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Public Policy
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July 17, 2024
ADA Can't Shield Worker From Failed Drug Test, Co. Says
A chemical transportation company urged a South Carolina federal court to toss a former lift operator's lawsuit alleging he was fired for taking legal CBD because of cysts on his brain and spinal cord, arguing disability law doesn't protect workers from positive drug tests for THC.
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July 17, 2024
Massachusetts Governor Taps 5 For Superior Court Vacancies
A federal prosecutor, a criminal defense lawyer and a deputy chief in the Massachusetts attorney general's office are among five nominations to the state Superior Court announced Wednesday by Gov. Maura Healey.
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July 16, 2024
Smirnov Wants David Weiss DQ'd After Trump Docs Ruling
Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov said Monday that a Florida federal judge's order disqualifying the special prosecutor in the Donald Trump classified documents case means special counsel David Weiss should also be disqualified from Smirnov's case, according to a motion filed in California federal court.
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July 16, 2024
3 Reasons Why 2nd Menendez Bribery Case Was The Charm
Nearly seven years after the government's first bribery case against longtime U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez collapsed in a hung jury, prosecutors avenged that loss Tuesday by sealing a conviction on a new round of corruption charges.
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July 16, 2024
Gilead Asks Calif. Supreme Court To Ax 'Disastrous' Decision
Gilead Sciences on Monday urged the California Supreme Court to overturn an appellate panel's decision that the company can't ditch claims it held back a safer HIV drug to maximize profits on an older medication, saying that holding manufacturers liable for non-defective products would "yield disastrous policy consequences."
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July 16, 2024
Trump Special Prosecutor Ruling Could Find Favor On Appeal
When U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Florida over what she said was an unconstitutional appointment of a special prosecutor, she staked out a position that few other jurists have taken, but that could find support among some appellate judges, experts said.
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July 16, 2024
Calif. Tribe Awarded $8.2M Over Destruction Of Cultural Site
A California district court judge has granted the Quechan Indian Tribe's request for approximately $8.2 million in damages after finding that a federal government construction project damaged cultural and archaeological sites on the tribe's reservation.
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July 16, 2024
DC Circ. Knocks La. Site FERC Order, Tosses LNG Export Row
Two D.C. Circuit panels on Tuesday ruled the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission inadequately explained a failure to assess the significance of greenhouse gas emissions for proposed liquefied natural gas facilities in Louisiana, dismissing a challenge of approvals allowing a Texas project to send more of its LNG exports to nonfree trade agreement countries.
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July 16, 2024
Banks Say 'Ambiguity' Hampers FDIC's Digital Signage Rules
Major banking trade groups have urged the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to clarify its new rule on how banks should display digital branding about deposit insurance to online customers, saying their compliance efforts have been hampered by "significant ambiguity" in the rule.
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July 16, 2024
SpaceX Loses Bid To Block Rival's Earth Station Renewals
The Federal Communications Commission denied SpaceX's request to reconsider the agency's renewal of licenses for three earth stations from satellite communications company DBSD Corp., saying in a new order that SpaceX showed little to support its claim that DBSD was using "obstructionist" tactics to interfere with SpaceX operations.
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July 16, 2024
Praying Coach's School Faces Skeptical Judge In Fee Fight
A Washington state appellate judge struggled Tuesday to follow a school district's argument that its insurer should cover a nearly $1.8 million legal bill for a praying football coach's U.S. Supreme Court win, pointing to a policy exclusion for certain adverse judgments.
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July 16, 2024
USPTO Provides Guidance On AI And Patent Eligibility
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday unveiled guidance for when inventions involving artificial intelligence are eligible for patents, saying the guidelines are aimed at "providing further clarity and consistency" on the issue.
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July 16, 2024
Ill. Judge Wants Expert Testimony Preview In Madigan Trial
An Illinois federal judge said Tuesday that he needs to hear more about potential testimony from certain Chicago politics experts and a proposal to research potential jurors before he decides whether either are appropriate for former state House speaker Michael Madigan's corruption trial.
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July 16, 2024
Feds Contest Texas DA's Immunity In Migrant Arrest Law Fight
Nonprofits challenging Texas' migrant arrest law have urged the Fifth Circuit to reject Texas District Attorney Bill Hicks' claim of immunity, saying his argument that the Fifth Circuit's ruling in a separate case over changes to the state's election code is meritless.
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July 16, 2024
FCC's Media Ownership Rules Are 'Relics,' 8th Circ. Told
Broadcasters are pressing the Eighth Circuit to unravel the Federal Communications Commission's latest local media ownership rules, saying they are based on views of the industry that are long outdated.
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July 16, 2024
Influencer's Forest Pics Not 'Work Activity,' 10th Circ. Rules
A Tenth Circuit panel on Tuesday reversed a social media influencer's conviction for unauthorized work on National Forest Service property after he posted Instagram photos of himself snowmobiling on closed NFS land, finding that the influencer didn't have fair warning that what he was doing might be considered a federal crime.
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July 16, 2024
Texas Says Maritime Expert Shouldn't Testify In Barrier Fight
Texas moved to exclude a maritime expert witness for the U.S. government in its case challenging the state's barrier installed on the Rio Grande aimed at countering increasing migration, arguing on Tuesday the proposed witness, who plans to testify the barrier obstructs navigability, isn't an expert on buoys, booms or floats.
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July 16, 2024
FCC Dings América Móvil For Lack Of Notice On Stock Reorg
Mexican mobile operator América Móvil has admitted to the Federal Communications Commission that it broke the rules by transferring control of certain FCC licenses and authorizations to a quartet of subsidiaries without informing the agency.
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July 16, 2024
7th Circ. Says Foreign Retirement Not Shielded In Bankruptcy
A professor who filed for bankruptcy in Illinois can't protect his Canadian retirement account from creditors because the account is ineligible under a state law shielding accounts that qualify as retirement plans under the Internal Revenue Code, the Seventh Circuit ruled Tuesday.
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July 16, 2024
No Immunity For Philadelphia Transit In Bus-Stop Injury
The Philadelphia-area transit system can't escape a lawsuit accusing one of its bus drivers of refusing to lower a handicap accessible ramp, resulting in a passenger twisting her leg while exiting the vehicle, a state appeals court ruled, saying the claims fall squarely with the motor-vehicle exception to sovereign immunity.
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July 16, 2024
Durbin Probes ICE Healthcare Measures After Death Reports
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Tuesday pressed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to explain its protections for medically vulnerable detainees after human rights organizations reported that the agency could have prevented most detainee deaths between 2017 and 2022.
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July 16, 2024
Pollution Settlement Will Work To Restore Wash. River Habitat
An agreement between the federal government, Washington state and two tribes, on one side, and a pair of recycling companies and a metal fabricator on the other will put in place a three-acre habitat restoration project along the Lower Duwamish River in Seattle, resolving claims that oil and hazardous were released into the waters for a decade.
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July 16, 2024
Tax Transparency Neglected In Latin America, Ex-Officials Say
The international tax transparency system is failing to produce results for Latin American governments, whose scant information requests are too often met with resistance and whose prosecutions generally lack a cross-cutting approach to tax, former officials from the region said Tuesday.
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July 16, 2024
County Says Pittsburgh Schools Can't Force Reassessment
As one taxing body out of many in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, the School District of Pittsburgh lacks standing in its lawsuit seeking to force a countywide reassessment of property values, the county said in its preliminary objections to the suit.
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July 16, 2024
Coinbase Scales Back Its SEC Request For Gensler Docs
Crypto exchange Coinbase said it will narrow its request for the communications of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler after the New York federal judge overseeing its enforcement suit warned that seeking private emails would be a "tough road to hoe."
Expert Analysis
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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.
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BF Borgers Clients Should Review Compliance, Liability
After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently announced enforcement proceedings against audit firm BF Borgers for fabricating audit documentation for hundreds of public companies, those companies will need to follow special procedures for disclosure and reporting — and may need to prepare for litigation from the plaintiffs bar, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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How Employers, Attorneys Can Respond To Noncompete Ban
As the Federal Trade Commission's recently issued noncompete ban faces ongoing legal challenges, now is a good time for employers to consider whether they want to take a wait-and-see approach before halting use of noncompetes and for practitioners to gain insight into other tools available to protect their clients' business interests, says Jennifer Platzkere Snyder at Dilworth Paxson.
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New TSCA Risk Rule Gives EPA Broad Discretion On Science
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent final amendments to its framework for evaluating the risks of chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act give it vast discretion over consideration of scientific information, without objective criteria to guide that discretion, say John McGahren and Debra Carfora at Morgan Lewis.
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Perspectives
Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.
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Fintech Compliance Amid Regulatory Focus On Sensitive Data
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent, expansive pursuit of financial services companies using sensitive personal information signals a move into the Federal Trade Commission's territory, and the path forward for fintech and financial service providers involves a balance between innovation and compliance, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.
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Opinion
Del. Needs To Urgently Pass Post-Moelis Corporate Law Bill
After the Delaware Chancery Court's decision in West Palm Beach Firefighters' Pension v. Moelis sparked confusion around governance rights, recently proposed amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law would preserve the state's predictable corporate governance system, says Lawrence Hamermesh at Widener University Delaware Law School.
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Cos. Must Stay On Alert With Joint Employer Rule In Flux
While employers may breathe a sigh of relief at recent events blocking the National Labor Relations Board's proposed rule that would make it easier for two entities to be deemed joint employers, the rule is not yet dead, say attorneys at Day Pitney.
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Opinion
NY Should Pass Litigation Funding Bill To Protect Plaintiffs
New York state should embrace the regulatory framework proposed in the Consumer Litigation Funding Act, which would suppress the unregulated predatory lenders that currently prey on vulnerable litigants but preserve a funding option that helps personal injury plaintiffs stand up to deep-pocketed corporate defendants, says Alan Ripka at Alan Ripka & Associates.
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Series
Playing Music Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My deep and passionate involvement in playing, writing and producing music equipped me with skills — like creativity, improvisation and problem-solving — that contribute to the success of my legal career, says attorney Kenneth Greene.
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Contractors Must Prep For FAR Council GHG Emissions Rule
With the U.S. Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council expected to finalize its proposed rule on the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risk this year, government contractors should take key steps now to get ready, say Thomas Daley at DLA Piper, Steven Rothstein at the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, and John Kostyack at Kostyack Strategies.