Public Policy

  • August 27, 2024

    Return Of Venezuela Sanctions Reignites Criminal Probes

    Criminal investigations into Venezuela-related sanctions violations appear to be ramping back up since the U.S. government reimposed crushing trade penalties on the South American country's oil and gas sectors in response to an allegedly sham presidential election, according to experts.

  • August 27, 2024

    Connecticut Litigation To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2024

    The Connecticut state and federal courts will grapple with a number of closely watched cases during the second half of 2024, including three key lawsuits by state Attorney General William Tong.

  • August 27, 2024

    Ex-Teacher Says District Forced Her To Resign Over COVID

    A former Fulton County School District teacher sued the district in Georgia federal court Monday, alleging she was denied reasonable accommodations and forced to resign from her job after contracting COVID-19 in 2020.

  • August 27, 2024

    New Jersey Laws Attorneys Need To Know In 2024

    New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has signed contentious new bills into law recently that attorneys and business owners are adjusting to, including updates to the state's Open Public Records Act that make "fee shifting" more difficult, and a new wage requirement for temporary workers.

  • August 27, 2024

    Georgia Court Says Ride-Hailing Cos. Are 'Motor Carriers'

    The Georgia Court of Appeals said a trial court erred when it held that the ride-hailing service Lyft is not considered a motor carrier under Peach State law, and that its insurer could not be directly named in a lawsuit a woman filed after a crash involving one of its drivers.

  • August 27, 2024

    11th Circ. Allows Fla. Law Banning Trans Care To Take Effect

    The Eleventh Circuit has said a Florida law can take effect that bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors and restricts it for adults, granting the state's bid to scrap an injunction barring the law while it appeals a lower court ruling that found the statute unconstitutional.

  • August 27, 2024

    US Arrests Hungarian Suspected Of Sending Radios To Russia

    The U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges against a Hungarian national suspected to have run a multinational procurement network designed to help Russia obtain U.S. military-grade communications technology.

  • August 27, 2024

    Va. Ad Tech Judge Warns Google Over Chat Deletion

    Google's defense of its advertising technology could get a little harder after a Virginia federal judge on Tuesday kept the door open to assuming that deleted internal chats hid evidence that would support U.S. Department of Justice monopolization claims bound for a bench trial next month.

  • August 26, 2024

    Biden Admin's New Green Card Rule Hit With 14-Day Pause

    A Texas federal judge on Monday temporarily halted the Biden administration from granting parole under its new program for noncitizen spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens seeking green cards from within the U.S., days after Texas accused the administration of exceeding its parole authority.

  • August 26, 2024

    Feds Say Trump Docs Dismissal Contradicts 'Long Tradition'

    Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday lodged the government's opening brief in its Eleventh Circuit appeal of the dismissal of the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, arguing that the lower court's finding is contrary to "precedent and history" and the "long tradition of special-counsel appointments by the attorney general."

  • August 26, 2024

    Albertsons Paints Picture Of Dire Future Without Kroger Deal

    Albertsons told an Oregon federal judge Monday that if the Federal Trade Commission is able to block a proposed merger with Kroger, it could lead to layoffs and shuttered stores, because a go-it-alone Albertsons doesn't have the wholesale buying power to compete with Walmart and Costco on prices.

  • August 26, 2024

    RFK Jr. Loses Bid To Get Vax Censorship Injunction At 9th Circ.

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday affirmed a decision rejecting Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s bid to get an injunction in his case alleging Google violated his First Amendment rights by removing his YouTube videos doubting the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines.

  • August 26, 2024

    'Jarkesy 2.0': SEC Sees New Attack On In-House Courts

    A new lawsuit calling into question the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's ability to boot alleged lawbreakers from the securities industry follows a long line of attacks on the regulator's use of its in-house courts, including a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that limited the SEC's ability to litigate fraud cases via administrative proceedings.

  • August 26, 2024

    Care.com To Pay $8.5M To Settle FTC's Deception Claims

    Caregiver job website Care.com has agreed to shell out $8.5 million in refunds to put to rest allegations it misled caregivers about wages and job availability and also made it difficult for families to cancel paid memberships, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced Monday.

  • August 26, 2024

    AT&T To Pay $950K To Settle With FCC Over 911 Outage

    AT&T has agreed to pay $950,000 to end an enforcement action stemming from an August 2023 outage that affected 911 calls in parts of four states, the Federal Communications Commission said Monday.

  • August 26, 2024

    Former Google Execs Fight Ad Tech Trial Subpoenas

    Former Google vice presidents and other company managers have filed a series of motions asking a Virginia federal judge to block U.S. Department of Justice subpoenas trying to force their testimony at next month's advertising technology monopolization trial, arguing their live participation is unneeded and improperly demanded.

  • August 26, 2024

    DC Circ. Tosses FERC's San Francisco Power Order

    The D.C. Circuit vacated a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. argued expanded the utility's obligation to carry San Francisco-generated power to the city's retail customers, finding that the agency wrongly grandfathered classes of consumers into the wheeling arrangements.

  • August 26, 2024

    Fla. Calls DOL Threat Over Transit Funding Unconstitutional

    Florida asked a federal judge Monday for a win in its suit against the U.S. Department of Labor, arguing that the department's threat to withhold more than $800 million in funds for transportation infrastructure because of a new law cracking down on public-sector labor power is unconstitutional.

  • August 26, 2024

    CFPB Defeats Challenge To Small-Biz Lending Rules

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau landed an early win Monday in an industry-backed challenge to its reporting requirements for small business lenders, with a Texas federal judge finding the rule "is much more modest than plaintiffs would lead the court to believe."

  • August 26, 2024

    Suit Over Ga. Prosecutor Oversight Advances

    A Georgia state judge cleared a legal challenge to the state's new prosecutor disciplinary panel to go forward on Friday, finding there was enough merit in the case brought by a trio of district attorneys to allow it to continue.

  • August 26, 2024

    Tribal And Salmon Groups To Intervene In Alaska Mining Suit

    An Alaska federal court judge will let 23 tribal groups and wilderness organizations intervene in a lawsuit over a mining proposal for a stretch of pristine salmon habitat in the Bristol Bay area, but has laid out conditions to keep the case quickly moving forward.

  • August 26, 2024

    Colo. Man Charged With Threatening To Shoot State Judge

    A man who said he moved a majority of Colorado justices to the front of his "list" after they barred former president Donald Trump from the ballot is being charged with threatening on social media to shoot a state judge.

  • August 26, 2024

    DEA Sets Dec. 2 Hearing On Cannabis Rescheduling Proposal

    The Drug Enforcement Administration will hold a hearing on the attorney general's proposal to loosen restrictions on marijuana, the agency announced in a notice made public Monday.

  • August 26, 2024

    Gov't Looks To Limit Arguments In Rail Merger Appeal

    The federal government urged the D.C. Circuit not to let a coalition of Illinois towns challenging the approval of Canadian Pacific's $31 billion merger with Kansas City Southern incorporate arguments made by Chicago's commuter rail system before the system dropped out of the case.

  • August 26, 2024

    Cruz Accuses FCC Subsidies Of 'Burning Through Cash'

    Sen. Ted Cruz is pointing toward a new U.S. Government Accountability Office report that he says backs up his contention that the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund is "burning through cash with only minimal government oversight of its budget."

Expert Analysis

  • Biden Policy Gives Employers New Ways To Help Dreamers

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    A new Biden administration immigration policy makes the process more predictable for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients to seek employment visas, and, given uncertainties surrounding DACA’s future, employers should immediately determine which of their employees may be eligible, says Jennifer Kim at Moore & Van Allen.

  • 25 Years Of OECD's Anti-Bribery Convention

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    Marking its 25th anniversary this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's anti-bribery convention has advanced legislative reforms and reshaped corporate conduct in dozens of countries amid the persistent challenges of uneven enforcement and political pressure, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Despite Calif. Delays, Climate Disclosure Rules Are Coming

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    Progress continues on state, federal and international climate disclosure regimes, making compliance a key concern for companies — but the timeline for implementation of California's disclosure laws remains unclear due to funding and timing disputes, says David Smith at Manatt Phelps.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Bid Protest Litigation Will Hold Steady For Now

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    Though the substantive holding of Loper Bright is unlikely to affect bid protests because questions of statutory interpretation are rare, the spirit of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision may signal a general trend away from agency deference even on the complex technical issues that often arise, say Kayleigh Scalzo and Andrew Guy at Covington.

  • Challenging Prosecutors' Use Of Defendants' Jail Phone Calls

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    Although it’s an uphill battle under current case law, counsel for pretrial detainees may be able to challenge prosecutors’ use of jail-recorded phone calls between the defendant and their attorney by taking certain advance measures, say Jim McLoughlin and Fielding Huseth at Moore & Van Allen.

  • 1 Year At The UPC: Implications For Transatlantic Disputes

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    In its first year, the Unified Patent Court has issued important decisions on procedures like provisional measures, but complexities remain when it comes to coordinating proceedings across jurisdictions like the U.S. due to differences in timelines and discovery practices, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Opinion

    H-2 Visas Offer Humane, Economic Solution To Border Crisis

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    Congress should leverage the H-2 agricultural and temporary worker visa programs to match qualified migrants with employers facing shortages of workers — a nonpolitical solution to a highly divisive humanitarian issue, say Ashley Dees and Jeffrey Joseph at BAL.

  • PAGA Reforms Encourage Proactive Employer Compliance

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    Recently enacted reforms to California's Private Attorneys General Act should make litigation under the law less burdensome for employers, presenting a valuable opportunity to streamline compliance and reduce litigation risks by proactively addressing many of the issues that have historically attracted PAGA claims, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Opinion

    Now More Than Ever, Lawyers Must Exhibit Professionalism

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    As society becomes increasingly fractured and workplace incivility is on the rise, attorneys must champion professionalism and lead by example, demonstrating how lawyers can respectfully disagree without being disagreeable, says Edward Casmere at Norton Rose.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Piercing FEMA Authority Is Not Insurmountable

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    While the Federal Emergency Management Agency's discretionary authority continues to provide significant protection from claims under the Administrative Procedure Act, Loper Bright is a blow to the argument that Congress gave FEMA unfettered discretion to administer its own programs, says Wendy Huff Ellard at Baker Donelson.

  • What Happens After Hawaii Kids' Historic Climate Deal

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    Implications of the Hawaii Department of Transportation's first-of-its-kind settlement with youth plaintiffs over constitutional climate claims may be limited, but it could incite similar claims, says J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.

  • How Tech Trackers May Implicate HIPAA After Hospital Ruling

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    A recent Texas federal court order in American Hospital Association v. Becerra adds a legal protection on key data, clarifying when tracking technologies implicate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, so organizations should ensure all technology used is known and accounted for, say John Howard and Myriah Jaworski at Clark Hill.

  • The Show Must Go On: Noncompete Uncertainty In Film, TV

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    The Federal Trade Commission has taken action to ban noncompetes while the entertainment industry is in the midst of a massive shift away from traditional media, so it is important for studio heads and content owners alike to understand the fate of the rule and their options going forward, say Christopher Chatham and Douglas Smith at Manatt.

  • A Refresher On Calculating Political Advertising Costs

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    With election season well underway, it is important for broadcasters, political candidates, time buyers and others concerned with how the cost of broadcast political advertising is determined to know what the Federal Communications Commission factors into lowest unit calculations, and how the commission has defined "commercial advertisers," says Gregg Skall at Telecommunications Law Professionals.

  • 'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed

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    A New York federal court’s 2019 ruling in U.S. v. Connolly, holding that the government improperly outsourced an investigation to Deutsche Bank, has not undercut corporate cooperation incentives as feared — but companies should not completely ignore the lessons of the case, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Anna Nabutovsky at Selendy Gay.

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