Public Policy

  • October 28, 2024

    FTC, DOJ Tell 9th Circ. Google Wrong On Play Store Fixes

    Federal antitrust enforcers told the Ninth Circuit there should be consequences after a jury found Google monopolized the Android app distribution market, as Google pushes to keep a court order paused in the antitrust case being brought by Epic Games.

  • October 28, 2024

    Colo. Judge: Attys Have Work To Do On Disability Acceptance

    A Colorado appeals court judge who co-founded the Colorado Disability Bar Association told a room of law students Monday that while the legal community has made progress on being inclusive of those with physical disabilities, work remains on accepting lawyers with "invisible disabilities" like mental health conditions, neurodivergence and chronic pain.

  • October 28, 2024

    Feds Defend DEI Monitor Provision In Boeing Plea Deal

    The U.S. Department of Justice said it will consider diversity and inclusion when it picks an independent compliance monitor for The Boeing Co. under a proposed plea agreement in the company's criminal conspiracy case, reassuring a Texas federal judge that the selection process will be rigorous.

  • October 28, 2024

    NY Suit Over Inaccurate Background Check Gets Dropped

    A man who lost a job opportunity with the Home Shopping Network after an allegedly faulty background check pinned him for cocaine trafficking instead of marijuana peddling agreed to drop his suit against the screening company.

  • October 28, 2024

    Ga. Election Denier Sues Over Council Meeting Arrest

    A Georgia election denier sued a host of Floyd County officials over his arrest last year at a county commission meeting, alleging that the county government conspired to have him jailed after he lobbied for its attorney to be fired.

  • October 28, 2024

    FCC Looks To Build 'Single Network Future' Through Regs

    The federal government envisions a "single network future" where smartphones can connect almost anywhere in the country thanks to regulations allowing signal coverage enhanced by satellites, the Federal Communications Commission's chief told academics.

  • October 28, 2024

    FCC Urged To Include Credit Unions In Broadband Fund Rules

    Credit unions should be included along with banks under Federal Communications Commission requirements to secure letters of credit in order to receive funding for broadband networks, a national trade group told the FCC.

  • October 28, 2024

    Supreme Court Keeps 5th Circuit Horse Racing Ruling On Ice

    A Fifth Circuit ruling that declared the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority's oversight of federal horse safety regulation to be unconstitutional was put on hold by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday while it decides whether to hear the authority's appeal.

  • October 28, 2024

    Biden Immigration Rule Pushes 'Mass Amnesty,' Texas Says

    Texas told a federal judge that a Joe Biden administration rule allowing noncitizens and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to stay in the country while they apply for green cards and work permits ignores existing immigration law and was an attempt at pushing "mass amnesty."

  • October 28, 2024

    No COVID Property Tax Break For Hotels, Wash. Court Told

    Hotels in Washington state should not get property tax breaks for COVID-19 because the pandemic was not a natural disaster that allows relief, the assessor of the state's most populous county told a state court.

  • October 28, 2024

    HHS Says In-Home Evals Raised Insurers' Medicare Payments

    Private Medicare insurers collected an estimated $4.2 billion in extra federal payments last year from in-home health assessments they conducted, even though the evaluations led to no treatment, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' internal watchdog.

  • October 28, 2024

    FCC To Help Tribal Libraries Connect To E-Rate Funding

    The Federal Communications Commission will help tribal libraries link up with funding through the E-Rate subsidy program for schools and libraries on a permanent basis.

  • October 28, 2024

    Transgender Inmate's Suit Meets Skeptical 2nd Circ. Judge

    A Second Circuit judge pressed counsel for a transgender inmate Monday to explain how prison officials in Connecticut were supposed to know that their failure to refer the inmate to specific gender dysphoria treatment would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, noting that relevant case law may not have put them on notice.

  • October 28, 2024

    Tribe-Linked Lenders Flouted Interest Laws, Borrower Says

    A Florida man and his purported data analytic companies face a proposed class action alleging they improperly touted a relationship with a small Native American tribe as they made consumer loans with triple-digit annual interest rates.

  • October 28, 2024

    5th Circ. Balks At Ballots Received After Election Day

    The Fifth Circuit has ruled against Mississippi being able to count ballots received after Election Day, but it is unlikely to have an effect on the upcoming election.

  • October 28, 2024

    Mass. Court's Wiretap Ruling May Be Bad Omen For Plaintiffs

    A ruling by the Massachusetts high court rejecting wiretap claims over website operators' use of tracking software like Meta Pixel and Google Analytics shows the steep climb plaintiffs may continue to face as they try to apply older laws to modern technologies, experts told Law360.

  • October 28, 2024

    DC Circ. Told Carbon Tech Doesn't Back EPA Power Plant Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can't show that carbon capture and sequestration technology can be used now to meet its new emissions requirements for power plants, necessitating vacatur, Republican-led states and industry challengers told the D.C. Circuit.

  • October 28, 2024

    7 Months, 11 Dissents: GOP Minority Flexes Muscles At FTC

    The Federal Trade Commission's two relatively new Republican members are starting to show how they'll use their minority position to full advantage. Sometimes they've fully signed on to the Democratic majority, other times they've dissented emphatically. And the GOP members showed something new this month when approving a dramatic overhaul to the agency's merger filing rules: forcing their colleagues to compromise.

  • October 28, 2024

    Calif.'s 2018 Fire Reimbursement Suit Meets Skeptical Judge

    A Los Angeles judge appeared dubious Monday that the state of California can use litigation against Southern California Edison to recover emergency funds distributed to local agencies that responded to the destructive Woolsey Fire in 2018.

  • October 28, 2024

    Hotel Guests Ask 3rd Circ. To Look At Algorithm Price-Fix Suit

    Three Atlantic City guests are taking their beef with hotel-casinos to the Third Circuit after a New Jersey federal court threw out their lawsuit that accused hotel owners in the town of using an algorithm to inflate the price of rooms.

  • October 28, 2024

    Osage Call Need For Okla. ETC Designation 'Critical'

    The Osage Nation of Oklahoma is asking once again for the FCC to designate it as an eligible telecommunications carrier so that it can more easily bring internet — and federal subsidy programs — to the underserved citizens of its reservation, which is roughly the size of Delaware.

  • October 28, 2024

    Labor Dept.'s Proposed ESOP Rule Moves Toward Release

    The White House Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the U.S. Department of Labor's proposal for a rule related to how employee stock ownership valuations are conducted, the last step before the long-awaited proposed regulation is released to the public for comment.

  • October 28, 2024

    Ind. Tax Board Cuts Target Store's Assessment By $500K

    An Indiana Target's property tax assessment should be lowered by roughly $500,000 for three tax years, the state Board of Tax Review said, finding the retailer's income capitalization approach to the valuation persuasive.

  • October 28, 2024

    Attorney Says NJ Red Flag Law Violates 2nd Amendment

    An attorney who had his firearms seized after flashing a handgun during a road rage incident alleged in New Jersey federal court that a state red flag law violates the Second Amendment, arguing it is another way for the state to suppress the right to carry handguns in public.

  • October 28, 2024

    RNC Asks High Court To Stop Pa. Provisional Ballot Rule

    The Republican Party urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to freeze a ruling from Pennsylvania's top court allowing voters whose mail-in ballots are rejected as defective to submit provisional ballots as replacements, claiming the late change to voting rules in a key battleground state could "taint" the 2024 election.

Expert Analysis

  • How Multifamily Property Owners Can Plan For The EV Future

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    As the electric vehicle market expands, and federal and state incentives and mandates intended to promote EV use come into effect, owners and operators of multifamily residential properties should be prepared to meet the growing demand for onsite EV charging infrastructure, say Sydney Tucker and Andreas Wokutch at Frost Brown.

  • New Law May Move Calif. Toward Fashion Sustainability

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    California’s recently signed Responsible Textile Recovery Act seeks to increase sustainability innovation in the fashion industry, but it could also create compliance hurdles for brands, especially smaller fashion houses that do not have ample resources, say Warren Koshofer and Maggie Franz at Michelman & Robinson.

  • Antitrust In Retail: Why FTC Is Studying 'Surveillance Pricing'

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    The Federal Trade Commission's decision to study targeted "surveillance pricing" should provide greater clarity into the nature of the data aggregation industry, but also raises several issues, including whether these practices are in fact illegal under any established interpretations of U.S. antitrust law, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Licensing And Protections For Voice Actors In The Age Of AI

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    While two recently enacted California laws and other recent state and federal legislation largely focus on protecting actors and musicians from the unauthorized use of their digital likenesses by generative artificial intelligence systems, the lesser-known community of professional voice actors also stands to benefit, says attorney Scott Mortman.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

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    In the third quarter of the year, California continued to be at the forefront of banking regulation as it enacted legislation on unfair banking practices and junk fees, and the state Department of Financial Protection and Innovation notably initiated enforcement actions focused on crypto-assets and student loan debt relief, say Stuart Richter and Eric Hail at Katten.

  • Opinion

    FTC's Report Criticizing Drug Middlemen Is Flawed

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    The Federal Trade Commission's July report, which claims that pharmacy benefit managers are inflating drug costs, does not offer a credible analysis of PBMs, and its methodology lacks rigor, says Jay Ezrielev at Elevecon.

  • Revisiting The Crime-Fraud Exception After Key Trump Cases

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    Evidence issues in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and classified documents cases involving former President Donald Trump offer an opportunity to restudy elements and implications of the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine, noting the courts' careful scrutiny of these matters, say Robert Hoff and Paul Tuchmann at Wiggin and Dana.

  • Enviro Policy Trends That Will Continue Beyond The Election

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    Come October in a presidential election year, the policy world feels like a winner-take-all scenario, with the outcome of the vote determining how or even whether we are regulated — but there are several key ongoing trends that will continue to drive environmental regulation regardless of the election results, say J. Michael Showalter and Samuel Rasche at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

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    In a relatively light few months for banking legal updates in New York, the state Department of Financial Services previewed its views on banking sector artificial intelligence use via insurer guidance, and an anti-money laundering enforcement action underscored the importance of international monitoring processes, say Eric McLaughlin and Dana Bayersdorfer at Davis Polk.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Plan Sponsors Must Prep For New Mental Health, Drug Rules

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    To comply with newly published health insurance rules requiring parity between access to mental health and substance use services compared to medical and surgical services, employers with self-insured plans will need to update third-party administrator agreements and collect data, among other compliance steps, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

  • The Trade And Tax Issues Behind US-Canada Digital Tax Clash

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    The new Canadian digital services tax recently went into effect despite objections from the U.S., a controversy that represents an unusual mix of trade and tax policy, and many companies have been pondering how it will affect their e-commerce businesses, says Damon Pike at BDO.

  • Aviation Watch: Boeing Plea Agreement May Not Serve Public

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    The proposed plea agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Boeing — the latest outgrowth of the company's 737 Max travails — is opposed by crash victims' families, faces an uncertain fate in court, and may ultimately serve no beneficial purpose, even if approved, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

  • Opinion

    Bill Is Key To Protecting US Economy From Patent Piracy

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    It is critical that Congress pass a recently introduced bill that would protect U.S. investors from intellectual property theft by restoring court-ordered injunctions as the default remedy in patent infringement cases to ensure inventors get the justice they deserve, says Andrei Iancu at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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