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Public Policy
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July 15, 2024
Monsanto Doubles Down In Push To Undo $82M PCB Verdict
Monsanto has urged a Washington state appeals court to toss an $82 million jury verdict awarded over polychlorinated biphenyls exposure at a school, saying the findings by the same court in a similar case should apply.
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July 15, 2024
NRA's Policies Called 'Dumpster Fire' As 2nd NY Trial Opens
The New York attorney general cast the National Rifle Association as unrepentant and unreformed as a second-phase bench trial began in state court Monday, after a jury had found the group and its ex-officers liable for misspending millions.
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July 15, 2024
Fed's Powell Says He's Not Going Anywhere As Chairman
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Monday that he will serve out the remaining two years of his appointment leading the central bank, signaling his intent to stick around despite questions about his future in a second potential Trump administration.
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July 15, 2024
Calif. Justices Nix 3 Charter Arb. Terms, Remand Severability
The California Supreme Court held Monday that three of four challenged provisions in Charter Communications Inc.'s employee arbitration agreement are "substantively unconscionable" but remanded a worker's discrimination case back to the trial court to determine if those provisions can be severed and the agreement can still be enforced.
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July 15, 2024
Bulk Billing Regs Could Hurt Lower-Income Tenants, FCC Told
Tighter regulations on bulk billing in multitenant environments could make it harder for seniors, low-income households and students to afford high-speed internet service, industry representatives told the Federal Communications Commission.
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July 15, 2024
School Counselor's FMLA Suit Should Be Tossed, Judge Says
A Georgia school district should be allowed to escape a former counselor's lawsuit alleging she was terminated for requesting time off to care for her sick husband, a federal judge said Monday, finding she couldn't overcome the district's explanation that she'd failed to correct performance issues despite multiple opportunities.
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July 15, 2024
Feds Outline Eligibility Criteria For Foreign Entrepreneur Rule
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services provided updated guidance on the requirements for foreign entrepreneurs to qualify for short-term immigration benefits under the International Entrepreneur Rule.
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July 15, 2024
Gun Mags Are Not 'Arms' Under Constitution, Wash. AG Says
Washington's attorney general is urging the state Supreme Court to uphold a ban on sales of large-capacity magazines for firearms, arguing on Friday that the ammunition devices are not arms deserving of constitutional protection.
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July 15, 2024
3rd Circ. Wants Higher Bar For Halting Delaware Gun Laws
The Third Circuit held Monday that courts have lowered the bar for issuing preliminary injunctions too much, allowing Delaware to keep its ban on "assault weapons" and extended magazines because the gun rights groups challenging the law hadn't met the burden of showing the harm necessary for "extraordinary relief."
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July 15, 2024
Airstrike Survivors Lose Bid To Block UAE's $23.4B Arms Sale
A Washington, D.C., federal court dismissed an effort to block a $23.4 billion arms sale to the United Arab Emirates, saying the plaintiffs — survivors of a 2019 airstrike in Libya — hadn't shown a likelihood of getting attacked again.
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July 15, 2024
9th Circ. Won't Review Toss Of Youths' Climate Case
The Ninth Circuit has rejected youth plaintiffs' request for an en banc rehearing of a May ruling that dismissed their climate change suit against the U.S. government.
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July 15, 2024
Insurance Groups Want DOL Investment Advice Regs Blocked
Several insurance groups urged a Texas federal court to halt the U.S. Department of Labor's new regulations that broaden who qualifies as a fiduciary under federal benefits law, saying the agency's new rule is no different from one the Fifth Circuit invalidated in 2018.
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July 15, 2024
4th Circ. Rejects Couple's $5.1M Easement Deduction
The Fourth Circuit rejected Monday a married couple's bid to revive a claimed $5.1 million conservation easement deduction, saying it represented a "remarkable" attempt to inflate the value of a 41-acre property that was worth just $652,000 the year before they donated it.
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July 15, 2024
FTX Proposes $4B Settlement Of CFTC's Massive $52B Claim
FTX Trading Ltd. asked a Delaware bankruptcy judge to sign off on a settlement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, saying the agreement to allow the agency a $4 billion claim in its bankruptcy would end a fraud civil enforcement action and address the "most significant single creditor" in the crypto currency exchange's Chapter 11 case.
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July 15, 2024
NHTSA Fuel Economy Suits Consolidated In 6th Circ.
Eight separate legal challenges to the U.S. Department of Transportation's newly finalized fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light trucks have been consolidated in the Sixth Circuit, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said Friday.
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July 15, 2024
Fired NJ Cops Say ALJ's Ruling Backs Their Off-Duty Pot Use
An administrative law judge's decision reinstating a Jersey City police officer to her job after she was fired for off-duty marijuana use provides an argument for dismissing the city's lawsuit against the state in which it argues that federal law is at odds with New Jersey law, police officers say in a letter filed Monday in federal court.
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July 15, 2024
New York AG Lobs New Challenge To Rec Sports Trans Ban
New York Attorney General Letitia James and a local roller derby league each sued to strike down a newly passed law banning transgender women and girls from participating in recreational sports at facilities run by Nassau County on Monday, reviving a bitter legal fight.
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July 15, 2024
4th Circ. OKs No Hardship Finding In Mexican Man's Removal
A Fourth Circuit panel on Monday rejected a petition from a Mexican citizen seeking to halt his removal from the United States, ruling that the Board of Immigration Appeals was right to find that his petition fell short of the extreme hardship standard necessary to prevent removal.
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July 15, 2024
Ex-NYC Homeless Services Fraud Investigator Admits ID Theft
A former fraud investigator for the New York City Department of Homeless Services pled guilty along with a co-defendant Monday to scheming to steal the personal information of homeless people and using it to fraudulently apply for unemployment benefits.
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July 15, 2024
Ariz. Rancher Says Monument Order A 'Regulatory Regime'
A sixth-generation Arizona rancher is fighting a bid by the Biden administration to dismiss litigation challenging a presidential proclamation that designated an Indigenous site in the Grand Canyon region a national monument, arguing the order subjects him to a "regulatory regime" he must comply with to enhance his property.
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July 15, 2024
FTC Warns Franchisors About Unfair Contract Terms
The Federal Trade Commission warned franchisors in a new policy statement not to use contract provisions or other tactics to prevent their franchisees from reporting potential law violations to government enforcers.
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July 15, 2024
Okla. Tribes Agree To Share Hunting, Fishing Rights
Oklahoma's Five Civilized Tribes say an agreement that will allow its members to use their tribal hunting and fishing licenses to access one another's territories strengthens their sovereign rights and gives them greater autonomy over the care and preservation of the land for future generations.
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July 15, 2024
North Carolina Cases To Watch In 2024: A Midyear Report
The second half of 2024 will see the North Carolina Business Court tackle media rights in one of the country's largest collegiate athletic conferences while state justices weigh the scope of hospital immunity under the Tar Heel State's COVID-19 emergency law.
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July 15, 2024
DC Circ. Won't Rethink Revived DOJ Realtor Antitrust Probe
The D.C. Circuit won't reconsider a ruling that allowed the U.S. Department of Justice to reopen an investigation into certain rules and policies of the National Association of Realtors, rejecting the trade group's request that the court correct "far-reaching and exceptionally important" legal errors.
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July 15, 2024
Neoprene Maker Tells 5th Circ. Louisiana Can Stall EPA Rule
A Louisiana neoprene manufacturer is asking the Fifth Circuit to affirm a state regulator's decision to grant the company a two-year extension to comply with a final chemical emissions rule issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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FTC Hearing On Fake Review Rule Stressed Compliance Costs
The Federal Trade Commission is likely to finalize its proposed rule to prohibit marketers from using deceptive practices in their product reviews after an informal hearing covered arguments over whether costs of implementing the rule, such as review moderation and software maintenance, would be minimal, says Jeffrey Edelstein at Manatt.
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FTC Focus: Exploring The Meaning Of Orange Book Letters
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced an expansion of its campaign to promote competition by targeting pharmaceutical manufacturers' improper Orange Book patent listings, but there is a question of whether and how this helps generic entrants, say Colin Kass and David Munkittrick at Proskauer.
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3 Recent Decisions To Note As Climate Litigation Heats Up
Three recent rulings on climate-related issues — from a New York federal court, a New York state court and an international tribunal, respectively — demonstrate both regulators' concern about climate change and the complexity of conflicting regulations in different jurisdictions, say J. Michael Showalter and Robert Middleton at ArentFox Schiff.
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Perspectives
Justices' Repeat Offender Ruling Eases Prosecutorial Hurdle
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week in Brown v. U.S., clarifying which drug law applies to sentencing a repeat offender in a federal firearms case, allows courts to rely on outdated drug schedules to impose increased sentences, thus removing a significant hurdle for prosecutors, says attorney Molly Parmer.
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Investors Can Aid In The Acceptance Of Psychedelic Medicine
Psychedelic medicine is ready to have its breakthrough moment, and although it still faces political, legal and communications challenges, private equity investors can play a significant role in changing the public perception on psychedelics from taboo to acceptance, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell, Charlie Panfil at the Daschle Group and Ethan Lutz at FTI Consulting.
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Opinion
Exec Liability Bill For Failed Banks Is Unnecessary, Unwise
A bill before the U.S. Senate, which would effectively empower the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to hold senior bank executives strictly liable for reasonable business decisions that lead to bank failures, needlessly overwrites the existing negligence standard and rewards counterproductive caution in management, say attorneys at Davis Polk.
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National Security And The Commercial Space Sector: Part 1
The recently published U.S. Department of Defense space strategy represents a recalibration in agency thinking, signaling that the integration of commercial space capabilities has become a necessity and offering guidance for removing structural, procedural and cultural barriers to commercial-sector collaboration, say Jeff Chiow and Skip Smith at Greenberg Traurig.
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BF Borgers Clients Should Review Compliance, Liability
After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently announced enforcement proceedings against audit firm BF Borgers for fabricating audit documentation for hundreds of public companies, those companies will need to follow special procedures for disclosure and reporting — and may need to prepare for litigation from the plaintiffs bar, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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How Employers, Attorneys Can Respond To Noncompete Ban
As the Federal Trade Commission's recently issued noncompete ban faces ongoing legal challenges, now is a good time for employers to consider whether they want to take a wait-and-see approach before halting use of noncompetes and for practitioners to gain insight into other tools available to protect their clients' business interests, says Jennifer Platzkere Snyder at Dilworth Paxson.
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New TSCA Risk Rule Gives EPA Broad Discretion On Science
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent final amendments to its framework for evaluating the risks of chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act give it vast discretion over consideration of scientific information, without objective criteria to guide that discretion, say John McGahren and Debra Carfora at Morgan Lewis.
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Perspectives
Trauma-Informed Legal Approaches For Pro Bono Attorneys
As National Trauma Awareness Month ends, pro bono attorneys should nevertheless continue to acknowledge the mental and physical effects of trauma, allowing them to better represent clients, and protect themselves from compassion fatigue and burnout, say Katherine Cronin at Stinson and Katharine Manning at Blackbird.
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Fintech Compliance Amid Regulatory Focus On Sensitive Data
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent, expansive pursuit of financial services companies using sensitive personal information signals a move into the Federal Trade Commission's territory, and the path forward for fintech and financial service providers involves a balance between innovation and compliance, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.
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Opinion
Del. Needs To Urgently Pass Post-Moelis Corporate Law Bill
After the Delaware Chancery Court's decision in West Palm Beach Firefighters' Pension v. Moelis sparked confusion around governance rights, recently proposed amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law would preserve the state's predictable corporate governance system, says Lawrence Hamermesh at Widener University Delaware Law School.
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Cos. Must Stay On Alert With Joint Employer Rule In Flux
While employers may breathe a sigh of relief at recent events blocking the National Labor Relations Board's proposed rule that would make it easier for two entities to be deemed joint employers, the rule is not yet dead, say attorneys at Day Pitney.