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Public Policy
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June 28, 2024
Prosecution Rests In Menendez Bribery Trial
New York federal prosecutors on Friday closed out their case-in-chief that Sen. Robert Menendez accepted bribes from constituent businessmen, resting after a final witness said some $550,000 in cash seized from the senator's wife's house could not have been from his cash withdrawals in recent years, which were only $55,000.
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June 28, 2024
Citi Wants Termination Suit Over Alleged Lies To OCC Tossed
Citibank has urged a New York federal judge to toss a suit by a former managing director of the bank who claims she was fired for not reporting false information to compliance authorities, arguing that even if her claims are true, she hasn't plausibly alleged a cause of action under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
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June 28, 2024
Custodia Bank Asks 10th Circ. For Fed Master Account Win
Crypto-focused Custodia Bank has argued in an opening brief before the Tenth Circuit that it is entitled to a Federal Reserve master account and should be given approval to open one, kicking off its appeal of a Wyoming federal judge's decision that said otherwise.
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June 28, 2024
In Chevron Case, Justices Trade One Unknown For Another
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overrule a decades-old judicial deference doctrine may cause the "eternal fog of uncertainty" surrounding federal agency actions to dissipate and level the playing field in challenges of government policies, but lawyers warn it raises new questions over what rules courts must follow and how judges will implement them.
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June 28, 2024
Parts Of Ga. Bond Law Blocked For Now Over 'Group' Meaning
A Georgia federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked certain provisions of a law set to take effect Monday that would make it illegal for people, charities and organizations to post more than three cash bonds in a year and require charitable bail funds to register as bonding agencies.
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June 28, 2024
Conn. Court Shouldn't Hear Anti-Dispensary Appeal, City Says
A Connecticut appeals court should not hear a case brought by an anti-cannabis organization in Stamford that is trying to undo a court-approved settlement that allowed for the opening of a dispensary, the city's Zoning Board has argued.
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June 28, 2024
FCC Subsidy Opponents File New 5th Circ. Challenge
A free-market group and others seeking to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's telecom subsidy system has again filed suit in the Fifth Circuit to oppose the industry fees that fund the programs.
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June 28, 2024
PAGA Reforms Clear Calif. Assembly, Head To Newsom's Desk
California legislators in both the Senate and Assembly overwhelmingly backed big changes to California's Private Attorneys General Act, including an adjustment to how penalties are assessed to employers and awarded to employees, sending the package to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk.
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June 28, 2024
Health Regulators Likely To Tread Carefully Post-Chevron
The demise of Chevron deference at the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday will likely encourage or fortify challenges to agency rulemaking on matters of health policy in the U.S., from Medicare reimbursement decisions to FDA rules on laboratory-developed tests.
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June 28, 2024
USPTO Asks Public For Input On Addressing AI Deepfakes
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said Friday that it will seek public input about whether existing laws are enough to protect individuals from unauthorized artificial intelligence-created replicas of their image, voice and likeness, commonly called deepfakes.
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June 28, 2024
Shkreli Asks High Court To Toss $64M Disgorgement Order
Former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, who gained notoriety for hiking the price of HIV/AIDS medication before serving more than four years in prison for securities fraud, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to toss a disgorgement order requiring him to pay $64 million for monopolistic price-gouging.
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June 28, 2024
6th Circ. Won't Move Net Neutrality Challenges To DC
The Sixth Circuit on Friday denied a bid to transfer challenges to the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules to the D.C. Circuit.
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June 28, 2024
High Court Bends, But Doesn't Break, FERC Enforcement
The U.S. Supreme Court's new limits on administrative law judge powers has injected fresh uncertainty into how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission conducts its enforcement process, but the justices haven't upended the agency's reliance on its in-house court system, FERC watchers say.
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June 28, 2024
Calif. Panel Won't Toss Trial Win By AT&T's Cricket
Cricket Communications Inc. won't have to worry about a 2018 jury trial win being kiboshed after a California appeals court ruled that when it overturned a pretrial ruling because a previous judge failed to disclose that he owned AT&T stock, it didn't mean the entire trial should be undone.
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June 28, 2024
Shifting Legal Positions Behind High Court Abortion Punt
Rapid developments in Idaho abortion law paved the way for a fractured U.S. Supreme Court decision that leaves doctors in the state in murky legal waters around providing abortions to patients in medical crisis.
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June 28, 2024
Biden Extends Deportation Protections For 309K Haitians
The Biden administration on Friday expanded a humanitarian immigration program to provide temporary deportation relief to roughly 309,000 Haitians currently living in the U.S. who can't safely return to their war-torn Caribbean nation where gang violence has escalated in recent months.
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June 28, 2024
Top Delaware Court Tosses Voting Law Challenge
Delaware's Supreme Court on Friday reversed a Superior Court strike-down of two state statutes on voting procedures, finding that the plaintiffs had no standing to sue because they hadn't shown any "imminent, particularized" harm.
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June 28, 2024
NC Justices Revive Black Property Owners' Bias Suit
The North Carolina Supreme Court vacated a lower court's dismissal of discrimination claims brought by Black property owners against the city of Kinston alleging that the city targeted Black-owned buildings for condemnation while preserving white-owned buildings as historical, ruling Friday that the lower court applied the wrong legal standard.
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June 28, 2024
Buttigieg Says Rescheduling Pot Would Not Alter DOT Policy
If the U.S. Department of Justice were to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana as it has proposed, it would not affect the U.S. Department of Transportation's authority to screen for the drug, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told members of Congress.
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June 28, 2024
House Passes Contentious $833B Defense Spending Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed an $833 billion bill funding the Pentagon for 2025, amid a veto threat over contentious issues such as cutting funding for Ukraine and a bar on gender-affirming care.
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June 28, 2024
Chevron Reversal's Impact In Trade Cases Likely Limited
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Friday overturning Chevron deference is expected to have wide-ranging impacts, but its effect may be less harsh on international trade litigation where the field is virtually clear of cases invoking the now-defunct standard.
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June 28, 2024
Patent Office Asks For Comments On 'Experimental Use'
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has indicated that it wants to hear what attorneys think about the current state of the "experimental use exception," which permits individuals to infringe a patent when the use is for "philosophical," not commercial, pursuits.
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June 28, 2024
Condo Seeks Bar On Enforcement Of Corp. Transparency Act
A Boston condominium association has asked a federal judge to shield it and other Massachusetts condo boards from enforcement of an anti-money laundering measure, saying the requirement to submit personal information to a government database creates an undue and unnecessary burden on volunteer organizations.
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June 28, 2024
DC Circ. Panel Rejects Mich. Tribe's Casino Land Trust Bid
A D.C. appellate court panel on Friday rejected a Michigan tribe's bid to compel the federal government to take land into trust for a casino venture outside Detroit, saying the court is not convinced that the tribe's proposal to channel a portion of the profits into the tribal community's unmet needs is lawful.
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June 28, 2024
More Legal Aid Attys Move To Addiction Epidemic Frontlines
Aided in part by an influx of settlement money from opioid litigation, a growing number of legal aid groups are offering programs aimed at individuals and families hurt by the addiction crisis, helping them navigate civil legal issues like driver’s license reinstatements, custody and domestic violence issues, and navigating public health benefits.
Expert Analysis
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5th Circ. Venue-Transfer Cases Highlight Mandamus Limits
Three ongoing cases filed within the Fifth Circuit highlight an odd procedural wrinkle that may let district courts defy an appellate writ: orders granting transfer to out-of-circuit districts, but parties opposing intercircuit transfer can work around this hurdle to effective appellate review, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.
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A Healthier Legal Industry Starts With Emotional Intelligence
The legal profession has long been plagued by high rates of mental health issues, in part due to attorneys’ early training and broader societal stereotypes — but developing one’s emotional intelligence is one way to foster positive change, collectively and individually, says attorney Esperanza Franco.
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To Make Your Legal Writing Clear, Emulate A Master Chef
To deliver clear and effective written advocacy, lawyers should follow the model of a fine dining chef — seasoning a foundation of pure facts with punchy descriptors, spicing it up with analogies, refining the recipe and trimming the fat — thus catering to a sophisticated audience of decision-makers, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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What Junk Fee Law Means For Biz In California And Beyond
Come July 1, companies doing business in California must ensure that the price of any good or service as offered, displayed or advertised is inclusive of all mandatory fees and other charges in compliance with S.B. 478, which may have a far-reaching impact across the country due to wide applicability, say Alexandria Ruiz and Amy Lally at Sidley Austin.
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EPA Heavy-Duty Vehicle GHG Rules Face Bumpy Road Ahead
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for owners and operators of heavy-duty vehicles are facing opposition from both states and the transportation industry, and their arguments will mirror two pending cases challenging the EPA's authority, says Grant Laizer at Adams and Reese.
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8 Steps Companies Should Take After An Internal Investigation
Given the U.S. Department of Justice’s increasing focus on corporate compliance and remediation of misconduct, companies must follow through in several key ways after an internal investigation to ensure history does not repeat itself, say Jonathan Aronie and Joseph Jay at Sheppard Mullin.
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Circuit Judge Writes An Opinion, AI Helps: What Now?
Last week's Eleventh Circuit opinion in Snell v. United Specialty Insurance, notable for a concurrence outlining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate a term's common meaning, is hopefully the first step toward developing a coherent basis for the judiciary's generative AI use, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.
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Opinion
US Solar Import Probe's Focus On China Is Misguided
The U.S. Department of Commerce's recent anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation focuses on the apparent Chinese ownership of solar device importers in four Southeast Asian countries — a point that is irrelevant under the controlling statute, says John Anwesen at Lighthill.
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DC Circ. Ruling Heightens HHS Contract Pharmacy Challenges
The D.C. Circuit's recent ruling that the Section 340B program does not bar manufacturers from restricting deliveries of discounted drugs to contract pharmacies represents a second strike against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' current contract pharmacy policy and raises the stakes surrounding an upcoming Seventh Circuit ruling on the same issue, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.
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Ohio Tax Talk: The Legislative Push For Property Tax Relief
As Ohio legislators attempt to alleviate the increasing property tax burden, four recent bills that could significantly affect homeowners propose to eliminate replacement property tax levies, freeze property taxes for longtime homeowners, adjust homestead exemptions annually for inflation, and temporarily expand the homestead exemption, say Raghav Agnihotri and Rachael Chamberlain at Frost Brown.
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Aviation Watch: Mostly Smooth Landing For New FAA Law
The recently signed Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act enhances air safety in several key ways, including strengthened passenger rights and cockpit voice recorder requirements, but an expansion of slot exemptions at Reagan National Airport is a notable misstep, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.
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Series
In The CFPB Playbook: Regulatory Aims Get High Court Assist
Newly emboldened after the U.S. Supreme Court last month found that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding is constitutional, the bureau has likely experienced a psychic boost, allowing its already robust enforcement agenda to continue expanding, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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NY Public Campaign Funding May Attract Scrutiny From Feds
The upcoming elections across New York this year will be the first under the state’s public campaign finance program — which may broaden federal prosecutors' purview to target state election fraud and corruption, says Jarrod Schaeffer at Abell Eskew.
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FTC Theories Of Harm After Anesthesia Co. Ruling
As Federal Trade Commission litigation against U.S. Anesthesia Partners proceeds following a Texas federal court's recent decision to dismiss a private equity sponsor from the suit, the case attempts to incorporate and advance some of the commission's theories of competitive harm from the final 2023 Merger Guidelines, say attorneys at Mintz.
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National Security And The Commercial Space Sector: Part 2
Strategy documents recently published by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Space Force confirm the importance of the commercial space sector to the DOD, but say little about achieving the institutional changes needed to integrate commercial capabilities in support of national security in space, say Jeff Chiow and Skip Smith at Greenberg Traurig.