Public Policy

  • June 20, 2024

    Calif. High Court Strikes Anti-Tax Measure From Nov. Ballot

    A ballot measure that would make it more difficult to raise taxes in California would revise the state constitution and cannot be enacted by citizen initiative, the state's highest court held Thursday in an opinion that ordered the measure struck from the ballot.

  • June 20, 2024

    Catholic Diocese Can't Duck Sex Abuse Suit, NC Justices Told

    A Catholic diocese and a missionary organization can't escape child sex abuse claims by asserting a distinction between the perpetrators and enablers of such abuse under state law, a man suing over abuse he allegedly experienced as a teen has told North Carolina's top court.

  • June 20, 2024

    Cannabis-Infused Drink Cos. Sue Iowa Over New Potency Law

    Makers of canned drinks infused with hemp-derived THC are urging a federal judge to block an impending state statute that aims to regulate the Iowa cannabinoid market, saying it would swiftly outlaw "approximately 80%" of their current inventory.

  • June 20, 2024

    Competition Raids Don't Need Warrant For Emails, ECJ Told

    European Union law doesn't bar member states from permitting competition authorities to search emails without a warrant amid a so-called dawn raid, according to an advisory opinion submitted to the bloc's top appeals court Thursday.

  • June 20, 2024

    Crypto Co. Says SEC Won't Bring Case Over Ethereum

    Ethereum-focused software firm Consensys won't face an action over its dealings with the cryptocurrency ether, according to a notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but its preemptive lawsuit against the regulator is set to continue as the agency doesn't appear to have dropped concerns over Consensys products that deal in other assets.

  • June 20, 2024

    Fla. Panel Rules Riot Law Doesn't Apply To Peaceful Protest

    Florida's Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a state riot law passed by the Legislature in response to the George Floyd demonstrations doesn't apply to nonviolent protests.

  • June 20, 2024

    FCC Allows Top-4 Exception So Gray Can Sell Station

    The Federal Communications Commission has granted an exception to its rule prohibiting ownership of stations carrying more than one top-four network in a local market, allowing Gray Television to sell a Cheyenne, Wyoming, station as part of a larger deal.

  • June 20, 2024

    No Atty, No Case: Judge Tosses Attack On Psychedelics Ban

    A federal judge in Washington state threw out a challenge to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's efforts to ban two psychedelic substances in an order Thursday that chided a psychedelic research company for doing "an end run" around requirements that corporations be represented by an attorney.

  • June 20, 2024

    HHS Drug Pricing Program Flouts Constitution, Boehringer Says

    An "unprecedented" new Medicare price negotiation program deprives drugmakers of their constitutional rights and forces them to make declarations on issues of public concern that reflect poorly on them, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. argued Thursday in Connecticut federal court as it echoed the industry chorus seeking to strike the initiative.

  • June 20, 2024

    Vegas Papers Can't Pause Suit Amid Trim Appeal, Judge Says

    Rival Las Vegas newspapers won't see their acrimonious antitrust dispute placed on ice while the Ninth Circuit contemplates reversal of a partial dismissal order in the matter with no trial dates in place yet, a Nevada federal judge has determined.

  • June 20, 2024

    Texas Says DACA Challenge Withstands Mifepristone Ruling

    Texas has fired back against the Biden administration's claim that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent blockbuster abortion-drug mifepristone ruling undermines the Lone Star State's standing to challenge the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, telling the Fifth Circuit that the appellate court "has held — repeatedly — that Texas has standing in this context."

  • June 20, 2024

    Carbon Capture Struggles Doom EPA Rule, DC Circ. Told

    Challengers of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new greenhouse gas emissions standards for power plants reiterated to the D.C. Circuit that the impossibility of rapidly installing carbon capture and sequestration at power plants is reason enough to block the rule's implementation.

  • June 20, 2024

    China Denies Tax Crackdown As 2 Cos. Report $80M In Bills

    China's tax authority denied a nationwide crackdown on companies' old tax returns Thursday, less than a week after a chemical firm facing 500 million yuan ($69 million) in additional liabilities halted production and a beverage maker reported owing 85 million yuan.

  • June 20, 2024

    Assa Abloy Says Deal Monitor Going Too Far

    Assa Abloy has told a D.C. federal court that a monitoring trustee installed after the company settled a government merger challenge is taking things too far by trying to conduct a five-year, industry-wide study that's on pace to cost the company $20 million.

  • June 20, 2024

    Ore. Water Treatment Plant Not On Farmland, Tax Court Says

    Portions of farmland used for a wastewater treatment facility were correctly denied a special farm-use assessment rate, the Oregon Tax Court said, allowing the special rate for other contested areas of the property.

  • June 20, 2024

    Attys Accused Of Judge Shopping Rebut Fraud Allegations

    An Alabama federal judge is conducting an in-camera review of a long-awaited "Q&A document" believed to have circulated among attorneys accused of judge shopping their efforts to fight a 2022 state law preventing transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care, with the lawyers handing over the document but denying allegations of misconduct.

  • June 20, 2024

    Pa. Justices Rule 'Client Exception' Can't Save Med Mal Case

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a law firm violated state discovery rules by simultaneously representing a physician and a nondefendant witness, saying a law firm representing a defendant treating physician cannot obtain information from a non-party treating physician without written consent or through discovery.

  • June 20, 2024

    NLRB Attys, Calif. Tribe Settle Casino Subpoena Dispute

    A California federal court dismissed on Thursday National Labor Relations Board prosecutors' bids to enforce subpoenas requesting a list of casino employees who could be in a proposed bargaining unit from a tribe and a gambling company, with agency attorneys saying the parties settled the dispute.

  • June 20, 2024

    New Navajo Law Expected To Double Infrastructure Funds

    Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed into law legislation that will create a new mechanism allowing the federally recognized tribe to transfer $522 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding into a revenue reserve that's expected to nearly double the tribe's infrastructure financing.

  • June 20, 2024

    DOL Benefits Head Plans To Attend House Oversight Hearing

    The head of the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm is planning to testify at a House oversight hearing called by a legislator critical of that office's regulations, a DOL spokesperson said Thursday.

  • June 20, 2024

    EPA Water Rule Withstands Landowner's Attempt To Block It

    A North Carolina federal judge declined to block the federal government's rule defining the scope of the Clean Water Act in a lawsuit filed by a landowner seeking to develop property in wetlands areas.

  • June 20, 2024

    Trump Says Willis Can't Erase DQ Appeal In Election Case

    Former president Donald Trump urged the Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday to keep alive his appeal of a trial court's decision that blocked Trump's bid to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from the election interference case against him and co-defendants, arguing that his appeal involves issues of law.

  • June 20, 2024

    Fla. Calls Abortion Drug Case Irrelevant To Migrant Parole Suit

    Florida has rebuffed the Biden administration's efforts to use a high court ruling maintaining access to the abortion drug mifepristone to nix challenges to its migrant parole policies, telling the Eleventh Circuit that the healthcare case is unrelated to the immigration one.

  • June 20, 2024

    Federal Agencies Release Updated Climate Adaptation Plans

    More than 20 federal agencies on Thursday published updated climate adaptation plans that are intended to serve as guides for facing problems like extreme heat and precipitation, sea level rise, flooding and wildfire that could put facilities, supply chains and employees at risk.

  • June 20, 2024

    House Dems Ask Chief Justice To Say How He'll Review Ethics

    Two top Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee asked Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday how he's working to address the "glaring episodes" of ethical improprieties on the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Expert Analysis

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • CFPB Reality Check: Video Game Cash Is Still Money

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent report examining payments within online video games indicates that financial services offered within the game marketplace are quickly evolving to the point where they are indistinguishable from traditional financial services subject to regulation, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking

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    With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.

  • 5 Takeaways From FDA's Biosimilars Promotion Guidance

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expands upon other recent efforts to clarify expectations for biosimilar and interchangeable labeling, highlighting a number of potential missteps that could draw attention from regulators, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • The Legal Issues Raised In Minn. Rate Exportation Opt-Out Bill

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    A recent Minnesota House bill would amend state law by opting out of the federal interest rate preemption and introduce several legal gray areas if passed, including issues regarding loan location, rates on credit card loans and values of state charters, says Karen Grandstrand at Fredrikson & Byron.

  • Rebuttal

    Time For Congress To Let Qualified Older Pilots Keep Flying

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    While a previous Law360 guest article affirmed the current law requiring airline pilots to retire at age 65, the facts suggest that the pilots, their unions, the airlines and the flying public will all benefit if Congress allows experienced, medically qualified aviators to stay in the cockpit, say Allen Baker and Bo Ellis at Let Experienced Pilots Fly.

  • Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

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    Dechert attorneys analyze six years of patent owners' preliminary responses to inter partes review petitions to determine whether the elimination of the presumption favoring the petitioner as to preinstitution testimonial evidence affected the usefulness of expert testimony in responses.

  • Fostering Employee Retention Amid Shaky DEI Landscape

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    Ongoing challenges to the legality of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are complicating efforts to use DEI as an employee retention tool, but with the right strategic approach employers can continue to recruit and retain diverse talent — even after the FTC’s ban on noncompetes, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.

  • Are Concessions In FDA's Lab-Developed Tests Rule Enough?

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    Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new policy for laboratory-developed tests included major strategic concessions to help balance patient safety, access and diagnostic innovation, the new rule may well face significant legal challenges in court, say Dominick DiSabatino and Audrey Mercer at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow

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    The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.

  • How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers

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    Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.

  • What's Extraordinary About Challenges To SEC Climate Rule

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    A set of ideologically diverse legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule have been consolidated in the Eighth Circuit via a seldom-used lottery system, and the unpredictability of this process may drive agencies toward a more cautious future approach to rulemaking, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • 8 Questions To Ask Before Final CISA Breach Reporting Rule

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    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s recently proposed cyber incident reporting requirements for critical infrastructure entities represent the overall approach CISA will take in its final rule, so companies should be asking key compliance questions now and preparing for a more complicated reporting regime, say Arianna Evers and Shannon Mercer at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • Key Priorities In FDIC Report On Resolving Big Bank Failures

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s report last month on the resolvability of large financial institutions contains little new information, but it does reiterate key policy priorities, including the agency's desire to enhance loss-absorbing capacity through long-term debt requirements and preference for single-point-of-entry resolution strategies, say attorneys at Freshfields.

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