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Public Policy
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August 15, 2024
Judge Weighs Need For More Docs On Internal SEC Breach
A conservative civil liberties group questioned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's claims that releasing additional materials related to its handling of an internal firewall breach would harm the public interest Thursday, telling a D.C. federal judge in court that so much was already out, more sunlight couldn't hurt.
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August 15, 2024
NJ Court Urged To Toss All Of Ex-Elections Chief's Claims
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has again asked a Garden State trial court judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming he conspired with top staffers to oust the state's former elections chief, arguing that as government officials, the defendants are all entitled to qualified immunity.
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August 15, 2024
Federal Circuit Upholds Duties On Steel Nails From Taiwan
The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the "dumping margin" duties charged on certain Taiwanese nail imports, finding that the U.S. Department of Commerce had been unable to wring detailed data out of some of the producers and was thus justified in relying on outside facts when calculating the rates.
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August 15, 2024
DHS Sets Immigrant Worker Reforms For June 2025 Agenda
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has proposed amending its regulations in three preference classifications, setting possible rulemaking for its semiannual regulatory agenda in June 2025.
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August 15, 2024
NY Asks Top Court To Reinstate Ethics Body Cuomo Axed
The Office of the New York State Attorney General has submitted a brief urging the state's highest court to reinstate an ethics commission that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo had convinced a state judge was unconstitutional.
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August 15, 2024
Illinois Rep. Touts Bill To Train Immigration Court Attys
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said Thursday that a large number of defendants in U.S. immigration courts have no legal representation due to those courts having no policy to provide them with an attorney if they can't afford it and touted a bill she co-sponsored that would create a grant program to train more immigration attorneys.
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August 15, 2024
Colorado, Suncor Back EPA In Denver Refinery Permit Fight
Colorado and Suncor Energy USA Inc. told the Tenth Circuit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was right to refuse to object to a series of permit changes state regulators approved for the company's Denver-area oil refinery, as fights over the facility's emissions are heating up.
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August 15, 2024
Trump Seeks To Delay NY Sentencing Until After Election
Donald Trump asked to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case until after the 2024 presidential election, arguing he needs time to potentially appeal if he loses an attempt to erase the felony conviction on the basis of presidential immunity.
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August 15, 2024
Banking Groups Sue To Thwart New Ill. Swipe Fee Restrictions
The nation's largest bank trade association and other industry groups sued Thursday to block Illinois from implementing a new state law that prohibits financial intermediaries from charging so-called swipe fees on the sales tax and tip portions of payment card transactions, arguing it conflicts with federal law and risks broader "chaos."
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August 15, 2024
Harvard, Grad Students Settle Sexual Harassment Case
Harvard University and a group of doctoral students in its anthropology program have reached a settlement in a sexual harassment lawsuit alleging the school ignored a now-retired professor's misconduct, according to a Wednesday federal court filing.
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August 15, 2024
Mich. Top Court Won't Undo Judicial Candidate's DQ
The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to review the disqualification of a candidate for an open judgeship on the state's intermediate court of appeals.
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August 14, 2024
UCLA Ordered To Ensure Jewish Students' Access To Campus
The University of California, Los Angeles, must ensure that Jewish students have equal access to campus after a group of students alleged they were excluded from parts of the school grounds during a protest over Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, a Golden State federal judge ruled.
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August 14, 2024
CFPB Faces Call To Treat Housing Rental Leases As 'Credit'
A major consumer advocacy group has formally petitioned the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to write new rules that would require landlords to provide "adverse action" explanations when rejecting prospective renters who have applied for an apartment or other housing lease.
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August 14, 2024
Fed. Circ. Won't Rehear Utah Tribe's Water Dispute
A Federal Circuit panel refused to rehear a Utah tribe's challenge to the U.S. government that looked to overturn a Federal Claims Court ruling that held it didn't violate a 19th century law by not securing new water and infrastructure rights for the Indigenous community.
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August 14, 2024
ICE Faces Trimmed Suit Over Detainee's COVID-19 Death
A California federal court on Tuesday again allowed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to trim a lawsuit alleging it failed to protect a man who died in detention but kept claims alleging ICE failed to oversee its facilities or protect the man from COVID-19.
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August 14, 2024
Amazon's Kuiper Says Satellite Framework Needed Soon
Amazon's Kuiper Systems is pushing the FCC to "take expeditious action" to wrap up new rules dealing with spectrum sharing among non-geostationary orbit fixed-satellite service operators, comments regarding which have been filing into the docket for years.
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August 14, 2024
DOJ Defends Boeing Plea Deal Over Families' Objections
The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday that Boeing's plea agreement is the best possible criminal resolution that holds the company accountable for defrauding regulators about the 737 Max 8's development, rejecting claims from crash victims' families that the "morally reprehensible" deal lets Boeing skirt culpability.
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August 14, 2024
4th Circ. Says Credit Card 'Offset' Ban Applies To HELOCs
Creditors are prohibited from withdrawing funds from a cardholder's deposit account to cover outstanding payments on a home equity line of credit without the borrower's consent, a divided Fourth Circuit panel ruled Wednesday.
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August 14, 2024
Biz Says Mich. Cities Ignore Taxpayers In Fee-Or-Tax Fight
A pipe fitting business has urged the Michigan Supreme Court to reject municipal organizations' "histrionic" arguments that cities' financial stability will be in jeopardy if the top court finds Detroit's fire inspection fee is a disguised tax, saying the groups are disregarding citizens' rights to be free from illegal taxes.
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August 14, 2024
4 States Oppose FTC Bid To Block Kroger-Albertsons Deal
Four Republican-led states defended Kroger's proposed $25 billion acquisition of Albertsons in an amicus brief Wednesday, telling the Oregon federal judge overseeing the Federal Trade Commission's challenge to the deal that blocking it would actually "weaken, not protect, competition."
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August 14, 2024
Recreational Pot Contract Unenforceable, Texas Court Says
A Texas state appeals court has torched a cannabis farmer's $100,000 jury win, ruling that he can not collect against his former business partner because the marijuana crop he grew was federally illegal and specifically intended for recreational use.
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August 14, 2024
HHS Eyes 2025 For New Medicare Appeal Rule
In response to a Connecticut federal judge's stern demand for quicker progress, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has said in a court filing that it should be able to implement a new rule creating an avenue for Medicare beneficiaries to appeal their hospitalization status by Jan. 1.
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August 14, 2024
Treasury Says $82M Will Boost Tribal Small Business Growth
An investment by the U.S. Treasury in a consortium of Alaskan tribes is expected to infuse as much as $830 million in additional private sector investments throughout the state and in Indigenous-owned companies as part of the most expansive backing of small-business financing for tribal governments in history.
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August 14, 2024
Sanctioned Ghanaian Co. Says Law Firm's Fees Too High
An African energy company has slammed international arbitration specialty law firm Three Crowns LLP in Texas federal court for claiming nearly $200,000 in fees after the company was sanctioned for lying to a Ghanaian court.
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August 14, 2024
DOD Issues Contractor Cybersecurity Implementation Rule
The U.S. Department of Defense on Wednesday issued a proposed rule laying out how it will incorporate its stringent pending Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, intended to boost cybersecurity standards across the defense industrial base, into defense contracts.
Expert Analysis
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Trump's Best Hush Money Appeal Options Still Likely To Fail
The two strongest potential arguments former President Donald Trump could raise in appealing his New York hush money conviction seem promising at first, but precedent strongly suggests they will still ultimately fail — though, of course, Trump's unique position could lead to surprising results, says former New York Supreme Court Justice Ethan Greenberg, now at Anderson Kill.
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Tips For Tax Equity-Tax Credit Transfers That Pass IRS Muster
Although the Internal Revenue Service has increased its scrutiny of complex partnership structures, which must demonstrate their economic substance and business purpose, recent cases and IRS guidance together provide a reliable road map for creating legitimate tax equity structures, say Ian Boccaccio and Michael Messina at Ryan Tax.
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How Cos. With Chinese Suppliers Should Prep For Biotech Bill
A proposed bill to prohibit government-affiliated life sciences companies from contracting with Chinese biotech companies of concern may necessitate switching to other sources for research and supplies, meaning they should begin evaluating supply chains now due to the long lead times of drug development, say John O'Loughlin and Christina Carone at Weil Gotshal.
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Opinion
Texas Judges Ignored ERISA's Core To Stall Fiduciary Rule
Two recent rulings from Texas federal courts, which rely on a plainly wrong reading of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to effectively strike a forthcoming rule that would impose functional fiduciary duties onto sellers of investment services, may expose financially unsophisticated 401(k) participants to peddlers of misleading advice, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
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Inside OCC's Retail Nondeposit Investment Products Refresh
In addition to clarifying safe and sound risk management practices generally, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's revised booklet on retail nondeposit investment products updates its guidance around certain sales practices in light of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's adoption of Regulation Best Interest, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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5 Defense Lessons From Prosecutors' Recent Evidence Flubs
The recent dismissal of Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges, and the filing of an ethics complaint against a former D.C. prosecutor, both provide takeaways for white collar defense counsel who suspect that prosecutors may be withholding or misrepresenting evidence, say Anden Chow at MoloLamken and Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Is My Counterclaim Bound To Fall?
A Pennsylvania federal court’s recent dismissal of the defendants’ counterclaims in Morgan v. Noss should remind attorneys to avoid the temptation to repackage a claim’s facts and law into a mirror-image counterclaim, as this approach will often result in a waste of time and resources, says Matthew Selmasska at Kaufman Dolowich.
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Loper Fuels Debate Over Merchant Cash Advances As Credit
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent rejection of the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright may escalate a Florida federal court dispute between the Revenue Based Finance Coalition and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over whether merchant cash advances should be considered credit under the Dodd-Frank Act, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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Bank M&A Continues To Lag Amid Regulatory Ambiguity
Bank M&A activity in the first half of 2024 continued to be lower than in prior years, as the industry is recovering from the 2023 bank failures, and regulatory and macroeconomic conditions have not otherwise been prime for deals, say Robert Azarow and Amber Hay at Arnold & Porter.
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FTC's Drug Middlemen Probe Highlights Ongoing Scrutiny
The Federal Trade Commission's interim staff report on its inquiry into pharmacy benefit managers suggests that the industry will remain under an enforcement microscope for the foreseeable future due to concerns about how PBMs affect drug costs and accessibility, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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How High Court Ruling Is Shaping Homelessness Policies
The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson to allow enforcement of local ordinances against overnight camping is already spurring new policies to manage homelessness, but the court's ruling does not grant jurisdictions unfettered power, say Kathryn Kafka and Alex Merritt at Sheppard Mullin.
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DOJ Paths To Limit FARA Fallout From Wynn's DC Circ. Win
After the D.C. Circuit’s recent Attorney General v. Wynn ruling, holding that the government cannot compel retroactive registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the U.S. Department of Justice has a few options to limit the decision’s impact on enforcement, say attorneys at MoFo.
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Series
Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.
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A Look At The Regulatory Scrutiny Facing Liquid Restaking
Recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions highlight the regulatory challenges facing emerging financial instruments like liquid restaking tokens and services, say Daniel Davis and Alexander Kim at Katten.
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Del. Dispatch: Director Caremark Claims Need Extreme Facts
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently dismissed Caremark claims against the directors of Centene in Bricklayers Pension Fund of Western Pennsylvania v. Brinkley, indicating a high bar for a finding of the required element of bad faith for Caremark liability, and stressing the need to resist hindsight bias, say attorneys at Fried Frank.