Public Policy

  • July 16, 2024

    Ex-Philly Charter School Exec Gets 7 Years For Embezzlement

    Abdur Rahim Islam, who ran famed R&B producer Kenny Gamble's Philadelphia-based housing and education nonprofit, was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the organization and using the ill-gotten gains for Caribbean vacations.

  • July 15, 2024

    9th Circ. Won't Revive Challenge Of US Military Aid To Israel

    Palestinian human rights activists cannot revive their lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's support for Israel's military efforts in Gaza, the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday, saying the decision to provide military or other aid to a foreign nation is a political arrangement that does not belong in the courts.

  • July 15, 2024

    Tribes Fight Red States' Bid To Halt EPA Water Rule

    Tribal nations are seeking to challenge a bid by red states in North Dakota federal court to block a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule revision requiring states to consider tribes in addressing water quality standards under the Clean Water Act, arguing that the agency has the power to change its regulations.

  • July 15, 2024

    Green Groups, Industry Spar Over Feds' Offshore Leasing Plan

    Conservation groups and the American Petroleum Institute are weighing in with starkly contrasting opening briefs for D.C. Circuit challenges of a 2024-2029 offshore oil and gas leasing program and arguments for why it should be scaled back or expanded.

  • July 15, 2024

    Bannon Wants Full DC Circ. To Revisit Contempt Conviction

    Ex-Trump White House aide Steve Bannon asked the D.C. Circuit on Monday for an en banc rehearing as he seeks to overturn his contempt of Congress conviction, saying a three-judge panel's determination that he "willfully" flouted a subpoena from the Jan. 6 House select committee ignored U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

  • July 15, 2024

    Farm, Fuel Groups Challenge Feds' Land Conservation Rule

    The U.S. Bureau of Land Management broke the law when it published a rule creating two new types of conservation leases for federal lands, a coalition of agriculture and fossil fuel advocacy groups said in a new lawsuit.

  • July 15, 2024

    SEC Pans Database Privacy Challenge As Too Little, Too Late

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to rid itself of a proposed class action targeting a market surveillance tool known as the consolidated audit trail, telling a Texas federal judge that shutting down a critical market stability tool 12 years after its creation would harm the public without providing any benefit to suing investors.

  • July 15, 2024

    Feds Say New Migrant Detention Rules Moot Lawsuit

    The Biden administration asked a California federal court to end a long-running lawsuit challenging the government's practices for placing unaccompanied migrant children, saying it addressed all the issues identified by the court with an April policy change.

  • July 15, 2024

    Detroit Must Face Bus Rider's Injury Suit, Mich. Panel Says

    The city of Detroit can't escape a lawsuit claiming one of its bus drivers intentionally hit the brakes in an effort to injure a passenger she was arguing with, causing injuries to another commuter, a Michigan appeals court ruled, saying the claims fall squarely with the motor-vehicle exception to governmental immunity.

  • July 15, 2024

    BEAD Should Not 'Impede' Rural 5G Fund, FCC Says

    The chair of the Federal Communications Commission told Congress the fear of overlapping deployment is no reason for the government to spend infrastructure dollars on building out fixed internet service before auctioning spectrum for rural mobile broadband projects.

  • July 15, 2024

    10th Circ. Rejects Okla. Title X Funding Cut Challenge

    A Tenth Circuit panel on Monday rejected Oklahoma's challenge to federal cuts of its Title X funding over the state's refusal to provide referrals for abortions, affirming it was likely the state knowingly and voluntarily accepted the Department of Health and Human Services' requirements for the grant funding.

  • July 15, 2024

    La., Miss. Utility Regulators Launch FERC Grid Policy Fight

    Louisiana and Mississippi utility regulators called on the Fifth Circuit on Monday to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's sweeping overhaul of how major electric transmission projects are planned and paid for.

  • July 15, 2024

    Colo. Judge Asks If Campaign Limits Hinge On Experts

    A Colorado federal judge wondered Monday who had the right to decide whether political corruption is enough of a problem to justify state campaign contribution limits, questioning the weight of expert opinion in a bench trial over the constitutionality of those limits.

  • July 15, 2024

    Menendez Jury Seeks Deliberation Guidance In 2 Notes

    The Manhattan federal jury weighing bribery charges against Sen. Robert Menendez and two businessmen sent two notes Monday indicating confusion as to fundamental issues.

  • July 15, 2024

    JD Vance's Wife Leaves Munger Tolles As Campaign Launches

    Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance, has resigned as a litigator at Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, her now-former law firm told Law360 on Monday afternoon, presumably to trade her Washington, D.C.- and San Francisco-based litigation career for the campaign trail.

  • July 15, 2024

    Monsanto Doubles Down In Push To Undo $82M PCB Verdict

    Monsanto has urged a Washington state appeals court to toss an $82 million jury verdict awarded over polychlorinated biphenyls exposure at a school, saying the findings by the same court in a similar case should apply.

  • July 15, 2024

    NRA's Policies Called 'Dumpster Fire' As 2nd NY Trial Opens

    The New York attorney general cast the National Rifle Association as unrepentant and unreformed as a second-phase bench trial began in state court Monday, after a jury had found the group and its ex-officers liable for misspending millions.

  • July 15, 2024

    Fed's Powell Says He's Not Going Anywhere As Chairman

    Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that he will serve out the remaining two years of his appointment leading the central bank, signaling his intent to stick around despite questions about his future in a second potential Trump administration.

  • July 15, 2024

    Calif. Justices Nix 3 Charter Arb. Terms, Remand Severability

    The California Supreme Court held Monday that three of four challenged provisions in Charter Communications Inc.'s employee arbitration agreement are "substantively unconscionable" but remanded a worker's discrimination case back to the trial court to determine if those provisions can be severed and the agreement can still be enforced.

  • July 15, 2024

    Bulk Billing Regs Could Hurt Lower-Income Tenants, FCC Told

    Tighter regulations on bulk billing in multitenant environments could make it harder for seniors, low-income households and students to afford high-speed internet service, industry representatives told the Federal Communications Commission.

  • July 15, 2024

    School Counselor's FMLA Suit Should Be Tossed, Judge Says

    A Georgia school district should be allowed to escape a former counselor's lawsuit alleging she was terminated for requesting time off to care for her sick husband, a federal judge said Monday, finding she couldn't overcome the district's explanation that she'd failed to correct performance issues despite multiple opportunities.

  • July 15, 2024

    Feds Outline Eligibility Criteria For Foreign Entrepreneur Rule

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services provided updated guidance on the requirements for foreign entrepreneurs to qualify for short-term immigration benefits under the International Entrepreneur Rule.

  • July 15, 2024

    Gun Mags Are Not 'Arms' Under Constitution, Wash. AG Says

    Washington's attorney general is urging the state Supreme Court to uphold a ban on sales of large-capacity magazines for firearms, arguing on Friday that the ammunition devices are not arms deserving of constitutional protection.

  • July 15, 2024

    3rd Circ. Wants Higher Bar For Halting Delaware Gun Laws

    The Third Circuit held Monday that courts have lowered the bar for issuing preliminary injunctions too much, allowing Delaware to keep its ban on "assault weapons" and extended magazines because the gun rights groups challenging the law hadn't met the burden of showing the harm necessary for "extraordinary relief."

  • July 15, 2024

    Airstrike Survivors Lose Bid To Block UAE's $23.4B Arms Sale

    A Washington, D.C., federal court dismissed an effort to block a $23.4 billion arms sale to the United Arab Emirates, saying the plaintiffs — survivors of a 2019 airstrike in Libya — hadn't shown a likelihood of getting attacked again.

Expert Analysis

  • Live Nation May Shake It Off In A Long Game With The DOJ

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    Don't expect a swift resolution in the U.S. Department of Justice's case against Live Nation, but a long litigation, with the company likely to represent itself as the creator of a competitive ecosystem, and the government faced with explaining how the ticketing giant formed under its watch, say Thomas Kliebhan and Taylor Hixon at GRSM50.

  • How Act 126 Will Jump-Start Lithium Production In Louisiana

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    Louisiana's recent passage of Act 126, which helps create a legal and regulatory framework for lithium brine production and direct lithium extraction in the state, should help bolster the U.S. supply of this key mineral, and contribute to increased energy independence for the nation, say Marjorie McKeithen and Justin Marocco at Jones Walker.

  • 5 Steps For Gov't Contractor Affirmative Action Verification

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    As the federal contractor affirmative action program certification deadline approaches, government contractors and subcontractors should take steps to determine their program obligations, and ensure any required plans are properly implemented and timely registered, say Christopher Wilkinson at Perkins Coie and Joanna Colosimo at DCI Consulting.

  • Boeing Saga Underscores Need For Ethical Corporate Culture

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    In the wake of recent allegations about Boeing’s safety culture, and amid the U.S. Department of Justice’s new whistleblower incentives, business leaders should reinvigorate their emphasis on compliance by making clear that long-term profitability requires ethical business practices, says Maxwell Carr-Howard at Dentons.

  • A Closer Look At Feds' Proposed Banker Compensation Rule

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    A recently proposed rule to limit financial institutions' ability to award incentive-based compensation for risk-taking may progress through the rulemaking process slowly due to the sheer number of regulators collaborating on the rule and the number of issues under consideration, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • 2 Regulatory Approaches To Psychedelic Clinical Trials

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    Comparing the U.S. and Canada's regulatory frameworks for clinical trials of psychedelic drugs can be useful for designing trial protocols that meet both countries' requirements, which can in turn help diversify patient populations, bolster data robustness and expedite market access, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell and Sabrina Ramkellawan at AxialBridge.

  • Why Jurors Balk At 'I Don't Recall' — And How To Respond

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    Jurors often react negatively to a witness who responds “I don’t remember” because they tend to hold erroneous beliefs about the nature of human memory, but attorneys can adopt a few strategies to mitigate the impact of these biases, say Steve Wood and Ava Hernández at Courtroom Sciences.

  • How Federal And State Microfiber Pollution Policy Is Evolving

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    Growing efforts to address synthetic microfiber pollution may create compliance and litigation issues for businesses in the textile and apparel industries, so companies should track developing federal and state legislation and regulation in this space, and should consider associated greenwashing risks, says Arie Feltman-Frank at Jenner & Block.

  • Series

    Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Atop the list of ways fishing makes me a better lawyer is the relief it offers from the chronic stress of a demanding caseload, but it has also improved my listening skills and patience, and has served as an exceptional setting for building earnest relationships, says Steven DeGeorge​​​​​​​ at Robinson Bradshaw.

  • Best Practices For Responding To CBP's Solar Questionnaire

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    U.S. Customs and Border Protection's recently introduced questionnaire to solar importers imposes significant burdens, with the potential for supply chain disruptions and market consolidation, but taking certain steps can assist companies in navigating the new requirements, say Carl Valenstein and Katelyn Hilferty at Morgan Lewis.

  • Exploring Alternatives To Noncompetes Ahead Of FTC Ban

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    Ahead of the Sept. 4 effective date for the Federal Trade Commission's noncompete ban, employers should seek new ways to protect their proprietary and other sensitive information, including by revising existing confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, says Harvey Linder at Culhane.

  • Parsing Controversial Del. General Corporation Law Proposals

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    In response to issues raised in three recent high-profile Delaware Court of Chancery decisions, many amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law were quickly proposed that, if enacted, would bring significant changes likely to be hotly debated — and litigated — for the foreseeable future, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • A Look At US-EU Consumer Finance Talks' Slow First Steps

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    The unhurried and informal nature of planned discussions between the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the European commissioner for justice and consumer protection suggests any coordinated regulatory action on issues like AI and "buy now, pay later" services is still a ways off, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    It's Time To Defuse The Ticking Time Bomb Of US Landfills

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    After recent fires at landfills in Alabama and California sent toxic fumes into surrounding communities, it is clear that existing penalties for landfill mismanagement are insufficient — so policymakers must enact major changes to the way we dispose of solid waste, says Vineet Dubey at Custodio & Dubey.

  • 5th Circ. Venue-Transfer Cases Highlight Mandamus Limits

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    Three ongoing cases filed within the Fifth Circuit highlight an odd procedural wrinkle that may let district courts defy an appellate writ: orders granting transfer to out-of-circuit districts, but parties opposing intercircuit transfer can work around this hurdle to effective appellate review, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.

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