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Public Policy
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July 11, 2024
Tempur Sealy, Mattress Firm Blast FTC's Merger Challenge
Tempur Sealy and Mattress Firm fired back at the Federal Trade Commission's bid to block a proposed merger between the mattress companies, contending in separate filings that the FTC's ambiguous allegations require tossing the agency's administrative complaint.
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July 11, 2024
Kroger Asks To Delay At Least Part Of FTC Challenge
Kroger and Albertsons are asking an administrative law judge from the Federal Trade Commission to pause the evidentiary portion of the agency's in-house case against the supermarket giants' merger, saying the companies are facing too many overlapping cases in different venues to adequately prepare and present their case.
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July 11, 2024
Broker Says FINRA Owes Him Jury Trial After Jarkesy Ruling
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has been hit with a suit from a member who says the regulator's allegations in an internal proceeding to sanction and expel him are assertions of common law fraud and therefore must be brought before a court and jury under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Jarkesy decision.
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July 11, 2024
Federal Home Booze Ban Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules
The federal laws banning making liquor at home are unconstitutional, a Texas federal judge said Wednesday, granting a permanent injunction to a home distilling group and saying the ban goes beyond Congress' enumerated powers.
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July 11, 2024
Judge Won't Permit Florida's Trans Care Ban Pending Appeal
A federal judge denied Florida's request Thursday to pause a court order blocking a state law that bans or restricts gender-affirming care for transgender minors and adults while it challenges the ruling at the Eleventh Circuit, finding the state hasn't shown it would be harmed by the law's stagnation.
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July 11, 2024
Texas AG Claims He's About To Be Impeached Again
In a social media post about an upcoming Texas House committee meeting, Attorney General Ken Paxton said "weak-kneed" establishment Republicans and Democrats are conspiring on a second impeachment effort to try to remove him from office — a claim the committee chair called "farfetched fantasy."
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July 11, 2024
SF Fed Sues Troubled PPP Lender, Founder For Nearly $67M
The San Francisco arm of the Federal Reserve has sued one of the largest Paycheck Protection Program lenders in Puerto Rico federal court seeking to recover nearly $67 million, alleging the lender has defaulted on the terms of roughly $4.3 billion in credit it advanced for PPP loans.
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July 11, 2024
Commerce Aims To Codify Duty Probe Practices For NMEs
The U.S. Department of Commerce proposed regulations on Thursday to formalize practices developed since the 1990s to assess duties on imports from nonmarket economies, including denying lower tariff rates to businesses determined to be heavily controlled by their governments.
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July 11, 2024
Fire Fee Reversal Risks 'Chaos' For Cities, Detroit Says
The city of Detroit urged Michigan Supreme Court justices to leave in place a decision that said its fire inspection fees are not a disguised unlawful tax because reversing it could send municipalities into "chaos" over their permit and license fee practices.
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July 11, 2024
3 Defenses The IRS Can Fall Back On After Chevron's Demise
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to eliminate federal agencies' ability to rely on the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine to defend their interpretations of ambiguous laws will likely trigger more litigation against the IRS. But that doesn't mean the agency is completely defenseless against such suits. Here, Law360 explores three defense options for the IRS following Chevron's demise.
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July 11, 2024
Calif. Nabs $50M Deal With Oil Traders In Gas Price-Rigging Suit
California secured a $50 million settlement with oil trading companies Vitol and SK Energy, resolving allegations that the companies schemed to artificially inflate gas prices in the Golden State after an Exxon Mobil Corp. refinery exploded in 2015, California's attorney general announced Wednesday.
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July 11, 2024
FERC 'Waiting For Me To Die' With Late Order, Utility Atty Says
Counsel for the Louisiana Public Service Commission told the Fifth Circuit on Thursday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is "waiting for me to die" as it delays issuing a compliance order to System Energy Resources Inc., saying the agency was doing irreparable harm to consumers.
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July 11, 2024
4 Big Gender-Affirming Care Decisions From 2024's 1st Half
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed an Idaho law banning gender-affirming care for minors to become effective, the Eleventh Circuit upheld a trial court win for a transgender public safety employee in a healthcare discrimination suit and a Florida federal judge blocked as unconstitutional a state law restricting gender-affirming care for minors and adults.
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July 11, 2024
9th Circ. Signals Dr.'s Vax-Refusal Case Deserves New Chance
Ninth Circuit judges signaled Thursday that they were likely to revive a doctor's case claiming he was wrongfully fired from his Washington State University residency for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccination, with two judges questioning if the school went far enough to accommodate his religious beliefs.
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July 11, 2024
DACA Recipient, Credit Union Settle Home Loan Bias Suit
A beneficiary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has reached a settlement with an Oregon credit union to end claims that he was unlawfully denied a home equity loan based on his immigration status.
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July 11, 2024
Feds Seek Input On 37 GHz Sharing Plans
Federal regulators intend to ask for the public's input in August about a possible revamp of the lower 37 gigahertz airwaves, the U.S. Department of Commerce said.
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July 11, 2024
Trade Court Backs Nonevasion Finding For Aluminum Tariffs
The U.S. Court of International Trade blessed U.S. Customs and Border Protection's remand determination that aluminum extrusion importers weren't evading tariffs, saying CBP explained it couldn't maintain its original evasion finding after reviewing data it had initially disregarded.
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July 11, 2024
Florida Slams Racial Gerrymandering Suit
Florida's secretary of state and House of Representatives have asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging four congressional districts and seven House districts as racially gerrymandered, arguing that the challengers failed to show that race was the predominant factor in how the districts were drawn.
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July 11, 2024
Navy Can't Get Out Of Ex-Marine's PTSD Discrimination Suit
A Washington federal judge won't let the U.S. Navy out of a suit from a former Marine alleging that he was discriminated against and terminated over his post-traumatic stress disorder, saying there is enough evidence that a fact-finder could determine his boss retaliated against him.
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July 11, 2024
ISP Group Says FCC Remote Learning Plan On Shaky Ground
Internet service providers say the Federal Communications Commision needs to revisit a proposal to fund Wi-Fi hot spots for students after the U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned the Chevron doctrine, which gave wide judicial deference to agencies.
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July 11, 2024
Media Matters Fights Texas AG's Bid To Revive X Probe
Media Matters for America is urging the D.C. Circuit to keep intact a court order prohibiting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from investigating the media watchdog over its reporting about the social media platform X, asserting that the D.C. courts are the correct place to litigate the "retaliatory" probe.
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July 11, 2024
Frontier Communications Fined $2.5M Over Quality Standards
Connecticut's utility regulator has ordered Frontier Communications to pay nearly $2.5 million in penalties after finding that the company repeatedly violated mandates for maintenance, repair of service problems and filing reports with the state dating back to 2015.
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July 11, 2024
2nd Circ. Says Unreported Violence Doesn't Doom Asylum Bid
The Second Circuit on Thursday said the Board of Immigration Appeals must reconsider an asylum bid from a Honduran woman claiming family abuse and rape by a criminal, finding that evidence of the difficulties women face in reporting violence and the government's ineffective response to such reports was ignored.
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July 11, 2024
Top NC Legal Industry Legislation Of 2024: A Midyear Report
North Carolina lawmakers have instituted a streamlined process for state business court filings and are eying controls on attorney fees for debt collection lawsuits. Another closely watched measure eases the discipline process for attorneys with the expansion of records access and the ability to expunge certain ethics transgressions.
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July 11, 2024
Biden Taps Cohen Weiss Atty As PBGC Director
President Joe Biden on Thursday tapped an attorney who most recently served as of counsel at Cohen Weiss & Simon LLP to head the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
Expert Analysis
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Proposed Customer ID Rule Could Cost Investment Advisers
A rule recently proposed by FinCEN and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to make financial advisers collect more customer information parallels an anti-money laundering and counterterrorism rule proposed this spring, but firms may face new compliance costs when implementing these screening programs, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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What Passage Of House Crypto Bill Could Mean For Industry
While the prospects of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which recently passed the House in a bipartisan fashion, becoming law remain murky, the manner of its passage may give crypto markets a real cause for hope, say Neel Maitra and Dale Beggs at Dechert.
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A Case Study For Calif. Cities In Water Utility Takeovers
With growing water scarcity and drier weather looming, some local governments in California have sought to acquire investor-owned water utilities by eminent domain — but the 2016 case of Claremont v. Golden State Water is a reminder that such municipalization attempts must meet certain statutory requirements, say attorneys at Nossaman.
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Series
NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2
The second quarter of 2024 saw less enforcement activity in the realm of New York financial services, but brought substantial regulatory and legislative developments, including state regulators' guidance on cybersecurity compliance and customer service processes for virtual currency entities, say James Vivenzio and Andrew Lucas at Perkins Coie.
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4 Important Events In Bank Regulation: A Midyear Review
The first six months of 2024 have been fairly stable for the banking industry, though U.S. Supreme Court decisions and proposals from regulators have significantly affected the regulatory standards applicable to insured depository institutions, says Christina Grigorian at Katten.
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FTC Focus: Competition And The Right To Repair
If the Federal Trade Commission includes commercial and industrial products as part of copyright exemptions that allow consumers to modify or repair products, then businesses and affected rights holders will need to consider copyrights' impact on infringement issues, say attorneys at Proskauer.
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How Cannabis Rescheduling May Affect Current Operators
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's proposal to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III provides relief in the form of federal policy from the stigma and burdens of Schedule I, but commercial cannabis operations will remain unchanged until the federal-state cannabis policy gap is remedied by Congress, say Meital Manzuri and Alexis Lazzeri at Manzuri Law.
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Series
Skiing And Surfing Make Me A Better Lawyer
The skills I’ve learned while riding waves in the ocean and slopes in the mountains have translated to my legal career — developing strong mentor relationships, remaining calm in difficult situations, and being prepared and able to move to a backup plan when needed, says Brian Claassen at Knobbe Martens.
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Air Ambulance Ruling Severely Undermines No Surprises Act
A Texas federal court's recent decision in Guardian Flight v. Health Care Service — that the No Surprises Act lacks a judicial remedy when a health insurer refuses to pay the amount established through an independent review — likely throws a huge monkey wrench into the elaborate protections the NSA was enacted to provide, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Justices' Removal Ruling Presents Hurdles, But Offers Clarity
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Campos-Chaves v. Garland and two other consolidated cases endorses a multistep notice practice that could impair noncitizens' access to adequate judicial notice, but its resolution of a longstanding circuit split also provides much-needed clarity, says Devin Connolly at Reeves Immigration Law Group.
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Tracking Implementation Of IRA Programs As Election Nears
As the Biden administration races to cement key regulations implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, a number of the law's programs and incentives are at risk of delay or repeal if Republicans retake control of Congress, the White House or both — so stakeholders should closely watch ongoing IRA implementation and guidance, say attorneys at Squire Patton.
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Zoning Reform May Alleviate The Affordable Housing Crisis
As America's affordable housing issues continue to worsen, zoning reform efforts can help to provide more affordable homes and mitigate racial and economic segregation, though opposition from residents and in courts could present challenges, say Evan Pritchard and Madeline Williams at Cozen O'Connor.
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Unpacking The Circuit Split Over A Federal Atty Fee Rule
Federal circuit courts that have addressed Rule 41(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are split as to whether attorney fees are included as part of the costs of a previously dismissed action, so practitioners aiming to recover or avoid fees should tailor arguments to the appropriate court, says Joseph Myles and Lionel Lavenue at Finnegan.
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Justices' 'Blind Mule' Ruling Won't Change Defense Strategy
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week in Diaz v. U.S., holding that expert witnesses can testify broadly about the mental state of “most people” in a group, simply affirms the status quo for the majority of defendants, and is unlikely to change defense counsel’s strategy at trial, says Walter Gonçalves at the Arizona Federal Public Defender's Office.
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Ecuador Ruling Marks Significant Step For Arbitral Certainty
The Constitutional Court of Ecuador's recent holding that a foreign arbitral award did not require homologation before local enforcement is a positive step toward fostering greater certainty in international business dispute resolution in the region, say Luis Perez and Ildefonso Mas at Akerman.