Public Policy

  • August 19, 2024

    9th Circ. Told Psilocybin Petition Is Backed By Precedent

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday dissected opposing arguments from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and a Seattle doctor over whether there is precedent to allow the dispensing of psilocybin — a psychedelic compound — to treat terminally ill patients.

  • August 19, 2024

    California Rips Challenge To Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation

    California officials have urged a federal judge to toss a lawsuit from trade groups challenging new regulations requiring large commercial truck and bus fleets to start transitioning to electric and be completely zero-emission by 2036 and beyond, saying the mandates haven't even been enforced yet.

  • August 19, 2024

    9th Circ. Agrees Nursing Home Must Pay Fees In COVID Case

    The Ninth Circuit has ruled that a nursing home must pay plaintiffs' legal fees in an appeal over the remand of a suit accusing it of causing two dozen patients' COVID-19 deaths, saying the home knew the court had already issued a precedential ruling on the issue.

  • August 19, 2024

    ND Tribe Says State Has No Right To Riverbed Mineral Rights

    The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation says North Dakota has no claim to mineral rights beneath a portion of the Missouri River within the tribe's reservation, arguing that despite a federal opinion that held the property belongs to the tribe, the state has allegedly issued oil and gas leases for the site.

  • August 19, 2024

    2nd Circ. Keeps Macquarie Suit Alive After High Court Remand

    The Second Circuit on Monday once again greenlighted an investor lawsuit accusing Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. of hiding the expected impact of a high-sulfur fuel ban on its oil storage business, saying that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Macquarie's favor had little impact on the circuit court's earlier ruling that the case should move forward. 

  • August 19, 2024

    Conn. Agencies Defend Rebuff Of Utility's $131M Rate Increase

    Three Connecticut agencies, including its utility rate watchdog, have defended the state's rejection of United Illuminating Co.'s proposed three-year rate increase of $131 million, saying in Connecticut state court that regulators properly trimmed the company's request to $23 million in its first year from its $90 million request.

  • August 19, 2024

    FCC Partly Grants Globalstar Bid For 26 New Satellites

    The Federal Communications Commission has partly granted Globalstar's application for more than two dozen new satellites, allowing 17 to launch for now but deferring action on the rest until a debris reduction plan is approved.

  • August 19, 2024

    UnitedHealthcare Says Humana Can't Access Its Records

    UnitedHealthcare has asked the Texas high court to review a decision requiring it to turn over Medicare plan documents for the state's teachers to a competing insurer, arguing that recent updates to the Public Information Act were too broadly interpreted by a lower appellate court.

  • August 19, 2024

    NY Appeals Court Sides With DirecTV In Nexstar Fee Spat

    A New York state appeals court upheld DirecTV's summary judgment win against Nexstar in a spat over station licensing fees, even giving the satellite TV giant more than it won in the trial court by ruling that the judge there incorrectly denied some of DirecTV's claims.

  • August 19, 2024

    Colo. Justices To Weigh On Minimum Wage Claims' Timing

    The Colorado Supreme Court said Monday it will clear up whether the Colorado Wage Claim Act's shorter statute of limitations applies to claims brought under the state's Minimum Wage Act.

  • August 19, 2024

    Groups Urge EPA To Ban Dispersants Used In Deepwater Spill

    Two advocacy groups on Monday petitioned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to immediately stop using two chemical dispersants that were used after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and that they say cause a variety of health problems including cancer.

  • August 19, 2024

    Boston Defeats Suit By Fired Police Commissioner

    A Boston police commissioner who was fired over decades-old abuse allegations had plenty of chances to give his side of the story, a Massachusetts federal court said Monday in rejecting claims he was defamed and stigmatized by the city's ex-mayor.

  • August 19, 2024

    Harris' Plan To 'Ban' Price-Gouging Met With Pushback

    Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has unveiled a proposal to crack down on high grocery prices, stating as part of her economic agenda that she would implement a first-ever federal ban on price-gouging — yet market participants aren't so sure that's the right approach. 

  • August 19, 2024

    Net Neutrality Akin To Federal Law Rewrite, 6th Circ. Told

    A pair of think tanks told the Sixth Circuit it should reject the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules in part because the agency's decision to hold back its legal authority in some areas, like rate regulation, shows why the regime lacks statutory authority in the first place.

  • August 19, 2024

    Even Kids Use 'Unfair' Like CFPB Policy Does, 5th Circ. Told

    Scholars from top law schools urged the Fifth Circuit to reverse a Texas federal court's decision to strike a policy expanding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's antidiscrimination oversight capabilities, arguing that even "schoolchildren" could agree with the agency's legal position.

  • August 19, 2024

    Philly To Pay $25M For Breaking Prison Conditions Settlement

    A federal judge has ordered Philadelphia to set aside $25 million to ramp up recruitment and retention efforts for the city's Department of Prisons, just over a month after the court found the city in contempt of a settlement in a lawsuit over prison conditions.

  • August 19, 2024

    CFTC's Pham Wants More Credit For Firms In Wash Trade Deal

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday ordered two Raizen units to pay $750,000 to settle charges they carried out illegal wash sales on sugar contracts worth more than $1 billion, but Commissioner Caroline Pham said the companies should have gotten more credit for self-reporting and remediating.

  • August 19, 2024

    DOJ Waited Too Long On Chats Deletions, Google Says

    Google urged a Virginia federal judge Friday to reject the Justice Department's request to sanction the search giant over a policy of deleting internal chats, arguing that the request came too late and that the government isn't missing any evidence for its advertising technology monopolization suit.

  • August 19, 2024

    Fair Use Dooms Santos Suit Over Jimmy Kimmel's Prank Videos

    A New York federal judge said Monday that the fair use exception to copyright law is fatal to former U.S. Rep. George Santos' suit against ABC and Jimmy Kimmel over video clips that the late-night TV show host tricked the ex-congressman into making.

  • August 19, 2024

    NIH Program To Use Tribal Research To Combat Opioid Crisis

    The National Institutes of Health is investing $268 million over the next seven years in a program that will employ Indigenous research methods to help combat opioid use and the overdose crisis plaguing Indian Country with an additional focus on pain management and mental health and wellness.

  • August 19, 2024

    Spouse Asks Tax Court To Reconsider Relief Request

    A woman barred from innocent spouse relief on grounds that tax debt related to an erroneously issued refund doesn't qualify asked the U.S. Tax Court to reconsider, saying she's entitled to the break for any unpaid tax liability.

  • August 19, 2024

    DHS Unveils Green Card Rule For Mixed-Status Families

    The Biden administration on Monday officially rolled out the "keeping families together" program, which will ease bureaucratic obstacles for noncitizens and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply for green cards and work permits from within the country.

  • August 19, 2024

    Judge Urges Throwing Out DOJ's 'Simple' Race Bias Suit

    A federal judge recommended dismissing a U.S. Department of Justice suit accusing a Georgia county of firing two Black workers who complained about a slur from a white colleague, faulting the DOJ for trying to "overcomplicate" the case.

  • August 19, 2024

    DC Council Member Charged With Bribery

    Federal prosecutors are accusing a Washington, D.C., councilmember of accepting more than $150,000 in bribes and kickbacks in exchange for pressuring government employees to extend city contracts, according to a complaint unsealed Monday in D.C. federal court.

  • August 19, 2024

    Calif. Lawmakers Decline To Advance Hemp THC Law

    A California bill that would have imposed new THC limits on hemp consumables is unlikely to become law this year, after lawmakers declined to move it out of committee.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    After Chevron: Slowing Down AI In Medical Research

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    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.

  • Opinion

    Conception Is The Proper Test For AI-Assisted Inventions

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    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.

  • A Closer Look At New SDNY And EDNY Local Rules

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    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.

  • Avoiding Legal Ethics Landmines In Preindictment Meetings

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    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.

  • Series

    Being A Luthier Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    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.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Uncertainty In Scope Of ITC Oversight

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    The U.S. International Trade Commission's long-standing jurisprudence on some of the most disputed and controversial issues is likely to be reshaped by the Federal Circuit, which is no longer bound by Chevron deference in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision, say Kecia Reynolds and Madeleine Moss at Paul Hastings.

  • Half-Truths Vs. Omissions: Slicing Justices' Macquarie Cake

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Macquarie v. Moab provides a road map for determining whether corporate reports that omit information should be considered misleading — and the court baked it into a dessert analogy that is key to understanding the guidelines, say Daniel Levy and Pavithra Kumar at Advanced Analytical Consulting Group.

  • FDA's Multifaceted Role On Display In MDMA Therapy Scrutiny

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    Ongoing deliberations at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder serves as a window into the intricate balance of scientific innovation and patient safety oversight, and offers crucial insights into regulatory nuances, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell and Kevin Lanzo at Pharmaka Clinical Consulting.

  • Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity

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    The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • Preparing For Increased Scrutiny Of Tech Supply Chains

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    The U.S. Department of Commerce's recent action prohibiting sales of a Russia-based technology company's products in the U.S. is the first determination under the information technology supply chain rule, and signals plans to increase enforcement of protections that target companies in designated foreign adversary jurisdictions, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Chevron's End Puts Target On CFPB's Aggressive BNPL Rule

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    A recent interpretative rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, subjecting buy-now, pay-later loans to the same regulations as credit cards, is unlikely to survive post-Chevron challenges of the rule's partisan and shaky logic, say Scott Pearson and Bryan Schneider at Manatt.

  • Boeing Plea Deal Is A Mixed Bag, Providing Lessons For Cos.

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    The plea deal for conspiracy to defraud regulators that Boeing has tentatively agreed to will, on the one hand, probably help the company avoid further reputational damage, but also demonstrates to companies that deferred prosecution agreements have real teeth, and that noncompliance with DPA terms can be costly, says Edmund Vickers at Red Lion Chambers.

  • Keeping Up With Carbon Capture Policy In The US And EU

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    Recent regulatory moves from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the European Commission in the carbon capture, sequestration and storage space are likely to further encourage the owners and operators of fossil fuel-fired power plants to make decisions on shutdowns or reconfiguration to meet the expanding requirements, say Inosi Nyatta and Silvia Brünjes at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • New State Climate Liability Laws: What Companies Must Know

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    New legislation in Vermont and New York creating liability and compliance obligations for businesses deemed responsible for climate change — as well as similar bills proposed in California, Massachusetts and Maryland — have far-reaching implications for companies, so it is vital to remain vigilant as these initiatives progress, say Gregory Berlin and Jeffrey Dintzer at Alston & Bird.

  • EU Investor-State Dispute Transparency Rules: Key Points

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    The European Union's recent vote to embrace greater transparency for investor-state arbitration will make managing newly public information more complex for all parties in a dispute — so it is important for stakeholders to understand the risks and opportunities involved, say Philip Hall, Tara Flores and Charles McKeon at Thorndon Partners.

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