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Public Policy
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July 12, 2024
Texas Courts Block Protections For Transgender Students
Two Texas federal judges have blocked the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing protections for transgender students in Lone Star State schools while lawsuits against the rules are litigated, with one judge saying the measures provide "extra privileges to the transgender student based on subjective feelings of discomfort."
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July 12, 2024
Red State AGs Slam SEC 'Overreach' In Crypto Co. Challenge
Seven Republican state attorneys general told a Texas federal judge that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's alleged crypto policy of "rulemaking by district court enforcement action" threatens their ability to protect consumers as the court weighs a yet-to-launch crypto exchange's preemptive challenge to the securities regulator.
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July 12, 2024
FCC Says Rural Areas Get New Funds After Charter Defaults
Charter is going to be dropping some of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund census blocks it took responsibility for and taking the fines that come with doing so, according to the FCC, which says the good news is that those blocks are now open for more federal funding for another provider.
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July 12, 2024
CFPB Takes Its 5th Circ. Lumps To Advance Late Fee Rule Suit
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has told the Fifth Circuit that it won't appeal a three-judge panel's decision forcing it defend its $8 credit card late fee rule in Texas rather than Washington, D.C., a move that could expedite the agency's efforts to free the rule from a lower-court injunction.
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July 12, 2024
Texas DA Tells 5th Circ. He's Immune In Border Law Fight
Texas District Attorney Bill Hicks told the Fifth Circuit its June decision finding another district attorney immune from a suit over changes to the state's election code means he should be shielded from a challenge to the Lone Star State's migrant arrest law.
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July 12, 2024
DC Circ. Upholds FCC Approval Of SpaceX Satellite Plan
A D.C. Circuit panel Friday affirmed a Federal Communications Commission license authorizing SpaceX to deploy thousands of its Starlink satellites, rejecting challenges from satellite TV provider Dish Network LLC and advocacy group DarkSky International.
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July 12, 2024
MoneyLion Cites High Court Rulings In Bid To Toss CFPB Suit
MoneyLion Technologies Inc. told a New York federal judge on Friday that two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including the reversal of the so-called Chevron deference doctrine, support the challenge to military lending regulations it is accused of violating in a lawsuit by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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July 12, 2024
Colo. Prisoners Seek Class Cert. In Slave Labor Suit
A pair of Colorado prisoners have asked a state judge to grant class certification for their suit alleging the state is illegally using them for slave labor, detailing their experiences of punishment like extensive isolation for refusing to work.
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July 12, 2024
Feds Join Voting Rights Suit Over Georgia Election Law
The federal government has joined a suit against Georgia officials over their 2021 voting law after a federal judge allowed it to intervene in wide-ranging litigation against the measure, saying state lawmakers intend to deny Black Georgians and other people of color the right to vote because of their race.
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July 12, 2024
Texas Lethal Injections Criminal Matter, Says Appeals Court
A split Texas appeals court panel found that a state district court should have dismissed two death row inmates' suit because it did not have jurisdiction, with the majority saying Friday that any case seeking an injunction that could stay an execution falls under the jurisdiction of criminal courts.
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July 12, 2024
Texas Panel Revives Woman's Acupuncture Burn Suit
A Texas court of appeals revived a suit accusing an acupuncturist of providing negligent suction cup treatment that left a woman with second-degree burns, finding the woman should be provided additional time to fix her deficient medical expert report.
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July 12, 2024
Tire Cos. Can't Pause Fish-Harming Chemical Suit
A California federal judge rejected a group of tire companies' efforts to stay an Endangered Species Act suit accusing the companies of killing fish on the West Coast with their use of a rubber additive, saying that waiting for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rulemaking on the additive "makes little sense."
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July 12, 2024
Menendez Bribery Case Goes To Jury
A Manhattan jury began deliberating Friday over bribery and other charges against Sen. Robert Menendez and two New Jersey businessmen after hearing hours of instructions in the 18-count case and eating their final lunch with five alternates.
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July 12, 2024
Guo Trial Juror Booted For Googling Fugitive Co-Defendant
The jury in Chinese dissident Miles Guo's $1 billion fraud and racketeering case was forced to restart their verdict deliberations on Friday after a juror was cut loose for Google-searching Guo's fugitive financial adviser and co-defendant William Je.
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July 12, 2024
Conn. Justices Say Town Can Tax Hospital's Property
Personal property of a Connecticut hospital owned by Hartford HealthCare is taxable, the state Supreme Court said Friday, reversing a trial court opinion and ruling that Hartford's acquisition of the hospital negated a tax exemption for charitable entities.
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July 12, 2024
Giuliani's Ch. 11 Tossed Over Lack Of Financial Candor
Rudolph W. Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and legal adviser to Donald Trump, had his Chapter 11 case dismissed Friday by a New York bankruptcy judge, who found that Giuliani's missing financial disclosure made ending the proceedings the best option for creditors.
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July 12, 2024
Payments To Ex-Wife Should Be Deductible, 11th Circ. Told
A Georgia man told the Eleventh Circuit on Friday that his payments to his ex-wife as part of a marital settlement should qualify as alimony and therefore be deductible from his federal income taxes, asking the court to reverse a U.S. Tax Court decision.
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July 12, 2024
Lawmakers Unveil $1B Water Infrastructure Bill For Ariz. Tribe
A bipartisan group of Arizona federal lawmakers has introduced legislation in both houses of Congress to ratify and provide just over $1 billion in funding to resolve the Yavapai-Apache Nation's water rights claims and bring additional supplies to the Verde Valley.
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July 12, 2024
Republican Presses Tai For Info On E-Commerce Shift
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., pressed the Biden administration's top trade official for more information on why the president withdrew from digital trade talks at the World Trade Organization, threatening "compulsory action" if she failed to provide meaningful answers.
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July 12, 2024
6th Circ. Delays FCC's Net Neutrality Effective Date
The Sixth Circuit on Friday delayed the effective date of the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules by two weeks to give the court more time to consider an indefinite hold on the regulations during a legal challenge.
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July 12, 2024
Boston To Pay $1M To End Health Dept. Harassment Case
A high-profile sexual harassment case against the City of Boston and its former health director settled for $1 million earlier this month, according to a copy of the agreement released Friday.
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July 12, 2024
Chancery Tosses Centene Shareholders' Medicaid Fraud Suit
The Delaware Chancery Court on Friday dismissed a Centene stockholder derivative lawsuit seeking damages from company directors and officers over allegations of a multistate Medicaid pharmacy benefit billing fraud scheme that the investors said could result in a $1.25 billion liability for the healthcare giant.
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July 12, 2024
Pa. Drive-In Dinged For Sleepovers In No-Campground Zone
A Pennsylvania drive-in movie theater's "overnight passes" for guests to stay after a late-night showing or for multiple days of a movie marathon effectively made the theater into a campground and ran afoul of township zoning ordinances, a state appellate court ruled Friday.
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July 12, 2024
Va. Tax Head Upholds Denial Of Resident's Subtraction
Virginia residents were properly denied an income tax subtraction that they claimed because of recaptured depreciation that came from the sale of a rental property, the state tax commissioner ruled.
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July 12, 2024
Ex-Quantix Worker Sues Abbott Labs Over Drug Test Firing
A former employee of Quantix SCS LLC is suing the company, Abbott Laboratories Inc. and two other drug testing companies, saying he was wrongly fired after testing positive for THC and the companies did not consider that it could have resulted from his use of legal CBD products.
Expert Analysis
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Series
After Chevron: 7 FERC Takeaways From Loper Bright
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine, it's likely that the majority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's orders will not be affected, but the commission has nonetheless lost an important fallback argument and will have to approach rulemaking more cautiously, says Norman Bay at Willkie Farr.
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Opinion
Discount Window Reform Needed To Curb Modern Bank Runs
We learned during the spring 2023 failures that bank runs can happen extraordinarily fast in light of modern technology, especially when banks have a greater concentration of large deposits, demonstrating that the antiquated but effective discount window needs to be overhauled before the next crisis, says Cris Cicala at Stinson.
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Opinion
Cell Tech Patent Holdup Is Stalling Automaker Innovation
Courts and Congress should seek to stem anticompetitive harm caused by standard-essential patent holders squeezing automakers with unfairly high royalties for cellular connectivity technology, says Charles Haake at Alliance for Automotive Innovation.
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Series
After Chevron: USDA Rules May Be Up In The Air
The Supreme Court's end of Chevron deference may cause more lawsuits against U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations, like the one redefining "unfair trade practices" under the Packers and Stockyards Act, or a new policy classifying salmonella as an adulterant in certain poultry products, says Bob Hibbert at Wiley.
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Mitigating Risks Amid 10-Year Sanctions Enforcement Window
In response to recent legislation, which doubles the statute of limitations for actions related to certain U.S. sanctions and provides regulators greater opportunity to investigate possible violations, companies should take specific steps to account for the increased civil and criminal enforcement risk, say attorneys at Freshfields.
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Series
After Chevron: Creating New Hurdles For ESG Rulemaking
The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, limiting court deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, could have significant impacts on the future of ESG regulation, creating new hurdles for agency rulemaking around these emerging issues, and calling into question current administrative actions, says Leah Malone at Simpson Thacher.
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A Timeline Of Antisemitism Legislation And What It Means
What began as hearings in the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce has expanded to a House-wide effort to combat antisemitism and related issues, with wide-ranging implications for education, finance and nonprofit entities, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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California Adds A Novel Twist To State Suits Against Big Oil
California’s suit against Exxon Mobil Corp., one of several state suits that seek to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate-related harms, is unique both in the magnitude of the alleged claims and its use of a consumer protection statute to seek disgorgement of industry profits, says Julia Stein at UCLA School of Law.
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Criminal Enforcement Considerations For Gov't Contractors
Government contractors increasingly exposed to criminal liability risks should establish programs that enable detection and remediation of employee misconduct, consider voluntary disclosure, and be aware of the potentially disastrous consequences of failing to make a mandatory disclosure where the government concludes it was required, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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New La. Managing Agent Law May Portend Growing Scrutiny
Recent amendments to Louisiana’s managing general agent regulations impose expansive new obligations on such agents and their insurer partners, which may be a sign of heightened regulatory, commercial and rating agency scrutiny, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Trending At The PTAB: Multiple Petitions In IPRs
Recent Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions and a proposed rulemaking indicate the board’s intention to continue to take a tougher stance on multiple inter partes review petitions challenging the same patent, presenting key factors for petitioners to consider, like the necessity of parallel filings and serial petitions, say Yinan Liu and Cory Bell at Finnegan.
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FERC Rule Is A Big Step Forward For Transmission Planning
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent electric transmission system overhaul marks significant progress to ensure the grid can deliver electricity at reasonable prices, with a 20-year planning requirement and other criteria going further than prior attempted reforms, say Tom Millar and Gwendolyn Hicks at Winston & Strawn.
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Series
After Chevron: Rethinking Agency Deference In IP Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Chevron deference could make it simpler to challenge the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s proposed rule on terminal disclaimers and U.S. International Trade Commission interpretations, says William Milliken at Sterne Kessler.
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Tricky Venue Issues Persist In Fortenberry Prosecution Redo
Former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry was recently indicted for a second time after the Ninth Circuit tossed his previous conviction for improper venue, but the case, now pending in the District of Columbia, continues to illustrate the complexities of proper venue in "false statement scheme" prosecutions, says Kevin Coleman at Covington.