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Public Policy
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October 30, 2024
NY Construction Exec Avoids Jail For Commercial Bribery
A construction executive dodged jail time Wednesday after pleading guilty in New York state court to his role in a sprawling bribery scheme involving $100 million in contracts linked to New York high-rise buildings.
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October 30, 2024
FTX Witness Who Saw Bankman-Fried's 'Evil' Avoids Prison
A Manhattan federal judge allowed FTX's former chief engineer to avoid prison Wednesday, crediting his trial testimony against the crypto exchange's founder Sam Bankman-Fried, his ongoing cooperation and his relatively small role in the $11.2 billion fraud.
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October 30, 2024
Green Groups Urge EPA To Address 'Big Ag' Nitrate Pollution
More than 20 environmental and community groups have called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use its emergency powers under the Safe Drinking Water Act to address industrial agriculture's nitrate contamination of drinking water in communities across the country.
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October 30, 2024
Gibson Dunn Lands Trump Impeachment Prosecutor, 4 Others
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP announced Wednesday that it had hired away former President Donald Trump's impeachment prosecutor from Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP to co-chair its global litigation practice group in New York, as well as four other former federal prosecutors from that firm.
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October 30, 2024
Connecticut Water Users Amend Utility PFAS Class Action
A proposed class of Connecticut consumers filed an amended complaint for a suit alleging a water utility knowingly sold water containing unhealthy levels of "forever chemicals" without installing treatment equipment that could have prevented the contamination from reaching people.
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October 30, 2024
Trump Campaign Wins Suit Over Pa. County Over Ballots
A Pennsylvania county judge has granted the Donald Trump campaign's bid to extend mail-in ballot requests in Bucks County, which the campaign accused of turning away voters waiting in long lines for the ballot sign-ups.
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October 30, 2024
NY Telecoms Urge Justices To Keep Pause On Price Cap
Telecommunications trade groups urged U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to keep New York's broadband price cap for low-income residents on hold even if the justices ultimately decide to review it, saying in a new brief Wednesday enforcement of the price caps would do irreparable harm to their members.
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October 30, 2024
Pa. Panel Says Undated Special Election Votes Should Count
A split Pennsylvania appellate court ruled Wednesday that throwing out mail-in votes solely for missing or "incorrect" dates on their outer envelopes was a violation of the state's constitution, but insisted the ruling applies only to a September special election in Philadelphia.
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October 30, 2024
High Court Says Va. Can Keep Purging 'Noncitizen' Voters
A divided U.S. Supreme Court wiped out a federal court order Wednesday that prohibited Virginia from removing suspected noncitizens from its voting rolls this close to Election Day, a program the U.S. Department of Justice and advocacy groups claim has erroneously stripped eligible voters of their constitutional rights.
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October 30, 2024
Ballot Battles, Musk's Sweepstakes: Election Suits Rage In Pa.
The political battleground state of Pennsylvania is a hotbed of litigation in the runup to another contentious presidential election, with controversies over where and how citizens cast ballots and a new legal challenge to billionaire Elon Musk's hefty financial incentive for Keystone State voters.
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October 29, 2024
Wash. Chief Justice Calls Diversity 'Critical' For Courts
Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Steven González reflected Tuesday night on what diversity in cultural perspectives can bring to classrooms and courtrooms alike, remarking that the dynamic on the high court has changed for the better during his 13 years on the bench as he's been joined by more colleagues of color.
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October 29, 2024
Monsanto PCBs 'Pervasive' At School, Scientist Tells Jury
Monsanto-made PCBs were "pervasive" at a Washington school, an industrial hygienist testified Tuesday in the latest trial over illnesses there before being grilled by defense counsel about the integrity of his material samples.
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October 29, 2024
Ex-Texas Prosecutor Gets 3 Years For Extortion
A Texas federal judge sentenced a former elected Starr County, Texas, prosecutor to more than three years behind bars after he pled guilty to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for dropping charges in criminal cases, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
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October 29, 2024
DOJ Will Restrict Data Swapping With 'Countries Of Concern'
The U.S. Department of Justice has proposed new rules that will make it the regulator of any type of transaction that would put certain kinds of sensitive privacy data in the hands of any "covered persons" or "country of concern."
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October 29, 2024
Justices Won't Let RFK Jr. Off Mich., Wis. Ballots
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s emergency requests to have his name removed from the presidential ballots in the key battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan.
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October 29, 2024
Sporting Goods Chain Beats Suit By Man Shot With Stolen Gun
A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday affirmed the dismissal of a suit seeking to hold Academy Sports liable after a man was shot by a gun stolen from the store, saying a federal law shielding firearms dealers from third-party criminal acts did indeed apply.
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October 29, 2024
Ex-US Attorney Already Prepping To Be The Next Denver DA
A former Colorado U.S. attorney and longtime civil litigator said running for the open Denver district attorney seat was a natural next step, as he prepares to lead an office with fewer resources than either of his past positions.
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October 29, 2024
Judge Extends Block On Florida's Threats Over Abortion Ad
A Florida federal judge on Tuesday extended a temporary order blocking the state from threatening television stations with criminal prosecution if they did not pull a campaign ad promoting an abortion rights ballot initiative.
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October 29, 2024
Texas AG Says State Rep Tried To Sway 'Shaken Baby' Case
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday called for state Rep. Jeff Leach to resign after he allegedly attempted to sway judgment in capital punishment proceedings in what would have been the nation's first execution for a conviction based on a "shaken baby syndrome" diagnosis.
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October 29, 2024
Texas Gov., Oil Groups Urge DC Circ. To Revive LNG Projects
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the American Petroleum Institute, the Lipan Apache Tribe and others are lining up behind liquefied natural gas project backers asking the full D.C. Circuit to review a panel's decision to nix Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approvals for LNG projects on the Texas Gulf Coast.
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October 29, 2024
NYC Mayoral Straw Donor Scheme Sees Another Guilty Plea
A bookkeeper enmeshed in a straw donor scheme to benefit New York City Mayor Eric Adams' 2021 campaign copped to a violation on Tuesday as part of a deal with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, effectively closing out the case.
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October 29, 2024
Fla. Banker Agrees To Change Plea In Money Laundering Case
A Miami banker who is the son of Ecuador's ex-comptroller on Tuesday agreed to change his plea to guilty in a federal case alleging that he helped launder money for his father, who was convicted for his role in a corruption scandal that involved canceling fines for a hydroelectric dam in exchange for millions in bribes.
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October 29, 2024
FCC, Calif. Agency To Team Up To Protect Privacy
The Federal Communications Commission is going to be teaming up with one of California's consumer protection agencies to enforce privacy rights in the Golden State, the pair announced Tuesday.
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October 29, 2024
Mining Regs Have World Effect On Tribes, High Court Told
A chief of an Indigenous Brazilian community is backing an Arizona tribe in its bid to overturn a decision that allows a copper mining company to discharge treated wastewater into a local waterway, telling the Supreme Court that pollution from such operations impacts more than just health around the world.
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October 29, 2024
ByteDance's Sanctions Bid Against Ex-Worker Delays Trial
A California federal judge delayed a trial in a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by an engineer formerly at TikTok's parent company ByteDance, directing the parties on Tuesday to instead submit briefing on the defendants' motion to terminate the case as a sanction for the plaintiff's alleged destruction of evidence and perjury.
Expert Analysis
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A Narrow Window Of Opportunity To Fix Energy Transmission
A post-election effort of the coming lame-duck congressional session may be the only possibility to pass bipartisan legislation to solve the national grid's capacity deficiencies, which present the greatest impediment to realizing state and federal energy transition and emissions reduction goals, says David Smith at Manatt.
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How Project 2025 Could Upend Federal ESG Policies
If implemented, Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's policy playbook for a Republican presidential administration, would likely seek to deploy antitrust law to target ESG initiatives, limit pension fund managers' focus to pecuniary factors and spell doom for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate rule, say attorneys at Mintz.
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Compliance Pointers For Amended Pa. Data Breach Law
Recent updates to the Pennsylvania Breach of Personal Information Notification Act include a requirement that organizations alert the state's attorney general of certain consumer data breach notifications, and several incident response and cybersecurity considerations will be necessary to ensure compliance, say Matthew Meade and Laura Decker at Eckert Seamans.
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Smith's New Trump Indictment Is Case Study In Superseding
Special counsel Jack Smith’s recently revised Jan. 6 charges against former President Donald Trump provide lessons for prosecutors on how to effectively draft superseding indictments in order to buttress or streamline their case, as necessary, says Jessica Roth at Cardozo Law School.
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Opinion
FDIC's Foray Into Index Fund Rules Risks Regulatory Chaos
A proposed Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rule concerning control over passive index fund investments in banks is outside the agency's remit, clashes with an existing Federal Reserve process and would inhibit competition in the index fund sector, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.
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Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys
Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.
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Opinion
Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code
As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.
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What To Make Of Dueling Corporate Transparency Act Rulings
Although challenges to the Corporate Transparency Act abound — as highlighted by recent federal court decisions from Alabama and Oregon taking opposite positions on its constitutionality — the act is still law, so companies should comply with their filing requirements or face the potential consequences, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Perspectives
Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.
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California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that sought to impose stringent regulations on advanced artificial intelligence model development has sparked a renewed debate on how best to balance innovation with safety in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, say Bobby Malhotra and Carson Swope at Winston & Strawn.
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Staying Off The CFPB's Financial Services Offender Registry
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's soon-to-launch registry of financial services companies that have faced public enforcement orders is designed to ratchet up long-term scrutiny of entities that could become repeat offenders, so companies should take their new compliance and filing requirements seriously, say Andrea Mitchell and Chris Napier at Mitchell Sandler.
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New TCPA Rule Faces Uncertain Future Post-Loper Bright
The Federal Communications Commission's new rule aiming to eliminate lead generators' use of unlawful robocalls is now in doubt with the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, and the Eleventh Circuit's Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC is poised to be a test case of the agency's ability to enforce the Telephone Consumer Protection Act post-Chevron, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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A Look At Calif.'s New AI Law For Health Insurers
A newly enacted California law prohibits artificial intelligence tools from making medical necessity determinations for healthcare service plans or disability insurers, addressing core questions that have arisen around AI's role in coverage decisions, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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New HHS Research Misconduct Rules Bring Seismic Changes
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new rule regarding research misconduct investigations brings significant changes that focus on remediation, appeals and confidentiality, while other changes could result in institutions causing undue harm to scientists accused of such misconduct, say attorneys at Cohen Seglias.
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To Report Or Not To Report Others' Export Control Violations
A recent Bureau of Industry and Security enforcement policy change grants cooperation credit to those that report violations of the Export Administration Regulations committed by others, but the benefits of doing so must be weighed against significant drawbacks, including the costs of preparing and submitting a report, says Megan Lew at Cravath.