Public Policy

  • July 12, 2024

    Judge OKs Another Penalty Duty Over Chinese Loan Program

    The U.S. Department of Commerce justifiably penalized a Chinese aluminum importer over Beijing's refusal to disclose information on an export loan program, the U.S. Court of International Trade said, finding the importer hadn't filled the gap in the record.

  • July 12, 2024

    European Tax Policy To Watch In The Second Half Of 2024

    Observers of European Union tax policy expect the EU to devote more attention to problems with existing tax legislation in the coming months as the introduction of major policy proposals takes a pause. Specialists also will be watching for progress on EU tax laws that remain stuck, and the bloc is likely to fill roles including tax commissioner. Here, Law360 examines key tax issues to watch for the remaining six months of the year.

  • July 12, 2024

    Feds Seek 2 Years For Mass. Atty In Campaign Finance Scam

    Boston federal prosecutors want a former BigLaw attorney to serve two years in prison for his conviction for a raft of campaign finance violations tied to his 2018 run for an open congressional seat in Massachusetts.

  • July 12, 2024

    Former Colorado Court Workers Settle Sexism Claims

    The Colorado State Courts Administrator's Office said in a joint notice that it has settled a lawsuit in Denver District Court with two former workers who said they were laid off as part of a broader pattern of gender discrimination against female employees.

  • July 12, 2024

    FTC Says Abandoned Novant Deal Moots Lower Court Loss

    The Federal Trade Commission is looking to unravel a North Carolina federal judge's order allowing Novant's planned $320 million hospital merger to advance after it subsequently abandoned the deal, telling the Fourth Circuit the appeal is moot and the order should be vacated.

  • July 12, 2024

    Former City Treasurer Gets 30 Months In $1M Embezzlement

    A former city treasurer in Alaska was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after having admitted to tax evasion and fraud in connection with a $1 million embezzlement scheme, according to Alaska federal court documents.

  • July 12, 2024

    Biggest Illinois Decisions Of 2024: A Midyear Report

    State and federal courts have handed down rulings so far this year that limited the reach of a federal bribery law commonly used to prosecute Illinois corruption, laid out a framework to challenge so-called mootness fees and clarified the scope of Illinois defamation and antitrust law. Here's a look at some of the biggest Illinois decisions in the first half of 2024.

  • July 12, 2024

    New Bill Urges Action To Free Imprisoned Binance Exec

    A new resolution from Republican lawmakers would have the U.S. House of Representatives formally urge the federal government to designate imprisoned Binance executive and former IRS agent Tigran Gambaryan as wrongfully detained and demand his immediate release from the Nigerian government.

  • July 11, 2024

    Trump Says Immunity Ruling Means Conviction Must Be Axed

    Donald Trump has officially lodged his request for his conviction to be vacated in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision, arguing that prosecutors' evidence in the hush money case rests on official acts he took as president, according to a redacted motion made public Thursday.

  • July 11, 2024

    Sens. Say AI Fuels Need For Data Privacy Law But Fail To Act

    Members of a key U.S. Senate committee Thursday largely agreed that companies' growing efforts to amass private information to fuel artificial intelligence technologies are accelerating the need for a federal data privacy framework, but they failed to make progress on a bipartisan proposal opposed by the committee's top Republican.

  • July 11, 2024

    Sens. Pitch COPIED Act To Fight AI-Content, Empower Artists

    A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation dubbed the COPIED Act on Thursday to fight the growth of AI-generated "deepfakes," proposing a framework that would give journalists and artists control over their work via a watermarking process and allow them to sue those who use their work without permission.

  • July 11, 2024

    Whispers, Curses As Menendez Trial Inches Toward Jury

    Federal corruption prosecutors wound down their bribery case against Sen. Robert Menendez Thursday with a mixture of dramatic into-the-mic whispering and reliance on the adjective "damn" as they argued that nothing in the tale would make sense without the alchemizing element of crime.

  • July 11, 2024

    Biden's FDIC Pick Hangs Tough Amid GOP Doubts On Record

    President Joe Biden's candidate for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chair faced scrutiny Thursday as Republican senators at her nomination hearing expressed their skepticism about her readiness to lead the agency, but her critics nevertheless appeared unlikely to derail her prospects for confirmation outright.

  • July 11, 2024

    Calif. Tribe Seeks $8.2M For Cultural Site Destruction

    The Quechan Indian Tribe is asking a California federal judge to award it $8.2 million after the court found that a federal government construction project to replace poles for 9 miles of transmission lines damaged 10 cultural and sacred archaeological sites on the tribe's reservation.

  • July 11, 2024

    Biden Taps Warren Protege, Ex-CFPB Atty For CFTC Seat

    President Joe Biden on Thursday nominated a senior Office of Management and Budget official and former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau attorney to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to replace one of two current CFTC members who themselves have been nominated for other offices.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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."

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • Parsing Controversial Del. General Corporation Law Proposals

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    In response to issues raised in three recent high-profile Delaware Court of Chancery decisions, many amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law were quickly proposed that, if enacted, would bring significant changes likely to be hotly debated — and litigated — for the foreseeable future, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • A Look At US-EU Consumer Finance Talks' Slow First Steps

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    The unhurried and informal nature of planned discussions between the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the European commissioner for justice and consumer protection suggests any coordinated regulatory action on issues like AI and "buy now, pay later" services is still a ways off, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    It's Time To Defuse The Ticking Time Bomb Of US Landfills

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    After recent fires at landfills in Alabama and California sent toxic fumes into surrounding communities, it is clear that existing penalties for landfill mismanagement are insufficient — so policymakers must enact major changes to the way we dispose of solid waste, says Vineet Dubey at Custodio & Dubey.

  • 5th Circ. Venue-Transfer Cases Highlight Mandamus Limits

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    Three ongoing cases filed within the Fifth Circuit highlight an odd procedural wrinkle that may let district courts defy an appellate writ: orders granting transfer to out-of-circuit districts, but parties opposing intercircuit transfer can work around this hurdle to effective appellate review, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.

  • A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence

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    The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.

  • 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.

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