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Native American
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June 05, 2024
BIA Escapes Washington Ranch's $48M Wildfire Suit
A federal judge in Washington state on Wednesday tossed a ranch's $48 million negligence lawsuit alleging the Bureau of Indian Affairs is liable for damages from a 2020 wildfire, ruling that agreements between the bureau and a Native American tribe did not spell out a specific firefighting duty.
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June 05, 2024
Wash. Tribe Beats Farm's Challenge Of Land Suit's Dismissal
A Washington state appeals court has sided with a Native American tribe in a nontribal land dispute with a farm in Snohomish County, declining to revive the lawsuit based on sovereign immunity.
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June 05, 2024
Utah Tribe Wants 'Depleting' State Water Contract Drained
Utah entered into a water contract with the U.S. Department of the Interior without properly considering the Ute Indian Tribe's water rights, the tribe told a federal court in a request to set aside the deal.
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June 05, 2024
Feds Say $1B Power Line Permit Challenge Should Be Zapped
The Biden administration and developers of a proposed $1 billion transmission line that would ship hydropower from Quebec to New England are urging a federal judge to dump challenges to federal approvals for the project, saying there's no question they were lawfully issued.
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June 05, 2024
1st Circ. May Undo Tribal Casino Bribery Convictions
First Circuit judges hinted Wednesday that jurisdictional flaws and other issues could reverse the bribery convictions of an architect and tribal chairman in connection with a proposed $1 billion casino in southeastern Massachusetts.
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June 04, 2024
Recreational Marijuana To Be On SD Ballot For 3rd Time
Recreational marijuana advocates have successfully put a measure on South Dakota's November ballot, giving state voters a third shot at legalizing the drug just two years after they declined to do so.
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June 04, 2024
Bill Would Give Tribes Stronger Say In Forest Protection
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has introduced legislation that would correct oversights and expand the language of the Tribal Forest Protection Act, arguing that the law has proved too restrictive for Indigenous communities and prevented Alaskan Native corporations from participating in its programs entirely.
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June 04, 2024
Telecom Org. Says Expanding Universal Fund Only Way To Go
The head of a major telecommunications industry group is urging Congress to tap big tech in order to keep the Universal Service Fund afloat, saying in a new article that "the solution to affordable connectivity is staring us in the face."
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June 04, 2024
Top 3 Groups Lobbying The FCC
The Federal Communications Commission heard from advocates nearly 200 times in May on issues ranging from cybersecurity in schools and libraries to tribal broadband funding and deployment, net neutrality rules and captioning for the hearing- and speech-disabled.
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June 04, 2024
Red States Target EPA's Tribal Water Rights Rule
A group of red states has told a federal court that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has turned the Clean Water Act into what they derisively called the "Tribal Rights Act," through a rule that protects Native American rights to water resources.
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June 04, 2024
Biden Admin Looks To Take Down Ariz. Monument Lawsuits
The Biden administration is asking a federal district court to dismiss lawsuits by the Arizona Legislature and a rancher that look to undo the national monument designation of an Indigenous site in the Grand Canyon region, arguing the lawmakers lack standing to challenge the Antiquities Act as unconstitutional.
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June 03, 2024
Enviro Groups Ask 9th Circ. To Affirm Blocked Logging Plan
Several environmental groups have urged the Ninth Circuit to uphold a Montana federal judge's decision halting a large logging operation in the Kootenai National Forest over concerns about the project's effect on grizzly bears and old-growth trees.
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June 03, 2024
DC Judge Axes Ariz. Tribe's $2.6M Veteran Care Claims
A D.C. federal court judge dismissed an Arizona tribe's bid to recoup nearly $2.6 million in Native American veteran care reimbursements from the federal government, saying the tribe has not plausibly alleged that the Indian Health Services' actions in withholding the funding caused any injury.
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June 03, 2024
Feds Oppose Fla.'s Plea For Rushed CWA Appeal
The federal government on Monday told the D.C. Circuit it needs more time to decide whether it is going to appeal a lower court's decision to strip Florida of the power to administer a Clean Water Act permitting program.
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June 03, 2024
GAO Urges DEA To Streamline Religious Drug Use Requests
The U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a new report that the nation's drug enforcement agency needs to be more transparent about its process for reviewing religious exemption requests from churches that use controlled substances as sacraments.
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June 03, 2024
Equifax Judge OKs $1.1M Atty Fees In Debt Reporting Deal
Attorneys will recover $1.1 million in fees for securing $500 payments for class members in litigation alleging Equifax reported unenforceable debts, a decision that comes several months after a California federal judge warned he would likely hold a portion of the fees until he learned the ultimate settlement payout.
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June 03, 2024
States Say Biden Admin's LNG Export Pause Is Actually A Ban
A coalition of Republican-led states is urging a Louisiana federal court not to toss its lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's pause on reviewing applications to export liquefied natural gas to countries without free trade agreements, saying the pause effectively amounts to a ban because no timeline is provided.
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June 03, 2024
Minn. Tax Court Lowers Home Value Over Native Burial Mound
The valuation of a lakeside parcel including a legally protected Native American burial mound must be lowered because a split of the property as envisioned by assessors would have been unlikely to gain the needed approvals, the Minnesota Tax Court said.
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June 01, 2024
Blockbuster Summer: 10 Big Issues Justices Still Must Decide
As the calendar flips over to June, the U.S. Supreme Court still has heaps of cases to decide on issues ranging from trademark registration rules to judicial deference and presidential immunity. Here, Law360 looks at 10 of the most important topics the court has yet to decide.
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May 31, 2024
Online Lenders Invoked Calif. Tribe As Usury Cover, Suit Says
Two online lenders that purport to be run by a Native American tribe in California face claims they violated both federal law barring racketeering and Illinois consumer financial protection laws by lending to the state's residents at excessive rates.
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May 31, 2024
States, Energy Organizations Urge Demise Of EPA Water Rule
Conservative-leaning states and energy industry groups have asked a Louisiana federal judge to strike down the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rule broadening states' and tribes' power to veto projects like pipelines, export terminals and dams over water quality concerns.
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May 31, 2024
SD School District Will Resolve Native American Disparity Claims
A South Dakota school district has agreed to resolve a 14-year-old U.S. Department of Education compliance review that found evidence that Native American students were being disciplined more frequently and harshly than others and faced discrimination in the selection for advanced placement and honors courses.
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May 31, 2024
As Broadband Subsidy Ends, Biden Pushes For Renewal
The White House pressured Congress on Friday to allocate new funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program as the subsidy officially shut down, cutting off a broadband discount to millions of low-income households.
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May 31, 2024
In Rarity, 1 Party's Judges Gain 100% Control Of Circuit Bench
At the First Circuit, the judges' robes are all black, but the judges are all blue. It's a new and unusual instance of one political party's judicial picks controlling each active seat on a federal appeals court, and the Democratic dominance could prove magnetic for ideologically charged litigation.
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May 30, 2024
Wash. Tribe Gets Partial Win Against Feds Over Wildfires
A Court of Federal Claims judge partly denied Thursday the U.S. government's bid to toss claims by a tribe in Washington state over massive fires that destroyed forests on reservation land, saying a money-mandating source of law entitles the tribes to compensation.
Expert Analysis
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Ruling In La. May Undercut EPA Enviro Justice Efforts
A Louisiana federal court's recent decision in Louisiana v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will likely serve as a template for other states to oppose the EPA's use of disparate impact analyses in Title VI civil rights cases aimed at advancing environmental justice policies and investigations, say Jonathan Brightbill and Joshua Brown at Winston & Strawn.
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Series
Spray Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experiences as an abstract spray paint artist have made me a better litigator, demonstrating — in more ways than one — how fluidity and flexibility are necessary parts of a successful legal practice, says Erick Sandlin at Bracewell.
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2nd Circ. Baby Food Ruling Disregards FDA's Expertise
The Second Circuit's recent decision in White v. Beech-Nut Nutrition, refusing to defer litigation over heavy metals in baby food until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration weighs in on the issue, provides no indication that courts will resolve the issue with greater efficiency than the FDA, say attorneys at Phillips Lytle.
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Opinion
Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year
As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.
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Series
Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.
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New Eagle Take Permit Rule Should Help Wind Projects Soar
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's recently issued final rule revising the eagle take permit process should help wind energy developers obtain incidental take permits through a more transparent and expedited process, and mitigate the risk of improper take penalties faced by wind projects, says Jon Micah Goeller at Husch Blackwell.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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Takeaways From EPA's New Methane Emission Rules
Attorneys at V&E examine two new Clean Air Act rules for the oil and gas industry, explaining how they expand methane and volatile organic compound emission reduction requirements and amplify U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement risks.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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Series
Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.
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Bid Protest Spotlight: Conflict, Latent Ambiguity, Cost Realism
In this month's bid protest roundup, Markus Speidel at MoFo examines a trio of U.S. Government Accountability Office decisions with takeaways about the consequences of a teaming partner's organizational conflict of interest, a solicitation's latent ambiguity and an unreasonable agency cost adjustment.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Recent Rulings Add Dimension To Justices' Maui Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court's 2020 decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund established new factual criteria for determining when the Clean Water Act applies to groundwater — and recent decisions from the Ninth and Tenth Circuits have clarified how litigants can make use of the Maui standard, says Steven Hoch at Clark Hill.
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.