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Public Policy
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June 26, 2024
SEC Crypto Stance May Shift With Election, Rulemaking Suits
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to shift its cryptocurrency posture to some degree if a new chair is installed after the coming presidential election, but firms not content to wait for a change in the guard can consider challenging the agency's rulemaking process, experts said Wednesday.
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June 26, 2024
Menendez Pals 'Generous,' Jeweler Says In Joke-Filled Testimony
A jeweler who helped Sen. Robert Menendez's wife sell gold bars that were supposedly bribes testified Wednesday the codefendants who gave Menendez the bars have always been generous, salting his testimony with so many droll comments that the New York federal judge — who initially bantered back — eventually gave a special instruction reinforcing that the trial is "very serious."
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June 26, 2024
Justices Leave Blurry Line In Place On Misinformation Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Wednesday to reverse a Fifth Circuit order prohibiting the Biden administration from joining with social media platforms to fight misinformation leaves an important First Amendment question unanswered and left Missouri's attorney general promising a continuing fight against what he called a "censorship regime."
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June 26, 2024
Design Patent Attys Wary Of Applicant Disclosure Proposal
Various intellectual property trade groups are expressing some skepticism toward a proposal over the United Nations using a new treaty to force design patent applicants to disclose more details in their applications.
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June 26, 2024
FCC Urged To Prevent Abuse Through High-Tech Cars
Privacy and abuse survivor advocates have outlined ways the Federal Communications Commission could safeguard connected car technology to mitigate domestic and sexual abuse, urging the agency to expand and adapt existing rules to limit abusers from using joint cellphone plans to stalk or harass people to apply to data in vehicles with advanced wireless connectivity.
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June 26, 2024
Justices Chide 5th Circ. In Biden Social Media Case
The Fifth Circuit relied on "clearly erroneous" facts and an overgeneralized view of standing when it ordered the Biden administration to stop working with social media platforms to combat COVID-19 and election misinformation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday as it threw out a challenge to the government's actions.
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June 26, 2024
Calif. Sanctioned $111M In 30-Year Prison Staffing Case
A California federal judge has ordered state officials to hand over more than $111 million for failing to bring prison mental health staffing up to levels set by the court in 2009 in a 30-year-old case, saying Tuesday that "given defendants' contumacy, it is for the court to effect compliance."
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June 26, 2024
State Data Privacy Law Patchwork: Midyear Report
States jumped on the consumer data privacy law bandwagon at a brisk clip in the first half of 2024, although it remains unclear if this push will be enough to encourage Congress to finally enact a nationwide framework this year.
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June 26, 2024
Chamber Backs 9th Circ. Call To Nix SEC's 'Gag Rule'
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is among those calling on the Ninth Circuit to overturn a long-standing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission policy that settling parties not be allowed to deny the allegations against them, saying that the so-called gag rule threatens the free speech rights of the accused.
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June 26, 2024
VA Can't 'Short-Circuit' Racial Bias Suit With Appeal, Vet Says
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should not be allowed to challenge a Connecticut federal judge's decision to let a Black Marine Corps veteran proceed with his systemic-discrimination suit against the department because it has not met the standards for lodging an interlocutory appeal, the plaintiffs have argued.
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June 26, 2024
States Say Revised EPA Water Rule Worse Than Original
Two dozen states are seeking a quick win against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several Native American tribes in their suit challenging a revised rule defining the Clean Water Act's reach, saying it doesn't solve many problems found in the original rule.
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June 26, 2024
FBI Beats Epstein FOIA Case Due To Ghislaine Maxwell Appeal
A New York federal judge handed the FBI a win Tuesday in gossip site Radar Online's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking the government's sex-trafficking investigation records into the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, finding that the documents could affect the ongoing appeal of Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
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June 26, 2024
Artists Drum Up Support For Bill To Pay Music Royalties
Congress needs to protect musical artists' intellectual property rights by requiring radio broadcasters to pay royalties for airing their sound performances, as most other countries do, the recording industry told lawmakers Wednesday.
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June 26, 2024
Bribery Ruling Could Disrupt ComEd Verdict, Madigan Trial
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Wednesday narrowing the federal bribery law long relied upon to curb local corruption is expected to make waves in two prominent Chicago cases, attorneys say, with one likening it to a "nuclear bomb" exploding prosecutors' convictions of a former ComEd executive and lobbyists.
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June 26, 2024
FCC Threatens To Yank Texas AM Station License Over Fees
A Spanish-language Christian radio station is about to have its license snatched away by the Federal Communications Commission if it doesn't do something about its delinquent regulatory fees, according to new proceedings initiated by the agency.
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June 26, 2024
'Tragic History' Can't Rewrite Law In Burial Row, Army Says
The U.S. Army says the nation's "tragic history" of injustices done to children through the Indian Boarding School system does not give a federal district court license to rewrite a law aimed at protecting Indigenous burial sites, arguing that a Nebraska tribe's challenge over the repatriation of two children should be dismissed.
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June 26, 2024
SpaceX Beach Closure Challenge Is 'Illogical,' Texas Says
Texas is asking its high court to review a decision that forces several government entities to face an environmental group's challenge to the closure of a beach for SpaceX activities, writing that the appellate court's adoption of the group's theory of open beach access "clashes" with state law and court precedent.
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June 26, 2024
Texas Moves To Bar DOJ Witness In Rio Grande Barrier Fight
Texas has moved to disqualify one of the Biden administration's witnesses in litigation over the Lone Star state's 1,000-foot barrier in the Rio Grande to keep out migrants, arguing the witness has no relevant or reliable opinions to offer.
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June 26, 2024
FCC To Finalize Funding For School Wi-Fi Hot Spots
The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote in July on final rules to help schools pay for Wi-Fi hot spots, part of a Democratic effort to address off-campus connectivity gaps through federal aid.
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June 26, 2024
Ex-Worker Says NC Justices Needn't Review Carcinogen Test
A former graduate student worker for North Carolina State University has told the Tar Heel State's highest court that the school is trying to delay a potential lawsuit by continuing its fight to keep the ex-employee and cancer patient from investigating a campus building for carcinogens.
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June 26, 2024
NHTSA Declines Calls For 'More Robust' Truck Safety Guards
Roadway safety advocates are chiding the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after it rejected requests for stricter requirements on rear impact guards on semitruck trailers, used to protect passenger vehicles that crash into the back of trailers, calling the decision "indefensible."
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June 26, 2024
Unfinished Glycine Factory Supports Evasion, Says US Co.
A U.S. glycine producer urged the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday to affirm the government's renewed finding that importers dodged tariffs, pointing to photographs of an Indonesian factory still under construction while it was allegedly producing exports for the suppliers.
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June 26, 2024
Supreme Court Bribery Ruling Limits Government's 'Arsenal'
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Wednesday limiting the reach of a federal bribery law has removed a "novel" tool that prosecutors employed in a wide range of public corruption cases and could result in fewer prosecutions of state and local officials, experts say.
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June 26, 2024
Texas Uses Justices' Gun Ruling To Defend Deportation Law
Texas has told the Fifth Circuit that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision maintaining a ban on firearm ownership for domestic abusers supports its state law authorizing the arrest and deportation of migrants.
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June 26, 2024
Red Roof Trafficking Case Settled In Middle Of Trial
The corporate owners of two Red Roof Inn locations in Atlanta and 11 women who claim they were trafficked there for years without intervention have reached a midtrial settlement ending the case.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
US Solar Import Probe's Focus On China Is Misguided
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.
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DC Circ. Ruling Heightens HHS Contract Pharmacy Challenges
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.
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Ohio Tax Talk: The Legislative Push For Property Tax Relief
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.
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Aviation Watch: Mostly Smooth Landing For New FAA Law
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.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
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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NY Public Campaign Funding May Attract Scrutiny From Feds
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.
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FTC Theories Of Harm After Anesthesia Co. Ruling
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.
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National Security And The Commercial Space Sector: Part 2
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.
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FTC Hearing On Fake Review Rule Stressed Compliance Costs
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.
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FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters
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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3 Recent Decisions To Note As Climate Litigation Heats Up
Three recent rulings on climate-related issues — from a New York federal court, a New York state court and an international tribunal, respectively — demonstrate both regulators' concern about climate change and the complexity of conflicting regulations in different jurisdictions, say J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.
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Perspectives
Justices' Repeat Offender Ruling Eases Prosecutorial Hurdle
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week in Brown v. U.S., clarifying which drug law applies to sentencing a repeat offender in a federal firearms case, allows courts to rely on outdated drug schedules to impose increased sentences, thus removing a significant hurdle for prosecutors, says attorney Molly Parmer.
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Investors Can Aid In The Acceptance Of Psychedelic Medicine
Psychedelic medicine is ready to have its breakthrough moment, and although it still faces political, legal and communications challenges, private equity investors can play a significant role in changing the public perception on psychedelics from taboo to acceptance, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell, Charlie Panfil at the Daschle Group and Ethan Lutz at FTI Consulting.
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Opinion
Exec Liability Bill For Failed Banks Is Unnecessary, Unwise
A bill before the U.S. Senate, which would effectively empower the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to hold senior bank executives strictly liable for reasonable business decisions that lead to bank failures, needlessly overwrites the existing negligence standard and rewards counterproductive caution in management, say attorneys at Davis Polk.
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National Security And The Commercial Space Sector: Part 1
The recently published U.S. Department of Defense space strategy represents a recalibration in agency thinking, signaling that the integration of commercial space capabilities has become a necessity and offering guidance for removing structural, procedural and cultural barriers to commercial-sector collaboration, say Jeff Chiow and Skip Smith at Greenberg Traurig.