Public Policy

  • October 24, 2024

    EPA Agrees To Review Nitrogen Oxides Standard By 2028

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it would revisit its national ambient air quality standards for nitrogen oxides by 2028 under a proposed consent decree reached with conservation groups.

  • October 24, 2024

    FCC's Data Cap Study Tees Up Unjustified Ban, Think Tank Says

    As the Federal Communications Commission launches an inquiry into how data cap practices affect the public, a free market think tank is stepping into the fray to say it's worried any regulation limiting data caps would be "misguided."

  • October 24, 2024

    SBA Proposes 'Rule Of Two' For Multiaward Contract Orders

    The U.S. Small Business Administration on Thursday proposed that federal agencies give preference to small businesses on orders under multiple-award contracts, a move it estimated could boost small business contracting by up to $6 billion each year. 

  • October 24, 2024

    FCC Won't Hold Off Prison Phone Rate Caps During Suits

    The Federal Communications Commission has turned down three bids for the agency to shelve new prison phone service rate caps during legal appeals of the FCC's rule, saying such lawsuits are unlikely to prevail.

  • October 24, 2024

    Broadcasters Doubt Legality Of FCC Blackout Reporting Regs

    TV broadcasters questioned a Federal Communications Commission plan to require cable and satellite companies to report programming "blackouts" caused by carriage disputes to a central database, saying the agency appears to lack legal authority to impose such a requirement.

  • October 24, 2024

    Sen. Presses US Trade Rep To Take Up Fentanyl Probe

    A Democratic senator from Wisconsin asked the U.S. trade representative on Wednesday to take up a petition urging it to investigate the People's Republic of China's alleged vast illicit fentanyl exports to the United States that have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

  • October 24, 2024

    Program Led To Surge In Officers, Arrests For Tribes, FBI Says

    A surge in FBI personnel in a program designed to address violent crimes in tribal communities allowed agents to focus on more than 300 cases in the last two years, the agency said, including investigations into missing and murdered Indigenous people that victims' advocates have called for for years.

  • October 24, 2024

    DOJ Reaches $102M Deal In Baltimore Bridge Collapse Suit

    The owner and the manager of the cargo ship that slammed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge in March has agreed to pay $102 million to settle the U.S. Department of Justice's civil lawsuit alleging gross negligence on their part killed six people and destroyed a vital transportation corridor.

  • October 24, 2024

    'Will Of The People' Upheld With Ohio Abortion Ban Quashed

    An Ohio state court judge on Thursday permanently blocked the state's "heartbeat law" that prohibited abortion around six weeks of pregnancy, citing a 2023 ballot measure that enshrined the right to an abortion in the state constitution.

  • October 24, 2024

    NYC Council Passes Bill Requiring Hotel Licenses

    The New York City Council passed a bill Wednesday that requires hotel operators to be licensed with the government in order to do business in the city.

  • October 24, 2024

    PBMs Want Separate FTC Hearings Over Insulin Prices

    Caremark Rx LLC, Express Scripts Inc. and OptumRx Inc. are calling for separate proceedings in the Federal Trade Commission's case accusing the pharmacy benefit managers of artificially inflating insulin prices through unfair rebate schemes.

  • October 24, 2024

    La. Biz Development Office Extends Industrial Tax Break Regs

    An emergency rule in Louisiana extended the effectiveness of regulations implementing a recently issued gubernatorial executive order that made several adjustments to the state's industrial tax exemption program.

  • October 24, 2024

    Colo. Justices Hesitant To Extend Personhood To Elephants

    Colorado Supreme Court justices appeared unlikely Thursday to grant habeas corpus rights to elephants in a zoo, repeatedly asking an animal rights group seeking to send the elephants to a sanctuary where the court should draw the line on personhood.

  • October 24, 2024

    ACLU Sues Feds For Info On Immigrant Detention

    The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation has filed a lawsuit against federal agencies overseeing immigrant detention in California federal court, seeking records that it says would shed light on how immigrant detention could be expanded.

  • October 24, 2024

    Ga. Elections Official To Appeal Certification 'Discretion' Loss

    A Fulton County, Georgia, elections official who recently lost a lawsuit in which she tried to assert her purported "discretion" to certify vote results said Wednesday she plans to appeal the decision to the state's Court of Appeals.

  • October 24, 2024

    Texas Says ATF 'Flouts' Its Function With Loophole Rule

    A Texas-led group of states has asked an Amarillo federal judge for a pretrial win in its lawsuit challenging a Biden administration rule that would close what's known as the "gun show loophole," writing that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives "flout[ed] its limited function" by attempting to rewrite federal gun laws.

  • October 24, 2024

    3 Insurance Execs Beat Ex-Employer's Trade Secrets Suit

    A North Carolina federal judge has ruled Sherbrooke Corporate Ltd. failed to properly allege three former executives it accused of stealing confidential, proprietary software to start their own company actually used that software or kept how it worked a secret.

  • October 24, 2024

    Dems From Storm-Impacted States Call For Probes Of Misinfo

    Democratic lawmakers from states recently impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton asked the leadership of three House committees on Wednesday to investigate and hold hearings on the "troubling surge" in the spread of misinformation, scams and conspiracy theories about the storms on social media.

  • October 24, 2024

    TikTok Won't Get 3rd Circ. Rehearing Of Section 230 Ruling

    The Third Circuit on Wednesday turned down TikTok's request for an en banc rehearing of a panel decision that the social media company's "For You Page" algorithm isn't entitled to immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in a case over a 10-year-old's death.

  • October 24, 2024

    Dems Urge HHS To Better Protect Wheelchair Users From PE

    A pair of Democratic senators is pressing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to do more to protect the approximately 5.5 million wheelchair users in the country from private equity "abuses."

  • October 24, 2024

    More NJ Counties Settle Over Use Of 'County Line' Ballot

    Two more New Jersey counties have agreed to stop using the Garden State's long-standing "county line" ballot design in primary elections, according to a Thursday order, bringing to six the total number of counties that have settled with Rep. Andy Kim in his suit challenging the controversial ballot design.

  • October 24, 2024

    EPA Can't Rush Truck Electrification, DC Circ. Hears

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a trucking industry group have thrown their support behind challengers' attempts to upend the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles, telling the D.C. Circuit that the agency is trying to accomplish too much too soon.

  • October 24, 2024

    Fla. Says Feds Can't Stop Probe Into Attempt On Trump's Life

    Florida's lawsuit claiming the U.S. Department of Justice improperly shut down the state's investigation into the attempt on Donald Trump's life at a Palm Beach County golf course has been assigned to a federal judge in Miami, despite Florida's pitch to get it in front of Trump appointee U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce.

  • October 24, 2024

    Elon Musk Escapes Vote-Buying Claims In RICO Suit

    Elon Musk has dodged claims in a Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act lawsuit that his attempts to drive up voter registration in swing states by holding a million-dollar giveaway are unlawful, with a California federal judge ruling the allegations had nothing to do with the rest of the case.

  • October 24, 2024

    Court Pauses $8.5B Handbag Merger For FTC Challenge

    A New York federal judge on Thursday paused the planned $8.5 billion merger between the owners of Michael Kors and Coach while the Federal Trade Commission challenges the deal over concerns about "accessible luxury" handbags.

Expert Analysis

  • Financial Incentives May Alleviate Affordable Housing Crisis

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    There is a wide array of financial incentives and assistance that the government can provide to both real estate developers and individuals to chip away at the housing affordability problem from multiple angles, say Eric DeBear and Madeline Williams at Cozen.

  • How Fund Advisers Can Limit Election Year Pay-To-Play Risks

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    With Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz now the Democratic candidate for vice president, politically active investment advisers should take practical steps to avoid triggering strict pay-to-play rules that can lead to fund managers facing mutli-year timeouts from working with public funds after contributing to sitting officials, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • FTC Focus: What Access To Patent Settlements Would Mean

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    Settling parties should adopt a series of practice tips, including specifying rationales to support specific terms, as the Federal Trade Commission seeks to expand its access to settlements before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, say Shannon McGowan and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.

  • Why Attorneys Should Consider Community Leadership Roles

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    Volunteering and nonprofit board service are complementary to, but distinct from, traditional pro bono work, and taking on these community leadership roles can produce dividends for lawyers, their firms and the nonprofit causes they support, says Katie Beacham at Kilpatrick.

  • How NJ Temp Equal Pay Survived A Constitutional Challenge

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    The Third Circuit recently gave the New Jersey Temporary Workers' Bill of Rights a new lease on life by systematically dismantling multiple theories of the act's unconstitutionality brought by staffing agencies hoping to delay their new equal pay and benefits obligations, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.

  • Opinion

    CFPB's AI Stance Backslides On Innovation Issues

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent response to a Treasury Department's request for information about artificial intelligence in the financial services sector uses alarmist rhetoric about the technology's risks, ceding an opportunity to help shape this important discussion, says Mike Silver at Husch Blackwell.

  • Strategies To Defend Against Healthcare Nuclear Verdicts

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    The healthcare industry is increasingly the target of megaclaims, particularly those alleging medical malpractice, but attorneys representing providers can use a few tools to push back on flimsy litigation and reduce the likelihood of a nuclear verdict, says LaMar Jost at Wheeler Trigg.

  • 5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond

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    As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.

  • Opinion

    Portland's Gross Receipts Tax Oversteps City's Authority

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    Recent measures by Portland, Oregon, that expand the voter-approved scope of the Clean Energy Surcharge on certain retail sales eviscerate the common meaning of the word "retail" and exceed the city's chartered authority to levy tax, say Nikki Dobay at Greenberg Traurig and Jeff Newgard at Peak Policy.

  • Series

    After Chevron: SEC Climate And ESG Rules Likely Doomed

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    Under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright, without agency deference, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure and environmental, social and governance rules would likely be found lacking in statutory support and vacated by the courts, says Justin Chretien at Carlton Fields.

  • NYC Wage Info Bill Highlights Rise In Pay Transparency Laws

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    With New York City the latest to mull requiring companies to annually report employee wage data, national employers should consider adapting their compliance practices to comply with increasingly common pay transparency and disclosure obligations at state and local levels, says Kelly Cardin at Littler Mendelson.

  • Assessing Whether Jarkesy May Limit FINRA Prosecutions

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Jarkesy v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, holding that civil securities fraud defendants are entitled to jury trials, may cause unpredictable results when applied to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority prosecutions, say Barry Temkin and Kate DiGeronimo at Mound Cotton.

  • The Bank Preemption Ripple Effects After Cantero, Flagstar

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    The importance of federal preemption for financial institutions will only increase as technology-driven innovations evolve, which is why the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Cantero v. Bank of America and vacatur of Kivett v. Flagstar Bank have real modern-day significance for national banks, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Examining Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Of AI Inventions

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    In light of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data showing that patent applications for artificial intelligence inventions are likelier to get rejected based on patent-ineligible subject matter, inventors seeking protection should be aware of the difficulties and challenges pertaining to patent eligibility, say Georgios Effraimidis at NERA and Joel Lehrer at Goodwin.

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