Public Policy

  • September 19, 2024

    Feds Defend At-Sea Monitoring Rule Despite Chevron Demise

    The federal government is defending its power to require fishermen to partially fund the cost of compliance monitors aboard their ships, arguing to the D.C. Circuit that the demise of the so-called Chevron deference doesn't change the fact that federal law authorizes the at-sea monitoring rules.

  • September 19, 2024

    Ex-La. Assistant DA Indicted In Bribery, Laundering Case

    A former assistant district attorney in Lafayette, Louisiana, has been indicted on allegations he conspired to solicit kickbacks and accept bribes while overseeing the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office's pretrial intervention program. 

  • September 19, 2024

    Feds, Wis. Military Affairs Office Ink Deal In Pay Bias Suit

    The Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs will pay $175,000 to end a U.S. Department of Justice suit alleging it offered a female job applicant a lower salary than what it paid a man for the same position, according to a filing Thursday in federal court. 

  • September 19, 2024

    Halted DOL Fiduciary Regs Could Open Lane For SEC Action

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission might need to help clear up confusion about fiduciary investment advice standards in the wake of two Texas judges halting new retirement security regulations from the Labor Department, members of an SEC investor advisory committee said Thursday.

  • September 19, 2024

    Senate Tees Up Vote On Tax Court Nominee

    The U.S. Senate set the stage Thursday to proceed with a vote on one of President Joe Biden's picks to fill an open seat on the U.S. Tax Court.

  • September 19, 2024

    Tax Or Fee, Utility Rates Beyond Review, Ga. Justices Hear

    A Georgia city told the state Supreme Court on Thursday that its use of utility fees to bolster city coffers was not an illegal tax, despite a sports bar owner's claims to the contrary, and that a trial court rightly said it could not decide the matter.

  • September 19, 2024

    Feds Say Menendez Retrial Bid Ignores 'Overwhelming' Proof

    Prosecutors urged a Manhattan federal judge to reject former Sen. Bob Menendez's request for a new trial on corruption and bribery charges, arguing that evidence of his guilt was "overwhelming."

  • September 19, 2024

    AT&T Exec's Bribery Trial Ends With Hung Jury

    An Illinois federal judge declared a mistrial in a key corruption case after jurors told him twice Thursday they could not reach a unanimous verdict on any of the charges against an AT&T executive accused of illegally influencing former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan.

  • September 19, 2024

    H&R Block Again Asks 8th Circ. To Remove ALJs In Ad Suit

    H&R Block asked the Eighth Circuit to reconsider its denial of the company's request to stop administrative law judges from presiding over its coming false-advertising hearing before the Federal Trade Commission, saying the court's one-sentence ruling lacked any explanation despite the significant constitutional issues involved.

  • September 19, 2024

    Federal Judicial Picks For 3 States Advance To Full Senate

    The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee sent four judicial nominations to the full Senate on Thursday, including that of a former U.S. attorney nominee whose confirmation was blocked by Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, before he became a vice presidential nominee.

  • September 19, 2024

    Nine Countries Sign Treaty For OECD Min. Tax On Payments

    Indonesia, Turkey, Congo and six other countries signed a multilateral treaty aimed at implementing a 9% minimum tax on income sent from their jurisdictions to low-taxed entities within a corporate group, the OECD said Thursday.

  • September 19, 2024

    Squire Patton Hires Ex-Defense Secretary Mark Esper

    Former Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, who clashed with former President Donald Trump, has joined Squire Patton Boggs LLP to advise clients on national security matters and domestic and foreign policy, the firm announced Thursday.

  • September 18, 2024

    Kids' Online Safety, Privacy Bills Move To House Floor

    The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday advanced a pair of bipartisan bills aimed at enhancing children's digital safety and data privacy, despite several lawmakers voicing concerns with recent changes that a sponsor acknowledged left one measure a "weakened version" of the proposal that passed the U.S. Senate. 

  • September 18, 2024

    Google Judge Wonders: Does Ad Tech Benefit Publishers?

    The Virginia federal judge weighing the fate of Google's display advertising placement business zeroed in Wednesday on a key aspect of the search giant's defense against a Justice Department monopolization suit — the assertion that even if company practices disadvantaged rival ad exchanges, they benefited publishers.

  • September 18, 2024

    CFPB Says Fintech's Funding Challenge 'Misconstrues' Law

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a California federal judge that its lawsuit accusing fintech lender SoLo Funds Inc. of falsely touting interest-free loans on its platforms should proceed despite SoLo's claims that the agency is operating with an illegal funding scheme, among other things.

  • September 18, 2024

    DuPont Heirs Beat ERISA Suit Over 1947 Trust At 3rd Circ.

    The Third Circuit reversed a decision Wednesday and found DuPont heirs aren't liable for Employee Retirement Income Security Act violations in a dispute over who's to blame for underfunding a now-insolvent trust that was created by their grandmother in 1947 and paid the heirs and their workers retirement benefits.

  • September 18, 2024

    FBI Dismantles Chinese Botnet, Urges Victims To Seek Aid

    FBI Director Christopher Wray announced Wednesday that the law enforcement agency has knocked out a botnet operated by a Chinese government-sponsored hacker group that was stealing confidential data by infecting internet-connected devices.

  • September 18, 2024

    Mich. Justices Continue To Fight Over Minimum Wage Ruling

    Michigan's minimum wage will rise to $12.48 an hour in February, the state Supreme Court confirmed Wednesday in an order that settled a debate over how to calculate the new wage floor, but rehashed internal disagreements over the court's July decision to increase the minimum wage.

  • September 18, 2024

    Colo. Urges 10th Circ. To Restore Interest Rate Opt-Out Law

    Colorado has urged the Tenth Circuit to accept its "straightforward interpretation" of an interest rate opt-out law, arguing federal lawmakers would have used other language if they didn't want the state to place more restrictive caps on loans made by banks located outside the state. 

  • September 18, 2024

    SEC Must Clarify Murky Crypto Rules, Ex-Officials Tell House

    Two former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials who now represent crypto businesses told House lawmakers Wednesday that the agency's insistence on analyzing the economic realities of every crypto transaction in lieu of clear rulemaking has put the sector and its attorneys in unworkable situations.

  • September 18, 2024

    Native, Black Groups Ask To Intervene In Voter Rights Suit

    Several nonprofit groups supporting Native American and Black voters have joined to intervene in a conservative think tank's lawsuit in Texas federal court that looks to stop a Biden administration executive order promoting easier access to voting.

  • September 18, 2024

    Loper Bright Undercuts SEC Climate Rule, Fracking Cos. Say

    Two fracking companies suing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its climate disclosure rules have again urged the Eighth Circuit to vacate the measures, offering a diverging interpretation of how the U.S. Supreme Court's decision axing Chevron deference should apply.

  • September 18, 2024

    Rescheduling Pot Would Not Hasten Research, Report Says

    A recently enacted law will continue to make it difficult for medical researchers to conduct studies on marijuana, even if federal restrictions are loosened on the drug, according to a new report published Monday by the Congressional Research Service.

  • September 18, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Gas Price-Fixing Suit Over Trump Pact

    The Ninth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a proposed class action alleging price fixing between major oil producers as part of the Trump Administration's 2020 deal with Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut production, saying that subjecting the pact to judicial review would be inappropriately "second-guessing" executive branch foreign policy.

  • September 18, 2024

    Feds Say Afghan Allies Can't Sue Over Kids' Visa Denials

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged a Virginia federal judge to toss a suit from Afghan allies who claim their children's visa applications were arbitrarily denied, saying the suit has no legal leg to stand on.

Expert Analysis

  • What Happens After Hawaii Kids' Historic Climate Deal

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    Implications of the Hawaii Department of Transportation's first-of-its-kind settlement with youth plaintiffs over constitutional climate claims may be limited, but it could incite similar claims, says J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.

  • How Tech Trackers May Implicate HIPAA After Hospital Ruling

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    A recent Texas federal court order in American Hospital Association v. Becerra adds a legal protection on key data, clarifying when tracking technologies implicate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, so organizations should ensure all technology used is known and accounted for, say John Howard and Myriah Jaworski at Clark Hill.

  • The Show Must Go On: Noncompete Uncertainty In Film, TV

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    The Federal Trade Commission has taken action to ban noncompetes while the entertainment industry is in the midst of a massive shift away from traditional media, so it is important for studio heads and content owners alike to understand the fate of the rule and their options going forward, say Christopher Chatham and Douglas Smith at Manatt.

  • A Refresher On Calculating Political Advertising Costs

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    With election season well underway, it is important for broadcasters, political candidates, time buyers and others concerned with how the cost of broadcast political advertising is determined to know what the Federal Communications Commission factors into lowest unit calculations, and how the commission has defined "commercial advertisers," says Gregg Skall at Telecommunications Law Professionals.

  • 'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed

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    A New York federal court’s 2019 ruling in U.S. v. Connolly, holding that the government improperly outsourced an investigation to Deutsche Bank, has not undercut corporate cooperation incentives as feared — but companies should not completely ignore the lessons of the case, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Anna Nabutovsky at Selendy Gay.

  • Series

    Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.

  • Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State

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    Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.

  • Reading Between The Lines Of Justices' Moore Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent Moore v. U.S. decision, that the Internal Revenue Code Section 965 did not violate the 16th Amendment, was narrowly tailored to minimally disrupt existing tax regimes, but the justices' various opinions leave the door open to future tax challenges and provide clues for what the battles may look like, say Caroline Ngo and Le Chen at McDermott.

  • Series

    After Chevron: A Sea Change For Maritime Sector

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    The shipping industry has often looked to the courts for key agency decisions affecting maritime interests, but after the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright ruling, stakeholders may revisit important industry questions and coordinate to bring appropriate challenges and shape rulemaking, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Opinion

    Post-Chevron, Good Riddance To The Sentencing Guidelines

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of the Chevron doctrine may signal the end of the U.S. sentencing guidelines, which is good news given that they have accomplished the opposite of Congress’ original intent to bring certainty, proportionality and uniformity to sentencing, say attorneys Mark Allenbaugh, Doug Passon and Alan Ellis.

  • Opinion

    Proposed Terminal Disclaimers Rule Harms Colleges, Startups

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    Universities and startups are ill-suited to follow the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s recently proposed rule on terminal disclaimers due to their necessity of filing patent applications early prior to contacting outside entities for funds and resources, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Impact On CFPB May Be Limited

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo is likely to have a limited impact on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's regulatory activities, and for those who value due process, consistency and predictability in consumer financial services regulation, this may be a good thing, says John Coleman at Orrick.

  • A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates

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    Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.

  • Series

    After Chevron: 7 FERC Takeaways From Loper Bright

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine, it's likely that the majority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's orders will not be affected, but the commission has nonetheless lost an important fallback argument and will have to approach rulemaking more cautiously, says Norman Bay at Willkie Farr.

  • Opinion

    Discount Window Reform Needed To Curb Modern Bank Runs

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    We learned during the spring 2023 failures that bank runs can happen extraordinarily fast in light of modern technology, especially when banks have a greater concentration of large deposits, demonstrating that the antiquated but effective discount window needs to be overhauled before the next crisis, says Cris Cicala at Stinson.

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