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Public Policy
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September 03, 2024
EPA Should Have Rethought Smog Plan, DC Circ. Told
U.S. Steel Corp. told the D.C. Circuit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was obligated to rethink its plan to reduce smog-forming emissions across several states once courts partially blocked the plan's implementation, saying those decisions vindicate arguments that the rule can't be legally crafted.
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September 03, 2024
Advocates Urge 8th Circ. To Keep Iowa Arrest Law Blocked
Immigration lawyers and advocates for domestic violence survivors slammed Iowa's defense of a state law authorizing the arrest of immigrants who reentered the country after deportation, telling the Eighth Circuit that the immigrants may have obtained humanitarian protections after removal.
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September 03, 2024
DOI Says Court Can't Force Policy Orders In Recognition Fight
U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is fighting a bid to force her to complete a final new rule for federal recognition or be held in contempt, saying that compelling the agency to conclude a policy decision in a matter of weeks is unreasonable and could have a harmful ripple effect.
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September 03, 2024
Calif. Eyes New Heavy-Duty Autonomous Truck Testing Regs
California is forging ahead with plans to test and deploy more heavy-duty autonomous trucks, at the same time that state lawmakers are seeking to ban autonomous trucks from operating without a human driver behind the wheel.
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September 03, 2024
Split 5th Circ. Dissolves La. Voting Consent Decree
An 11-member majority of the Fifth Circuit dissolved a 30-year-old voting consent decree over how justices are elected to Louisiana's highest court, finding in a split en banc opinion that the state has "satisfied its obligations."
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September 03, 2024
USPTO Launches PTAB Clinic With Ex-Judges
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday rolled out a new free initiative in which former judges from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board will answer questions and offer guidance on proceedings before the board in one-on-one meetings with members of the public.
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September 03, 2024
DC Circ. Rejects EPA's 'New' Boiler Emission Limits
The D.C. Circuit said Tuesday that a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule regulating emissions from boilers used at industrial plants, universities and hospitals improperly classified some sources as "new" even though they existed before the regulations were proposed.
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September 03, 2024
Serial Litigator Fights To Keep Michigan FOIA Suits Coming
A government critic and serial pro se litigant said Wayne County can't force him to jump through hoops before he files public records requests and lawsuits against the county, urging a Michigan judge to preserve his right to sue.
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September 03, 2024
Ind. Tax Board Upholds Assessment On Office Space
The owner of a commercial property in Indiana can't lower its assessed value by arguing that the income generated at the property warranted a reduction, according to a state Board of Tax Review decision published Tuesday.
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September 03, 2024
Lumen Says $2B Colo. Tax Valuation Ignores Losses
Taxable property of telecommunications company Lumen Technologies was overvalued in Colorado at more than $2 billion, the company told a state court, arguing for an income approach to the valuation that reflects the company's significant financial losses.
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September 03, 2024
Atty's Use Of AI Didn't Taint Rapper's Trial, Judge Says
A D.C. federal judge has rejected a host of arguments by Fugees rapper Prakazrel "Pras" Michel seeking a new trial on charges of assisting a Malaysian billionaire in illegally diverting funds, including claims that he was prejudiced by his former attorney's use of generative artificial intelligence to craft his closing argument.
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September 03, 2024
Trump Loses Renewed Bid To Take Hush Money Case Federal
A New York federal court on Tuesday denied former President Donald Trump's bid to move the state's hush money case against him to federal court, ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court's July holding laying out grounds for immunity did not sway his opinion that the payments were "unofficial acts."
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September 03, 2024
Former Aide To NY Gov. Indicted On Foreign Agent Charges
A former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was arrested Tuesday on allegations of secretly acting as an agent of China's government in a yearslong political conspiracy to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party and reap millions of dollars.
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September 03, 2024
Feds Float 650% Antidumping Duty On Chinese Paper Plates
The U.S. Department of Commerce previewed antidumping tariffs exceeding 650% on paper plates from nearly two dozen Chinese companies that refused to cooperate with U.S. officials investigating claims that the products are being dumped in the U.S.
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September 01, 2024
Jackson Sees No 'Reason' To Not Enforce High Court Ethics
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Sunday that she's seen no "persuasive reason" why members of the nation's highest court shouldn't be held to an enforceable code of conduct, becoming the second justice to publicly endorse proposed ethics reform following a year of heightened public scrutiny.
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August 30, 2024
Pa. County's Voting Machine Inspections Cost It $1M In Fees
A Pennsylvania county whose commissioners violated a court order by allowing outside inspectors to access its voting machines should pay Dominion Voting Systems and the Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth more than $1 million in legal fees as part of the state supreme court's sanctions, an appellate judge recommended Friday.
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August 30, 2024
Expert Doesn't Back Certain Tribal Fishing Rights, Judge Says
A Washington federal judge has granted the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe's bid to amend his earlier order questioning whether the Stillaguamish Tribe had ever fished in certain saltwater near Puget Sound, ruling after examining expert testimony in the tribes' fishing rights battle that historical evidence fails to show that Stillaguamish ever caught sea life there.
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August 30, 2024
$100M Deal Finally Ends MoneyGram Unclaimed Property Fight
Delaware will be giving back more than $100 million from uncashed MoneyGram checks to the states where they were bought after finally reaching a settlement with 29 other states that took the matter all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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August 30, 2024
CrowdStrike VP Called To House Hearing On Global IT Outage
A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee will dig into the faulty CrowdStrike software update that caused a massive global tech outage, revealing plans Friday for a September hearing that will feature testimony from a senior executive at the cybersecurity firm.
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August 30, 2024
Calif. Legislature OKs Ban On 6 Food Dyes In Public Schools
California's State Legislature on Thursday passed the nation's first-ever bill aimed at banning public schools in the state from serving foods to children that contain Red 40 and other synthetic food dyes, sending the law to the governor's desk.
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August 30, 2024
Supply, Worker Shortages Prompt 'Rip And Replace' Leniency
Citing shortages of network gear and work crews, the Federal Communications Commission granted additional time, generally six months, for several telecom carriers to comply with their obligations to "rip and replace" Chinese network equipment.
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August 30, 2024
UK Drops Antitrust Probe Into School Software Co.
A United Kingdom school software company is no longer facing antitrust scrutiny over alleged litigation threats against schools looking to switch providers, but the firm continues to suggest that it may take action against the "misuse of its intellectual property" that it says complaints to authorities were meant to hide.
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August 30, 2024
DOJ Warns Of Harm From Special Counsel Tapes' Release
The House Judiciary Committee Republicans demanding Attorney General Merrick Garland release audiotapes of President Joe Biden's interviews over Biden's handling of classified documents while vice president "would cause significant harm to law enforcement interests," the U.S. Department of Justice has told a D.C. federal court.
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August 30, 2024
HHS Wins Escape From Low-Income Hospital Payment Fight
A D.C. federal judge on Friday agreed to toss a lawsuit brought by a group of hospitals against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services challenging its Medicare payment determinations for low-income patients, finding the hospitals didn't exhaust their administrative remedies.
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August 30, 2024
Missouri Ban On Some Psychoactive Foods To Hit Sept. 1
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson's ban on consumables "containing psychoactive cannabis products" will go into effect Sunday, according to an announcement by state health regulators.
Expert Analysis
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Energy And AI: Key Issues And Future Challenges
Artificial intelligence promises new technical advantages for the energy industry, but it is also responsible for vast, and growing, energy consumption — so the future of AI and energy will require balancing technological advancement with regulatory oversight, environmental responsibility and infrastructure development, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Opinion
Transpo Board Should Broaden Ex Parte Rules Further
The Surface Transportation Board's 2018 ex parte rule reform was an important step in increasing agency engagement with stakeholders — but the board should build on that progress by expanding the windows for communications in informal rulemakings, encouraging more communications with staff, and making other changes, say Matthew Warren and Allison Davis at Sidley.
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The Regulatory Headwinds Facing Lab-Developed Tests
Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's final rule regarding regulation of laboratory-developed tests outlines a four-year plan for ending enforcement discretion, and though this rule is currently being challenged in courts, manufacturers should heed compliance opportunities immediately as enforcement actions are already on the horizon, say attorneys at Kirkland & Ellis.
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3 High Court Rulings May Shape Health Org. Litigation Tactics
Three separate decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court's most recent term — Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy — will likely strengthen healthcare organizations' ability to affirmatively sue executive agencies to challenge regulations governing operations and enforcement actions, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Opinion
The Big Issues A BigLaw Associates' Union Could Address
A BigLaw associates’ union could address a number of issues that have the potential to meaningfully improve working conditions, diversity and attorney well-being — from restructured billable hour requirements to origination credit allocation, return-to-office mandates and more, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.
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Opinion
It's Time For A BigLaw Associates' Union
As BigLaw faces a steady stream of criticism about its employment policies and practices, an associates union could effect real change — and it could start with law students organizing around opposition to recent recruiting trends, says Tara Rhoades at The Sanity Plea.
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Why DOJ's Whistleblower Program May Have Limited Impact
The U.S. Department of Justice’s new whistleblower pilot program aims to incentivize individuals to report corporate misconduct, but the program's effectiveness may be undercut by its differences from other federal agencies’ whistleblower programs and its interplay with other DOJ policies, say attorneys at Milbank.
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CFPB's Earned Wage Access Rule Marks Regulatory Shift
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's newly issued interpretive rule on earned wage access products, classifying them as extensions of credit, marks a significant shift in their regulatory landscape and raises some important questions regarding potential fringe cases and legal challenges, say Erin Bryan and Courina Yulisa at Dorsey & Whitney.
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How Calif. Justices' Prop 22 Ruling Affects The Gig Industry
The California Supreme Court's recent upholding of Proposition 22 clarifies that Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other companies in the gig industry can legally classify their drivers as independent contractors, but it falls short of concluding some important regulatory battles in the state, says Mark Spring at CDF Labor.
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Look For Flags On Expert Claims After Sunday Ticket Reversal
A California federal judge’s recent reversal of a jury’s $4.7 billion antitrust verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket case indicates that litigants may be inclined to challenge expert testimony admissibility under Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, and that judges may increasingly accept such challenges, say attorneys at Kutak Rock.
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How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act
In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.
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How Corner Post Affects Enviro Laws' Statutes Of Limitations
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board has helped to alter the fundamental underpinnings of administrative law — and its plaintiff-centric approach may have implications for some specific environmental laws' statutes of limitations, say Chris Leason and Liam Martin at Gallagher and Kennedy.
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Opinion
DOL's Impending Mental Health Act Regs Should Be Simplified
The U.S. Department of Labor should consider revising these six issues in its forthcoming Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act regulations to ease the significant compliance hurdles for group health plan sponsors, says Alden Bianchi at McDermott.
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Parsing FY 2024 DOJ Criminal Healthcare Fraud Enforcement
While the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division's strike force on healthcare fraud enforcement action shows an impressive doubling of criminal indictments, a closer look at the data offers important clues about underlying trends, including the comparably modest, accompanying increase in associated intended loss, say Roderick Thomas and Kathleen Cooperstein at Wiley.
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Haste Is Priority For Participation In New Green Card Program
Immigration practitioners should determine their clients' eligibility under the Biden administration’s new policy to help certain noncitizens, particularly those married to U.S. citizens, to apply for green cards, and do so without delay given uncertainty tied to the upcoming election, says Brad Brigante at Brigante Law.