Public Policy

  • July 15, 2024

    Trump Classified Docs Case Canned Over Special Counsel Law

    A Florida federal judge on Monday tossed the criminal case against former President Donald Trump over his allegedly illegal retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, ruling that the appointment of a special prosecutor for the case is unconstitutional.

  • July 12, 2024

    Law360 Names 2024's Top Attorneys Under 40

    Law360 is pleased to announce the Rising Stars of 2024, our list of 158 attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments belie their age.

  • July 12, 2024

    House GOP Wants Push For Special Counsel Tapes Sped Up

    U.S. House Judiciary Committee Republicans asked a D.C. federal judge on Friday to order U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to hand over audiotapes of President Joe Biden's and his ghostwriter's interviews with special counsel Robert Hur in Biden's classified documents investigation, saying "the clock on the 118th Congress [is] ticking."

  • July 12, 2024

    Mississippi Judge Benches Favre's NY Atty In Fraud Suit

    A Mississippi judge found Thursday that retired quarterback Brett Favre's New York-based defense attorney in a massive welfare fraud lawsuit routinely violated the state's civil procedure codes and barred him and other non-local counsel from making any more filings.

  • July 12, 2024

    Loper Bright Is Shaking Up Dozens Of Regulatory Fights

    In the two weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference, the landmark decision has emerged as a live issue in dozens of administrative challenges, with federal courts already pausing agency regulations expanding LGBTQ+ rights in education and healthcare and with a wave of parties seeking to use the new decision to win their cases.

  • July 12, 2024

    DHS Says Recent High Court Rulings Doom CBP App Claims

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Friday that a pair of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings addressing the issue of standing mean that two organizations lack the standing to challenge its requirement that migrants use a smartphone app to submit applications.

  • July 12, 2024

    NC Justices Asked To Take Up 'Double Odor' Pot Test Appeal

    Police should not be able to establish probable cause to search a vehicle based on the smell of cannabis and a perceived "cover scent," such as cologne, according to a petition filed to the North Carolina Supreme Court which described this kind of conduct as a "stealthy encroachment" on constitutional rights.

  • July 12, 2024

    FirstEnergy Denied 6th Circ. Appeal In Doc Dispute

    Scandal-plagued utility company FirstEnergy Corp. lost another attempt to shield internal investigation documents from a class of investors as well as its former CEO on Friday when an Ohio federal judge denied the company's request to appeal the dispute to the Sixth Circuit on a "logically fallacious" premise.

  • July 12, 2024

    Texas Courts Block Protections For Transgender Students

    Two Texas federal judges have blocked the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing protections for transgender students in Lone Star State schools while lawsuits against the rules are litigated, with one judge saying the measures provide "extra privileges to the transgender student based on subjective feelings of discomfort."

  • July 12, 2024

    Red State AGs Slam SEC 'Overreach' In Crypto Co. Challenge

    Seven Republican state attorneys general have told a Texas federal judge that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's alleged crypto policy of "rulemaking by district court enforcement action" threatens their ability to protect consumers as the court weighs a yet-to-launch crypto exchange's preemptive challenge to the securities regulator.

  • July 12, 2024

    FCC Says Rural Areas Get New Funds After Charter Defaults

    Charter is going to be dropping some of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund census blocks it took responsibility for and taking the fines that come with doing so, according to the FCC, which says the good news is that those blocks are now open for more federal funding for another provider.

  • July 12, 2024

    CFPB Takes Its 5th Circ. Lumps To Advance Late Fee Rule Suit

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has told the Fifth Circuit that it won't appeal a three-judge panel's decision forcing it defend its $8 credit card late fee rule in Texas rather than Washington, D.C., a move that could expedite the agency's efforts to free the rule from a lower-court injunction.

  • July 12, 2024

    Texas DA Tells 5th Circ. He's Immune In Border Law Fight

    Texas District Attorney Bill Hicks told the Fifth Circuit its June decision finding another district attorney immune from a suit over changes to the state's election code means he should be shielded from a challenge to the Lone Star State's migrant arrest law.

  • July 12, 2024

    DC Circ. Upholds FCC Approval Of SpaceX Satellite Plan

    A D.C. Circuit panel Friday affirmed a Federal Communications Commission license authorizing SpaceX to deploy thousands of its Starlink satellites, rejecting challenges from satellite TV provider Dish Network LLC and advocacy group DarkSky International.

  • July 12, 2024

    MoneyLion Cites High Court Rulings In Bid To Toss CFPB Suit

    MoneyLion Technologies Inc. told a New York federal judge on Friday that two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including the reversal of the so-called Chevron deference doctrine, support the challenge to military lending regulations it is accused of violating in a lawsuit by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

  • July 12, 2024

    Colo. Prisoners Seek Class Cert. In Slave Labor Suit

    A pair of Colorado prisoners have asked a state judge to grant class certification for their suit alleging the state is illegally using them for slave labor, detailing their experiences of punishment like extensive isolation for refusing to work.

  • July 12, 2024

    Feds Join Voting Rights Suit Over Georgia Election Law

    The federal government has joined a suit against Georgia officials over their 2021 voting law after a federal judge allowed it to intervene in wide-ranging litigation against the measure, saying state lawmakers intend to deny Black Georgians and other people of color the right to vote because of their race.

  • July 12, 2024

    Texas Lethal Injections Criminal Matter, Says Appeals Court

    A split Texas appeals court panel found that a state district court should have dismissed two death row inmates' suit because it did not have jurisdiction, with the majority saying Friday that any case seeking an injunction that could stay an execution falls under the jurisdiction of criminal courts.

  • July 12, 2024

    Texas Panel Revives Woman's Acupuncture Burn Suit

    A Texas court of appeals revived a suit accusing an acupuncturist of providing negligent suction cup treatment that left a woman with second-degree burns, finding the woman should be provided additional time to fix her deficient medical expert report.

  • July 12, 2024

    Tire Cos. Can't Pause Fish-Harming Chemical Suit

    A California federal judge rejected a group of tire companies' efforts to stay an Endangered Species Act suit accusing the companies of killing fish on the West Coast with their use of a rubber additive, saying that waiting for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rulemaking on the additive "makes little sense."

  • July 12, 2024

    Menendez Bribery Case Goes To Jury

    A Manhattan jury began deliberating Friday over bribery and other charges against Sen. Robert Menendez and two New Jersey businessmen after hearing hours of instructions in the 18-count case and eating their final lunch with five alternates.

  • July 12, 2024

    Guo Trial Juror Booted For Googling Fugitive Co-Defendant

    The jury in Chinese dissident Miles Guo's $1 billion fraud and racketeering case was forced to restart its verdict deliberations on Friday after a juror was cut loose for Google-searching Guo's fugitive financial adviser and co-defendant William Je.

  • July 12, 2024

    Conn. Justices Say Town Can Tax Hospital's Property

    Personal property of a Connecticut hospital owned by Hartford HealthCare is taxable, the state Supreme Court said Friday, reversing a trial court opinion and ruling that Hartford's acquisition of the hospital negated a tax exemption for charitable entities.

  • July 12, 2024

    Giuliani's Ch. 11 Tossed Over Lack Of Financial Candor

    Rudolph W. Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and legal adviser to Donald Trump, had his Chapter 11 case dismissed Friday by a New York bankruptcy judge, who found that Giuliani's missing financial disclosure made ending the proceedings the best option for creditors.

  • July 12, 2024

    Payments To Ex-Wife Should Be Deductible, 11th Circ. Told

    A Georgia man told the Eleventh Circuit on Friday that his payments to his ex-wife as part of a marital settlement should qualify as alimony and therefore be deductible from his federal income taxes, asking the court to reverse a U.S. Tax Court decision.

Expert Analysis

  • To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef

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    To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • What Junk Fee Law Means For Biz In California And Beyond

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    Come July 1, companies doing business in California must ensure that the price of any good or service as offered, displayed or advertised is inclusive of all mandatory fees and other charges in compliance with S.B. 478, which may have a far-reaching impact across the country due to wide applicability, say Alexandria Ruiz and Amy Lally at Sidley Austin.

  • EPA Heavy-Duty Vehicle GHG Rules Face Bumpy Road Ahead

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for owners and operators of heavy-duty vehicles are facing opposition from both states and the transportation industry, and their arguments will mirror two pending cases challenging the EPA's authority, says Grant Laizer at Adams and Reese.

  • 8 Steps Companies Should Take After An Internal Investigation

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    Given the U.S. Department of Justice’s increasing focus on corporate compliance and remediation of misconduct, companies must follow through in several key ways after an internal investigation to ensure history does not repeat itself, say Jonathan Aronie and Joseph Jay at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?

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    Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • Opinion

    US Solar Import Probe's Focus On China Is Misguided

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    The U.S. Department of Commerce's recent anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation focuses on the apparent Chinese ownership of solar device importers in four Southeast Asian countries — a point that is irrelevant under the controlling statute, says John Anwesen at Lighthill.

  • DC Circ. Ruling Heightens HHS Contract Pharmacy Challenges

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    The D.C. Circuit's recent ruling that the Section 340B program does not bar manufacturers from restricting deliveries of discounted drugs to contract pharmacies represents a second strike against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' current contract pharmacy policy and raises the stakes surrounding an upcoming Seventh Circuit ruling on the same issue, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

  • Ohio Tax Talk: The Legislative Push For Property Tax Relief

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    As Ohio legislators attempt to alleviate the increasing property tax burden, four recent bills that could significantly affect homeowners propose to eliminate replacement property tax levies, freeze property taxes for longtime homeowners, adjust homestead exemptions annually for inflation, and temporarily expand the homestead exemption, say Raghav Agnihotri and Rachael Chamberlain at Frost Brown.

  • Aviation Watch: Mostly Smooth Landing For New FAA Law

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    The recently signed Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act enhances air safety in several key ways, including strengthened passenger rights and cockpit voice recorder requirements, but an expansion of slot exemptions at Reagan National Airport is a notable misstep, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • Series

    In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist

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    Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • NY Public Campaign Funding May Attract Scrutiny From Feds

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    The upcoming elections across New York this year will be the first under the state’s public campaign finance program — which may broaden federal prosecutors' purview to target state election fraud and corruption, says Jarrod Schaeffer at Abell Eskew.

  • FTC Theories Of Harm After Anesthesia Co. Ruling

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    As Federal Trade Commission litigation against U.S. Anesthesia Partners proceeds following a Texas federal court's recent decision to dismiss a private equity sponsor from the suit, the case attempts to incorporate and advance some of the commission's theories of competitive harm from the final 2023 Merger Guidelines, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • National Security And The Commercial Space Sector: Part 2

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    Strategy documents recently published by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Space Force confirm the importance of the commercial space sector to the DOD, but say little about achieving the institutional changes needed to integrate commercial capabilities in support of national security in space, say Jeff Chiow and Skip Smith at Greenberg Traurig.

  • FTC Hearing On Fake Review Rule Stressed Compliance Costs

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    The Federal Trade Commission is likely to finalize its proposed rule to prohibit marketers from using deceptive practices in their product reviews after an informal hearing covered arguments over whether costs of implementing the rule, such as review moderation and software maintenance, would be minimal, says Jeffrey Edelstein at Manatt.

  • FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters

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    The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.

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