Public Policy

  • July 09, 2024

    'Plain English, Graphics, Pictures': Enviro Policy Post-Chevron

    Environmental policymakers will have to start writing their rules using "plain English, graphics, pictures" and other tactics to make the rationale behind agency and congressional policy crystal clear to judges in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision striking down Chevron deference, attorneys told Law360.

  • July 09, 2024

    'Stop Right There': Judge Slams King County Deportation Args

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Tuesday criticized King County's argument that its executive order banning deportation flights from a Seattle airport did not force a fuel supplier to stop servicing the flights, with one judge calling it preposterous.

  • July 09, 2024

    Yellen Says Customer Due Diligence Proposal Planned For Fall

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told members of Congress Tuesday that her department is aiming to release a proposal this fall to revise the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's customer due diligence rule, while facing criticism over "duplicative" reporting regimes.

  • July 09, 2024

    DC Circ. Sends EPA Chemical Test Order Back For Review

    The D.C. Circuit scrapped a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order directing seven chemical manufacturers and processors to test the effects of 1,1,2-trichloroethane on the reproductive systems of birds, holding that it improperly relied on nonpublic information to justify the need for the testing.

  • July 09, 2024

    Aetna Beats Blue Cross In NC Health Plan Contract Battle

    An administrative judge affirmed North Carolina's switch of its employee and retiree health plan to Aetna, reasoning Blue Cross Blue Shield failed to prove state officials made errors favoring the competitor when evaluating bids.

  • July 09, 2024

    3rd Circ. Questions DuPont Family Trust's ERISA Status

    In a hearing Tuesday about a dispute between the DuPont family and its domestic workers over trust money, Third Circuit judges quizzed both sides on the level of involvement needed from trustees or the family for the fund to be considered a plan covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

  • July 09, 2024

    Philly EB-5 Investors Can Seek Visa Outside Court, Panel Says

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday found three Chinese EB-5 investors who sought to fast-track a visa by putting their money into a Philadelphia transit project can still do so without litigation in a decision backing a trial court ruling dismissing their case.

  • July 09, 2024

    Bill Would Approve Largest Tribal Water Rights Settlement

    A bipartisan group of Arizona federal lawmakers has introduced legislation that, if approved, would authorize the country's largest Native American water rights settlement and resolve claims by the Navajo Nation and the San Juan Southern Paiute and Hopi tribes.

  • July 09, 2024

    Texas Refinery Says EPA Needs To Rule On CAA Exception

    A small refinery based in Sugar Land, Texas, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not meet its deadline to rule on whether the refinery can get an exemption to federal renewable fuel requirements, telling a Texas federal court Monday the agency was damaging its business.

  • July 09, 2024

    Boeing, DOJ Say 737 Max Families Can't Rush Monitor Pick

    Boeing has told a Texas federal judge that 737 Max crash victims' families cannot rush the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the company's safety and compliance efforts, saying its new tentative plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice adequately addresses the monitorship issue.

  • July 09, 2024

    Dems Request Special Counsel To Probe Justice Thomas Gifts

    Two Democratic senators have asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' failure to disclose various gifts received during his tenure on the high court amounts to chargeable ethics violations or tax crimes.

  • July 09, 2024

    Experts Lose EPA Scientific Panel 'Echo Chamber' Lawsuit

    The D.C. Circuit has tossed a lawsuit alleging that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency illegally created a scientific "echo chamber" by not selecting experts with an industry background to serve on an air quality advisory committee.

  • July 09, 2024

    FTC Says Drug Middlemen Inflate Costs, Squeeze Pharmacies

    The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that its study of pharmacy benefit managers has shown that six large companies now control 95% of all prescriptions filled in the U.S., allowing them to profit at the expense of patients and independent pharmacies.

  • July 09, 2024

    Menendez Atty Accuses Feds Of 'Trickery' As Trial Nears End

    The bribery case against Sen. Bob Menendez is being "fudged" to compensate for pervasive gaps in evidence, his counsel told a federal jury in Manhattan at the start of defense closing arguments Tuesday.

  • July 09, 2024

    NYC Defends Policy Of Shuttering Unlicensed Pot Stores

    New York City defended its policy of padlocking stores selling marijuana without a license, saying the stores represent a threat to public health, and it urged a federal judge in Manhattan to reject an injunction sought by more than two dozen targeted retailers.

  • July 09, 2024

    2nd Circ. Urged To Toss Cannabis Dormant Commerce Suit

    New York cannabis regulators have urged the Second Circuit to disregard a California lawyer's efforts to upend the state's licensing program, arguing that the dormant commerce clause doesn't apply to marijuana, a substance that Congress has not permitted to be traded between states.

  • July 09, 2024

    House Dems Seek Info From DOI Over Alleged Shale Cartel

    House Democrats sitting on the House Natural Resources Committee penned a letter Tuesday seeking information from the U.S. Department of the Interior concerning eight oil companies accused of colluding with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies to artificially inflate gas prices.

  • July 09, 2024

    CIT Finds Labor Issues Don't Justify Penalty Evasion Ruling

    The U.S. Court of International Trade backed U.S. Customs and Border Protection's decision not to penalize an importer that allegedly threatened workers against speaking with officials investigating potential duty evasion, saying the purported misconduct hadn't hampered the probe.

  • July 09, 2024

    Veriwave Telco Faces FCC Action Over 'Tax Relief' Robocalls

    The Federal Communications Commission is moving to block robocalls about purported "tax relief" programs from a Delaware-based telecommunications company, announcing in an order Monday that Veriwave Telco had another 14 days to demonstrate compliance with the agency's rules or risk having downstream providers cut its traffic.

  • July 09, 2024

    Ex-DOJ Atty Tells Guo Jury Of Illicit Extradition Campaign

    Prominent Chinese Communist Party critic Miles Guo capped off his defense to $1 billion fraud charges Tuesday with testimony from a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney, who admitted to participating in a plot to lobby the U.S. government for Guo's extradition to China.

  • July 09, 2024

    Judge Calls Cost Of DOJ's Assa Abloy Market Study 'Insane'

    A D.C. federal judge took the U.S. Department of Justice and its monitoring trustee to task Tuesday for their pursuit of an open-ended look at Assa Abloy's books to check for anticompetitive harms from a 2023 merger, excoriating budget estimates pricing the investigation at a minimum of $1.7 million.

  • July 09, 2024

    5th Circ. Indicates Skepticism In Brett Favre Defamation Case

    The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday seemed skeptical that comments made by former NFL star Shannon Sharpe about Brett Favre's alleged involvement in a massive Mississippi welfare fraud scheme amounted to defamation, pressing Favre's attorney over why the retired NFL quarterback didn't sue over Sharpe's more emotionally charged statements.

  • July 09, 2024

    Maryland, SC Tell 4th Circ. PFAS Suits Belong In State Courts

    Federal district courts properly determined that lawsuits Maryland and South Carolina filed against 3M over alleged contamination stemming from the manufacture, use and disposal of a wide range of consumer products containing so-called forever chemicals can proceed within their respective state courts, the two states told the Fourth Circuit.

  • July 09, 2024

    Alaska Senators Condemn District Judge After Resignation

    Alaska's two Republican senators reprimanded the federal judge from their state who was found by a special committee to have created a hostile work environment and had an "inappropriately sexualized relationship" with one of his clerks, and has resigned.

  • July 09, 2024

    Ex-NLRB Atty Rejoins Ogletree After In-House Stint

    After a busy month of expansion, management-side labor and employment firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC announced Monday that it is welcoming a shareholder back to the firm following his in-house stint with wholesale grocery distributor UNFI.

Expert Analysis

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • CFPB Reality Check: Video Game Cash Is Still Money

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent report examining payments within online video games indicates that financial services offered within the game marketplace are quickly evolving to the point where they are indistinguishable from traditional financial services subject to regulation, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking

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    With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.

  • 5 Takeaways From FDA's Biosimilars Promotion Guidance

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expands upon other recent efforts to clarify expectations for biosimilar and interchangeable labeling, highlighting a number of potential missteps that could draw attention from regulators, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • The Legal Issues Raised In Minn. Rate Exportation Opt-Out Bill

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    A recent Minnesota House bill would amend state law by opting out of the federal interest rate preemption and introduce several legal gray areas if passed, including issues regarding loan location, rates on credit card loans and values of state charters, says Karen Grandstrand at Fredrikson & Byron.

  • Rebuttal

    Time For Congress To Let Qualified Older Pilots Keep Flying

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    While a previous Law360 guest article affirmed the current law requiring airline pilots to retire at age 65, the facts suggest that the pilots, their unions, the airlines and the flying public will all benefit if Congress allows experienced, medically qualified aviators to stay in the cockpit, say Allen Baker and Bo Ellis at Let Experienced Pilots Fly.

  • Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

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    Dechert attorneys analyze six years of patent owners' preliminary responses to inter partes review petitions to determine whether the elimination of the presumption favoring the petitioner as to preinstitution testimonial evidence affected the usefulness of expert testimony in responses.

  • Fostering Employee Retention Amid Shaky DEI Landscape

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    Ongoing challenges to the legality of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are complicating efforts to use DEI as an employee retention tool, but with the right strategic approach employers can continue to recruit and retain diverse talent — even after the FTC’s ban on noncompetes, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.

  • Are Concessions In FDA's Lab-Developed Tests Rule Enough?

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    Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new policy for laboratory-developed tests included major strategic concessions to help balance patient safety, access and diagnostic innovation, the new rule may well face significant legal challenges in court, say Dominick DiSabatino and Audrey Mercer at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow

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    The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.

  • How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers

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    Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.

  • What's Extraordinary About Challenges To SEC Climate Rule

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    A set of ideologically diverse legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule have been consolidated in the Eighth Circuit via a seldom-used lottery system, and the unpredictability of this process may drive agencies toward a more cautious future approach to rulemaking, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • 8 Questions To Ask Before Final CISA Breach Reporting Rule

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    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s recently proposed cyber incident reporting requirements for critical infrastructure entities represent the overall approach CISA will take in its final rule, so companies should be asking key compliance questions now and preparing for a more complicated reporting regime, say Arianna Evers and Shannon Mercer at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • Key Priorities In FDIC Report On Resolving Big Bank Failures

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s report last month on the resolvability of large financial institutions contains little new information, but it does reiterate key policy priorities, including the agency's desire to enhance loss-absorbing capacity through long-term debt requirements and preference for single-point-of-entry resolution strategies, say attorneys at Freshfields.

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