednesday that a purported pause on federal funding for refugee resettlement programs is abnormal and illegal, urging the court to unlock more than $36 million intended for resettling refugees in Texas.
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March 12, 2025
ND Lawmakers OK Recommending Tribal Land Taxation Study
North Dakota would direct state lawmakers to consider studying issues related to the taxation of land owned by enrolled tribal members who reside on Native American reservations under a bill passed by the state Legislative Assembly and headed to the governor.
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March 12, 2025
NY Judge Tees Up Bail, Venue Fights For Columbia Activist
A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday ordered expedited briefing on whether a Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student who was arrested on Saturday should be granted bail pending his release petition, and on where the case belongs, saying there's "some need for speed here."
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March 12, 2025
DOL Escapes Writers' Suit Over Contractor Rule, For Now
A Tennessee federal judge tossed a suit from two freelance writers seeking to block the U.S. Department of Labor's new rule regulating whether workers are independent contractors or employees under federal law, saying the writers can't show that the regulation would hurt their career opportunities.
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March 11, 2025
Payday Lenders Want One More High Court Bout With CFPB
Payday lender groups have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to again take up their challenge to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule finalized during President Donald Trump's first term, this time seeking an appeal focused on the rule's allegedly "tainted" origin.
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March 11, 2025
Feds Unsure When It Can Resume Refugee Program
A "deterioration of functions" in the federal government's refugee program means the U.S. Department of State can't currently tell how long it will take to restore the program under a recent order in Washington federal court, the Trump administration informed the court.
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March 11, 2025
DOGE Must Quickly Cough Up Records To Watchdog Group
A D.C. federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency to promptly hand over requested records on its role in mass firings and "dramatic disruptions" to federal programs to a watchdog group, finding that the public will likely be "irreparably harmed" if DOGE keeps dragging its feet.
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March 11, 2025
Dems Rip Trump's 'Sham' Invasion Claim As Power Grab
Democratic lawmakers led by the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded on Tuesday that President Donald Trump rescind his Jan. 20 proclamation promising states "protection against invasion" by migrants, arguing that Trump is illegally using the "sham" claim of invasion as a pretext to expand executive power unconstitutionally.
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March 11, 2025
NJ Justices Say NY Doc Can't Be On Med Mal Verdict Form
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that an anesthesiologist accused of causing a patient's death during surgery can't have the verdict sheet at the upcoming trial apportion blame to a New York doctor who was never named as a party in the suit.
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March 11, 2025
USPTO Acting Director To Review Bitcoin, Railway Patents
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's current acting director made some of her first moves wading into patent board rulings, deciding last week to take a closer look at two board decisions involving blockchain mines and railway signs.
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March 11, 2025
Conn. Judge Puzzled By Agency's 'Flip-Flop' On Rehab Permit
A Connecticut appellate judge said Tuesday that a state agency's recommendation to reject a residential substance use treatment facility in the town of Kent, followed by its "flip-flop" to approve the plan without any changes to the underlying facts, "truly puzzles me."
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March 11, 2025
Trump Admin Shutters EPA's Enviro Justice Office
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday dissolved its more than 30-year-old environmental justice and civil rights office, the latest in a string of EPA actions targeting efforts to ease pollution burdens on historically disadvantaged communities.
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March 11, 2025
Insurer Says It's Off The Hook For Pay Transparency Suit
Houston Casualty Co. said Tuesday that its liability insurance policy does not cover an underlying lawsuit accusing a Washington company that owns McDonald's franchises of violating the state's pay transparency law for job postings.
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March 11, 2025
Perkins Coie Slams Trump's Executive Order Retaliation
Perkins Coie LLP sued the Trump administration Tuesday over an executive order targeting the firm for its diversity-focused hiring efforts and its representation of certain political figures including former Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, calling the order "an affront to the Constitution" that aims to chill future representation of certain clients.
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March 11, 2025
'Congress Never Came Up' In CFPB Firing Talks, Worker Says
A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employee recounted before a D.C. federal judge on Tuesday a frantic effort to fire 1,200 agency staffers before a court order halted it, saying the prospect of first securing congressional approval was never mentioned.
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March 11, 2025
Pharmacies To Appeal In Bid To Keep Making Weight Loss Drug
A group of compounding pharmacies said Monday they would appeal to the Fifth Circuit after a Texas federal judge denied an injunction that would allow compounding pharmacies to produce a lucrative weight loss drug.
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March 11, 2025
NTSB Flags Helicopters Near DCA As 'Intolerable Risk'
The National Transportation Safety Board recommended Tuesday that helicopter flights near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport be permanently restricted following January's deadly midair collision over the Potomac River, saying helicopter traffic in the vicinity of a key airport runway poses an "intolerable risk to aviation safety."
Expert Analysis
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Year Of The Snake Will Shake Up RE And Mortgage Finance
The year ahead may bring profound transformation and opportunities for growth in the real estate and mortgage finance sectors, with significant issues including policy battles and questions surrounding the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, says Marty Green at Polunsky Beitel.
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8 Ways Cos. Can Prep For Termination Of Their Enviro Grants
The federal government appears to be reviewing energy- and infrastructure-related grants and potentially terminating grants inconsistent with the Trump administration's stated policy goals, and attorneys at DLA Piper provide eight steps that recipients of grants should consider taking in the interim.
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The Syria Sanctions Dilemma Facing Trump Administration
Parties looking to engage in transactions involving Syria will be watching the expiration of General License 24 in July, when the Trump administration will need to decide whether to make significant changes to the Syrian sanctions program and reconsider the de facto government's status as a foreign terrorist organization, says Charlie Lyons at Ferrari & Associates.
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Inside The Uncertainty Surrounding CFPB's Overdraft Rule
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's overhaul of overdraft fee regulation hangs in limbo as the industry watches to see whether new leadership will repeal the rule, allow it to stay in place, or wait for congressional action or the courts to drive its demise, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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How Private Securities Suits Complement SEC Enforcement
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement is vital to the healthy functioning of markets, but government enforcement alone is not enough to ensure meaningful monetary recoveries for investor losses due to securities law violations, say attorneys at Bernstein Litowitz.
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The Case For Compliance During The Trump Administration
Given the Trump administration’s shifting white collar enforcement priorities, C-suite executives may have the natural instinct to pare back compliance initiatives, but there are several good reasons for companies to at least stay the course on their compliance programs, if not enhance them, say attorneys at Riley Safer.
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Opinion
Despite Noble Intentions, Va. Usury Bill Is Bad For Consumers
A Virginia bill purportedly aimed at eradicating predatory online bank lending actually does nothing to achieve that goal, and instead would limit credit opportunities for state residents, says Catherine Brennan at Hudson Cook.
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Opinion
Undoing An American Ideal Of Fairness
President Donald Trump’s orders attacking birthright citizenship, civil rights education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs threaten hard-won constitutional civil rights protections and decades of efforts to undo bias in the law — undermining what Chief Justice Earl Warren called "our American ideal of fairness," says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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A Look At HHS' New Opinion On Patient Assistance Programs
A recent advisory opinion from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General follows a recent trend of blessing patient assistance program arrangements that implicate the Anti-Kickback Statute, as long as they are structured with appropriate safeguards to minimize the risk of fraud and abuse, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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Employer Tips For Wise Use Of Workers' Biometrics And Tech
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Employers that collect employee biometric data and operate bring-your-own-device policies, which respectively offer better corporate security and more flexibility for workers, should prioritize certain best practices to protect the privacy and rights of employees and safeguard sensitive internal information, says Douglas Yang at Sheppard Mullin.
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How Trump EPA Could Fix Carbon Combustion Residuals Rule
The Trump administration is likely targeting the recently adopted carbon combustion residual rule, especially since it imposes very stringent, detailed and expedited requirements on coal power plants — but even if the rule is not vacated entirely, there are measures that could greatly reduce its regulatory burden, says Stephen Jones at Post & Schell.
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Expect To Feel Aftershocks Of Chopra's CFPB Shake-Up
Publications released by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau personnel in the last days of the Biden administration outline former Director Rohit Chopra's long-term vision for aggressive state-level enforcement of federal consumer financial laws, opening the doors for states to launch investigations and pursue actions, say attorneys at Hudson Cook.
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The Rising Need For The Selective Prosecution Defense
In a political climate where criminal and civil prosecution on the basis of political affiliation, constitutionally protected speech or other arbitrary classification is increasingly likely, existing precedent shows why judges should be more open to allowing a selective prosecution defense, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Unprecedented Firings And The EEOC's Shifting Agenda
While President Donald Trump's unprecedented firing of Democratic Equal Employment Opportunity Commission members put an end to the party's voting majority, the move raises legal issues, as well as considerations related to the EEOC's lack of a quorum and shifting regulatory priorities, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.
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How New SBA Rule May Affect Small Government Contractors
By limiting competition from larger entities, the Small Business Administration's recently published final rule may help some small government contractors, but these restrictions on set-aside work following a merger, acquisition or sale may also deter small businesses' long-term growth, say attorneys at Akerman.