Public Policy

  • November 18, 2024

    Pa. Justices Tell Defiant Counties To Shelve Undated Ballots

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a split order Monday halting a handful of counties that were counting mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates on their outer envelopes, in response to complaints from the Republican National Committee and Republican Senate frontrunner Dave McCormick, although one justice said the case isn't ripe.

  • November 18, 2024

    Live Nation Says Ticket Buyers Must Arbitrate Antitrust Suit

    Live Nation moved to arbitrate a proposed consumer antitrust class action alleging it monopolizes concert promotions and secondary ticketing services for major venues, arguing in New York federal court Friday the customers agreed to arbitrate any dispute each time they logged in to their accounts or accepted secondary ticket transfers.

  • November 18, 2024

    Trump DOE Pick Signals Funding Flux For Clean Energy Cos.

    President-elect Donald Trump tapping oilfield services executive Chris Wright as U.S. energy secretary underscores the frostier federal reception that awaits clean energy companies, but experts say the industry shouldn't cede the playing field to fossil fuels just yet.

  • November 18, 2024

    NLRB Ruling Nixes Conn. Employee Meeting Law, Judge Told

    A business advocacy group said a National Labor Relations Board decision that removed decadeslong protections for employers who share their unionization views during mandatory workplace meetings should spell the end of a broader Connecticut statute that protects employees from being forced to hear political and religious messages.

  • November 18, 2024

    Meta Can Ditch Mike Huckabee's CBD Fake Ad Suit

    Former Arkansas governor and conservative pundit Mike Huckabee can't sue Facebook after an unidentified company posted advertisements implying he endorsed a brand of CBD gummies, a Delaware federal judge ruled Monday, saying he can't prove the social media giant was actually aware the ads were bogus.

  • November 18, 2024

    Dems Probe Treasury On Effects Of Crypto Mixer Sanctions

    A group of House Democrats pressed the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Monday to provide information on how effective its sanctions regime against cryptocurrency mixing services has been at detecting and curbing illicit finance.

  • November 18, 2024

    FCC's Carr Likely To Test Agency's Ability To Rein In Big Tech

    Brendan Carr's selection as the next Federal Communications Commission chair prompted a wave of plaudits from industry and some dismay from liberal groups, but one thing stands out among experts: He will push to counter what he sees as out-of-control conduct by tech platforms.

  • November 18, 2024

    Judge Surprised Circle K Fired Clerk Who Touched Robber

    A Tenth Circuit judge appeared stunned Monday that Circle K dismissed an elderly convenience store clerk after its management concluded the worker violated company policy when she physically confronted an armed robber.

  • November 18, 2024

    Texas Appeals Court Finds Telecom Laws Violate Gift Rules

    A state appellate court handed dozens of Texas cities a clean-sweep victory in their fight against statewide bargains for telecommunications providers, finding Friday a state law dealing with the fees municipalities can charge telecom companies runs counter to the Texas Constitution.

  • November 18, 2024

    Treasury Finalizes Tougher Foreign Investment Law Penalties

    The Treasury Department on Monday finalized a rule sharpening its enforcement authority to stop or demand additional information regarding foreign-investment deals that the U.S. deems potential threats to national security.

  • November 18, 2024

    Mich. Justices Spurn Restaurant Group's COVID Appeal

    The Michigan Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from a bar and restaurant association seeking to recoup its members' lost profits from the state's enforcement of COVID-19 public health measures, after tossing individual restaurants' claims earlier this year. 

  • November 18, 2024

    Justices Urged To Review Landlords' COVID Eviction Ban Suit

    A group of trade associations and a nonprofit urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to grant a review petition filed by landlords claiming they lost $100 million as a result of Los Angeles' COVID-19 eviction moratorium, which ended in January.

  • November 18, 2024

    Asylum-Seekers Say Updated DHS Border Directive Is Still Illegal

    Immigrant rights groups and asylum-seekers challenging the Biden administration's directive curtailing asylum at the southern border told a D.C. federal judge that the superseding rule the administration issued in September is just as illegal as its June predecessor.

  • November 18, 2024

    EPA Has No Choice But To Rethink Smog Rule, DC Circ. Told

    U.S. Steel Corp. told the D.C. Circuit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was obligated to reconsider its so-called "good neighbor" smog emissions rule after it was partially invalidated by a court, arguing the agency's own brief confirms that its refusal to do so was improper.

  • November 18, 2024

    Colo. Justices Should Plug Damages Cap 'Loophole,' Co. Says

    A construction company has urged Colorado's justices to find that a subcontractor's claim over a workplace fall is subject to a $15,000 damages cap, arguing in a petition that the sole proprietor opted out of workers' compensation benefits and can't make a "loophole" to sue for millions.

  • November 18, 2024

    Medical Group Wants Justices To Review IP Safe Harbor Fight

    A medical device trade group has said the U.S. Supreme Court should take up an appeal of a Federal Circuit decision Edwards Lifesciences said broadened a drug-development safe harbor to avoid patent infringement, saying the circuit court misread the provision.

  • November 18, 2024

    Feds Delay Rule That Hemp Be Tested At DEA-Licensed Labs

    Laboratories certified by the federal government to measure THC concentration in hemp aren't able to meet the demand, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has said, so the agency is allowing growers to once again get their products tested by unregistered labs.

  • November 18, 2024

    Alstom Wants Injunction In Dispute Over 'Buy America' Waiver

    Train manufacturer Alstom has urged a D.C. federal judge to block a pending federal disbursement for a $12 billion high-speed rail project, saying the payment could "irrevocably" allow the project to use trainsets that violate federal "Buy America" requirements.

  • November 18, 2024

    Dispute Over Biden Admin Voting Access Order Paused

    A Texas federal district court judge has paused a dispute over an executive order from the Biden administration that promotes easier access to voting after a conservative think tank said President-elect Donald J. Trump is likely to overturn the directive.

  • November 18, 2024

    Colo. Rugby Coach Cries Foul Over City's Revoked Job Offer

    A man who says he was "poached" for an assistant coaching position with the American Raptors professional rugby team near Denver has filed a breach of contract lawsuit alleging he was fired before he even began, without cause, and cheated out of his early termination payment.

  • November 18, 2024

    Friedman Kaplan Name Partner Larry Robbins Dies At 72

    Larry Robbins, a name partner at Friedman Kaplan Seiler Adelman & Robbins LLP known for counseling high-profile congressional witnesses like Marie Yovanovitch and Christine Blasey Ford through their Senate and House committee appearances, died earlier this month at age 72, the firm announced.

  • November 18, 2024

    5th Circ. Says Texas County Wrong To Close Court Hearings

    A Fifth Circuit panel has upheld a trial court's ruling that a Texas county improperly blocked the press and public from attending criminal pretrial proceedings known as magistrate hearings, finding that the practice violates the First Amendment and harms the two news outlets and an advocacy group that brought the lawsuit.

  • November 18, 2024

    Neb. Officials Urge Court To Void Medical Pot Legalization

    Nebraska officials are urging a state judge to void ballot measures to legalize and regulate medical marijuana after a decisive majority of voters approved them, saying that reformers' signature-verification methods were critically hampered by malfeasance and fraud.

  • November 18, 2024

    Snyder Aide Expands Suit Over Flint Water Crisis Prosecution

    An adviser to former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has been permitted to add new allegations to his lawsuit against the state's attorney general and special prosecutors over their handling of charges brought against him surrounding the Flint water crisis, while the judge delayed ruling on prosecutors' immunity.

  • November 18, 2024

    DC Judges, Council Urge Confirmation Of City's Bench Picks

    District of Columbia council members and chief judges are calling on the Senate to confirm the D.C. judicial nominees pending on the floor by the end of the year as the court system has repeatedly called attention to a vacancy crisis.

Expert Analysis

  • Smith's New Trump Indictment Is Case Study In Superseding

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    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.

  • Opinion

    FDIC's Foray Into Index Fund Rules Risks Regulatory Chaos

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    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.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    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.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    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.

  • What To Make Of Dueling Corporate Transparency Act Rulings

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    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.

  • Perspectives

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    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.

  • California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward

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    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.

  • Staying Off The CFPB's Financial Services Offender Registry

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    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.

  • New TCPA Rule Faces Uncertain Future Post-Loper Bright

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    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.

  • A Look At Calif.'s New AI Law For Health Insurers

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    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.

  • New HHS Research Misconduct Rules Bring Seismic Changes

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    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.

  • To Report Or Not To Report Others' Export Control Violations

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    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.

  • Earned Wage Access Laws Form A Prickly Policy Patchwork

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    Conflicting earned wage access laws across the country, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently issued rule, mean providers must adopt a proactive compliance approach and adjust business models where needed, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • What FDIC Expansion Of Change In Bank Control Could Mean

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    A recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposal pertaining to the Change in Bank Control Act has the potential to create uncertainty around investments by mutual fund complexes in banking organizations, which represent a stable source of capital for the banking industry, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • HSR Amendments Intensify Merger Filing Burdens, Data Risk

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    The antitrust agencies' long-awaited changes to premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act stand to significantly increase the time and cost involved in preparing an initial HSR notification, and will require more proactive attention to data issues, says Andrew Szwez at FTI Technology.

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