Public Policy

  • December 02, 2024

    White House Urges Agencies To Boost Small Biz Contracting

    The White House has urged federal agencies to more closely scrutinize federal contractors' subcontracting plans and to standardize their forecasts of upcoming procurement opportunities, efforts it said were intended to boost small business participation in government contracting.

  • December 02, 2024

    IRS Finalizes Partnership Liability Regs After 11 Years

    The Internal Revenue Service unveiled final regulations governing the allocation of partnership liabilities 11 years after releasing the proposed rules, saying no subsequent legislative and regulatory changes had taken place to compel the agency to otherwise renew the rulemaking process.

  • December 02, 2024

    Ark. Governor Wants Out Of Cherokee Casino License Row

    Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is asking a federal district court to be removed as a defendant and for an overall dismissal of a challenge to a state amendment that revoked a Cherokee Nation business' casino license, arguing the Oklahoma tribe doesn't have any property interest in the case.

  • December 02, 2024

    Australia Passes Public Country-By-Country Reporting

    Multinational businesses with large operations in Australia are required to publicly disclose information about their operations in tax havens as designated by the government under a country-by-country reporting law that lawmakers adopted following a two-year saga over concerns about the data's confidentiality.

  • December 02, 2024

    NC Judge Is 2nd To Reverse Senior Status Plans After Election

    A second federal judge appointed by a Democratic president has reversed his decision to take senior status in the wake of former President Donald Trump's win in the 2024 presidential election.

  • December 02, 2024

    Circle K Fights How Denver Counts Tobacco-To-School Span

    The convenience store chain Circle K is suing Denver to challenge the city's application of a law requiring tobacco sales occur no closer than 1,000 feet from schools, alleging in a state court complaint that an erroneous approach to distance measurements will limit Circle K's ability to open new stores.

  • December 02, 2024

    Shipping Industry Braces For Waves Of New Trump Tariffs

    After a holiday weekend marked by a fresh round of tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump, the shipping and logistics industry is beginning to feel the heat, warning companies to prepare for massive upheaval if Trump follows through.

  • December 02, 2024

    Atty Seeks DEA Communications On Rescheduling

    An attorney is suing the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking communications between the agency and anti-legalization activists as the agency holds a hearing on whether to reschedule the drug under the Controlled Substances Act.

  • November 27, 2024

    Google Wants 9th Circ. To Undo Play Store Ruling In Epic Row

    Google has pressed the Ninth Circuit to reverse an injunction forcing it to allow third-party app distribution on its Play Store, arguing that the lower court's ruling will "directly undercut Google's efforts to compete against Apple and the iPhone."

  • November 27, 2024

    Fla. Judge Halts School Board Depos In Book Ban Suit

    A Florida federal judge ordered a partial stay that temporarily halts depositions of Escambia County School Board members in a First Amendment challenge to a ban on certain books, but deferred staying the entire case until an appeal before the Eleventh Circuit is resolved.

  • November 27, 2024

    Texas Tells 5th Circ. EPA Botched Ozone Compliance Orders

    The state of Texas called on the Fifth Circuit to vacate part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency action requiring the state to revise its plan addressing "moderate" nonattainment of ground-level ozone standards for the Dallas, Houston and San Antonio areas, in light of the cities' upgrade to "serious" nonattainment.

  • November 27, 2024

    GM, Cruise Say DPA Has No Bearing On Securities Fraud Suit

    General Motors and its driverless car unit Cruise LLC have told a Michigan federal judge that Cruise's deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice over a San Francisco pedestrian accident doesn't help investors in a proposed securities fraud class action.

  • November 27, 2024

    Elon Musk Targets CFPB With Call To 'Delete' Agency

    Billionaire Elon Musk has called for abolishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, writing on his social media platform X — formerly known as Twitter — that the government should "Delete CFPB" and "there are too many duplicative regulatory agencies."

  • November 27, 2024

    Cable Biz Urges FCC To Scrap Customer Service Reg Plan

    The cable lobby says the Federal Communications Commission should drop plans for new customer service rules on the industry because it lacks legal authority to impose the requirements.

  • November 27, 2024

    Wash. Appeals Court Slams Brakes On Lucid EV Dealerships

    Automaker Lucid can't sell its electric vehicles directly to Washington consumers, a state appellate court has ruled, agreeing with regulators that granting the company the necessary license would violate a state law designed to protect car dealers from unfair competition from manufacturers.

  • November 27, 2024

    DOL Sued For OSHA Info In NJ Amazon Warehouse Deaths

    The U.S. Department of Labor has been hit with a lawsuit by a labor advocate seeking records related to investigations of three deaths at Amazon.com Inc.'s "notoriously hazardous warehouses" in New Jersey in 2022, saying the agency failed to comply with Freedom of Information Act deadlines.

  • November 27, 2024

    Arkansas Can't Bring Suit Against Crypto Miner For Now

    An Arkansas federal judge has temporarily barred state officials from taking action against a Chinese-born U.S. citizen's crypto mining operation after he challenged the investigation against him and the laws underpinning it as discriminatory and unconstitutional.

  • November 27, 2024

    Texas Backs Off Title X Suit On Contraceptives To Minors

    Federal health officials are no longer enforcing a rule in Texas that tied funding to contraceptive access for minors, Texas officials told a court Tuesday as it asked to dismiss a suit it had filed against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

  • November 27, 2024

    Judge Says City Can't Block Washington Tribe's ER Shelter

    A federal judge on Wednesday granted a Washington tribe's bid to block the city of Toppenish from preventing it from operating a 24-hour emergency cold weather shelter, saying upcoming freezing weather would cause irreparable harm and warrants the service.

  • November 27, 2024

    Biden Administration Adds 65K Additional H-2B Work Visas

    The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it has created a temporary rule to add 64,716 additional temporary H-2B work visas for the third year in a row to be doled out to businesses struggling with staffing issues. 

  • November 27, 2024

    FCC Refers T-Mobile, UScellular Deal To Team Telecom

    The Federal Communications Commission has referred T-Mobile's anticipated $4.4 billion purchase of wireless operations from United States Cellular Corp. to the committee that vets foreign investment in the U.S. telecom market.

  • November 27, 2024

    NC Tribe Demands Apology Over Senator's Floor Remarks

    A North Carolina tribe is demanding an apology from one of the state's U.S. senators, who they say recently launched "an emotional tirade" on the Senate floor, targeting hundreds of tribal leaders and organizations with baseless accusations in a bid to push a bill through to federally recognize the Lumbee Tribe.

  • November 27, 2024

    CFPB Fights Student Loan Servicer's Bid To Pause Deal

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has told a Pennsylvania federal court that student loan servicer Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency shouldn't get to pause its work fulfilling a settlement just because a third party had appealed a separate deal with the loan holders.

  • November 27, 2024

    Atty Censured For Posts Criticizing Town Council Clients

    A Colorado attorney has been publicly censured for taking to social media to criticize a town council that hired him to conduct an investigation, according to a disciplinary opinion that said the lawyer betrayed the confidence of his former clients by disclosing information he learned during the investigation.

  • November 27, 2024

    Illinois Top Court Will Decide Fate Of $7B Power Line Permit

    The Illinois Supreme Court has agreed to review a lower court's decision striking state utility regulators' approval to build part of the $7 billion Grain Belt Express high-voltage transmission line.

Expert Analysis

  • New HHS Research Misconduct Rules Bring Seismic Changes

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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new rule regarding research misconduct investigations brings significant changes that focus on remediation, appeals and confidentiality, while other changes could result in institutions causing undue harm to scientists accused of such misconduct, say attorneys at Cohen Seglias.

  • To Report Or Not To Report Others' Export Control Violations

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    A recent Bureau of Industry and Security enforcement policy change grants cooperation credit to those that report violations of the Export Administration Regulations committed by others, but the benefits of doing so must be weighed against significant drawbacks, including the costs of preparing and submitting a report, says Megan Lew at Cravath.

  • Earned Wage Access Laws Form A Prickly Policy Patchwork

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    Conflicting earned wage access laws across the country, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently issued rule, mean providers must adopt a proactive compliance approach and adjust business models where needed, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • What FDIC Expansion Of Change In Bank Control Could Mean

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    A recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposal pertaining to the Change in Bank Control Act has the potential to create uncertainty around investments by mutual fund complexes in banking organizations, which represent a stable source of capital for the banking industry, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • HSR Amendments Intensify Merger Filing Burdens, Data Risk

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    The antitrust agencies' long-awaited changes to premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act stand to significantly increase the time and cost involved in preparing an initial HSR notification, and will require more proactive attention to data issues, says Andrew Szwez at FTI Technology.

  • Deadline Extension Highlights PFAS Reporting Complexities

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent extension of reporting and recordkeeping timelines for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act offers relief to the regulated community, but the unprecedented volume of data required means that businesses must remain diligent in their data collection efforts, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • Can SEC's Consolidated Audit Trail Survive Post-Chevron?

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently in a showdown at the Eleventh Circuit over its authority to maintain a national market system and require that the industry spend billions to maintain its consolidated audit trail, a case that is further complicated by the Loper Bright decision, says Daniel Hawke at Arnold & Porter.

  • What's Inside Feds' Latest Bank Merger Review Proposals

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    Recent bank merger proposals from a trio of federal agencies highlight the need for banks looking to grow through acquisition to consider several key issues much earlier in the planning process than has historically been necessary, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • Cos. Should Focus On State AI Laws Despite New DOL Site

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    Because a new U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored website about the disability discrimination risks of AI hiring tools mostly echoes old guidance, employers should focus on complying with the state and local AI workplace laws springing up where Congress and federal regulators have yet to act, say attorneys at Littler.

  • How Biden Admin Has Used Antitrust Tools, And What's Next

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    The last four years have been marked by an aggressive whole-of-government approach to antitrust enforcement using a broad range of tools, and may result in lasting change regardless of the upcoming presidential election result, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • Cos. Face Increasing Risk From Environmental Citizen Suits

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    Environmental citizen suits stepping in to fill the regulatory vacuum concerning consumer goods waste may soon become more common, and the evolving procedural landscape and changes to environmental law may contribute to companies' increased exposure, say J. Michael Showalter and Bradley Rochlen at ArentFox Schiff.

  • How BIS' Rule Seeks To Encourage More Voluntary Disclosure

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    Updated incentives, penalties and enforcement resources in the Bureau of Industry and Security's recently published final rule revising the Export Administration Regulations should help companies decide how to implement export control compliance programs and whether to disclose possible violations, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • Series

    Florida Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

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    With the implementation of H.B. 989, the third quarter of 2024 has been transformative for banking law and regulation in Florida, and this new law places a strong emphasis on fair access to banking, and prohibits ideologically or politically motivated decisions by financial institutions, says Sha’Ron James at Gunster.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

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