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Public Policy
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August 16, 2024
Feds Get Boost From Dem Reps In 5th Circ. PWFA Fight
The federal government's Fifth Circuit challenge to a court order blocking it from enforcing a law to protect pregnant workers in Texas got support on Friday from four Democratic lawmakers who argued the lower court ruling, if upheld, would undercut Congress' authority to set its own rules of operation.
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August 16, 2024
Chinese Router Maker Must Be Looked Into, Reps. Say
A House committee that weighs potential dangers posed by the Chinese Communist Party is raising the alarm about the routers sold by a Chinese-owned company, saying the panel believes the devices could pose a risk to national security.
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August 16, 2024
Baltimore Inks $152.5M Opioid Deal With Cardinal Health
Baltimore announced Friday that it settled claims for $152.5 million with Cardinal Health over its alleged role in helping fuel the city's opioid crisis, reaching the deal with the pharmaceutical distributor ahead of a September trial against five remaining defendants and following separate $45 million settlements with Allergan and CVS.
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August 16, 2024
New Study Sought On Uranium Mine Near Grand Canyon
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is asking the U.S. Forest Service for an updated environmental impact study on the state's only working uranium mine at the center of a dispute with the Navajo Nation, saying the original assessment is based on outdated information about risks to the region's groundwater.
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August 16, 2024
SG Tells High Court No Reason To Unblock Ariz. Voter Law
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to reject an argument from the Republican National Committee and two top Arizona lawmakers that federal law can't preempt the state from requiring proof of citizenship to vote.
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August 16, 2024
DHS Unit Unveils Guide Ahead Of New Parole Program Start
The Biden administration released a guide Friday about a program set to roll out Monday that will allow certain foreigners married to U.S. citizens and their children to apply for green cards and get work authorization without leaving the U.S.
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August 16, 2024
Voters' Bid To Revive Ga. Election Suit Slammed As Hail Mary
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is asking a federal judge to "make clear" a case alleging a biased system to elect Georgia Public Service Commission members "is over," as Black voters behind the suit fight to keep it alive.
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August 16, 2024
Harris Proposes Tax Break For Homebuilders
Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, proposed several housing-related tax proposals, including creating a tax incentive for homebuilders that sell to first-time homebuyers, during a campaign speech Friday.
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August 16, 2024
9th Circ. Keeps Part Of Block On Calif. Kids' Privacy Law
The Ninth Circuit on Friday refused to completely scrap an injunction halting a groundbreaking new California law requiring social media platforms to bolster privacy protections for children, finding that a tech trade group was "likely to succeed" on its argument that the mandate for companies to identify and address potential risks to minors violates the First Amendment.
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August 16, 2024
States Get Teva Generic Price-Fix Case On Docket As 1st Trial
A Connecticut federal judge has granted a request from a coalition of state attorneys general suing a slew of generic-drug makers to try a case focused on Teva before proceeding with a different case that was first filed.
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August 16, 2024
FCC Plans To Overhaul Citizens Broadband Radio Service
The Federal Communications Commission plans to give the Citizens Broadband Radio Service a makeover that it says will ensure better interference protections for both current and future users of the spectrum.
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August 16, 2024
State Dept. Issues Interim Australia, UK Export Waiver Rule
The U.S. Department of State issued an interim rule Friday easing export restrictions for Australia and the United Kingdom to facilitate the trilateral AUKUS agreement, after determining the allied countries' export controls were comparable to those of the U.S.
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August 16, 2024
UN Votes For Global Services As First Priority Under Tax Pact
The United Nations voted Friday to make taxation of cross-border services the most prioritized topic for a legally binding agreement to be finalized by late 2027 alongside the organization's framework convention on international tax cooperation.
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August 16, 2024
24-Hour Abortion Delay Violates Ohio Constitution, Court Told
In the wake of an Ohio constitutional amendment enshrining the right to abortion, a state court heard arguments Friday as it considers whether to block laws requiring pregnant individuals to wait at least 24 hours before they can access abortions in the state.
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August 16, 2024
TCJA's Estate Tax Treatment Shouldn't Change, Panel Told
If the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's estate tax exemption increase is allowed to lapse in 2025, many family farms in the Midwest would face tough choices, including whether to sell to large corporations, panelists told the House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee on Friday.
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August 16, 2024
Off The Bench: WNBA Suit, Olympic Fallout, Swimming Ban
In this week's Off The Bench, a WNBA star accuses her former team of discrimination for trading her once she became pregnant, questions swirl around the revocation of a U.S. gymnast's Olympic medal, and a BigLaw investigation prompts the University of Notre Dame to suspend its men's swimming program.
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August 16, 2024
Atty Gets 32 Months In Prison For Bribing Chicago Alderman
An Illinois federal judge on Friday sentenced an immigration attorney and real estate developer convicted of bribing former Chicago Alderman Ed Burke to two years and eight months in prison, maintaining prison time is warranted because the lawyer initiated the bribe and tried to hide it from federal agents and the grand jury.
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August 16, 2024
5th Circ. Nixes Injunction Denial In Texas Electioneering Suit
The Fifth Circuit blocked a Texas county's new electioneering rules Thursday, reversing a district court's ruling rejecting a preliminary injunction motion from local conservative groups and holding that the regulations on signage near county-owned voting locations and other provisions likely violate the First Amendment.
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August 16, 2024
DC Circ. Rolls Back Pipeline Safety Rules
The D.C. Circuit on Friday threw out a handful of new safety standards for gas transmission pipelines set by the U.S. Department of Transportation, ruling that federal regulators failed to explain why their benefits outweighed their costs.
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August 16, 2024
Public Interest Orgs. Press For FCC's AI Ad Disclosure Rule
As the fall elections loom, more than 40 public interest groups are advocating for the Federal Communications Commission to require radio and TV broadcasters to disclose the use of artificial intelligence in political ads.
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August 16, 2024
5th Circ. Tosses Appeal In FTC's Anesthesia Antitrust Case
The Fifth Circuit agreed with the Federal Trade Commission and tossed an early appeal from U.S. Anesthesia Partners in the agency's case accusing the group of monopolizing the Texas anesthesiology market through a "roll-up" strategy.
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August 16, 2024
1st Circ. Smooths Path For Title VII Retaliation Claims
The First Circuit on Thursday affirmed a lower court's grant of summary judgment for Bentley University in an employment discrimination lawsuit brought by a former program coordinator, but also took the opportunity to lower the bar for retaliation claims.
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August 16, 2024
Ch. 7 Trustee Can't Recover Tax Payment, States Tell Justices
A group of roughly two dozen states threw their support behind the federal government in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that forced the IRS to return a tax payment after a bankruptcy trustee argued it was a fraudulent transfer and recoverable under state law.
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August 16, 2024
NC AG Readies Appeal In Fight Over Smithfield Foods Funds
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein is taking a fight over millions of dollars in environmental grants to the state appeals court, after a trial judge found the funds should be exclusively set aside for use in public schools.
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August 16, 2024
ICE Arresting More Detained Noncitizens, Report Shows
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been making more arrests while Customs and Border Protection has been making fewer in fiscal year 2024, corresponding to the Biden administration's efforts to limit asylum access at the U.S.-Mexico border, a new report shows.
Expert Analysis
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How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act
In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jakesy decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed the Administrative Procedure Act in ways that undermine Congress and the executive branch, shift power to the judiciary, curtail public and business input, and create great uncertainty, say Alene Taber and Beth Hummer at Hanson Bridgett.
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How Corner Post Affects Enviro Laws' Statutes Of Limitations
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board has helped to alter the fundamental underpinnings of administrative law — and its plaintiff-centric approach may have implications for some specific environmental laws' statutes of limitations, say Chris Leason and Liam Martin at Gallagher and Kennedy.
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Opinion
DOL's Impending Mental Health Act Regs Should Be Simplified
The U.S. Department of Labor should consider revising these six issues in its forthcoming Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act regulations to ease the significant compliance hurdles for group health plan sponsors, says Alden Bianchi at McDermott.
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Parsing FY 2024 DOJ Criminal Healthcare Fraud Enforcement
While the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division's strike force on healthcare fraud enforcement action shows an impressive doubling of criminal indictments, a closer look at the data offers important clues about underlying trends, including the comparably modest, accompanying increase in associated intended loss, say Roderick Thomas and Kathleen Cooperstein at Wiley.
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Haste Is Priority For Participation In New Green Card Program
Immigration practitioners should determine their clients' eligibility under the Biden administration’s new policy to help certain noncitizens, particularly those married to U.S. citizens, to apply for green cards, and do so without delay given uncertainty tied to the upcoming election, says Brad Brigante at Brigante Law.
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How Gov't AI Protections May Affect Contractors' Data Rights
The U.S. Senate’s proposed National Defense Authorization Act for 2025, which includes provisions to maintain the government's data rights when contracting for artificial intelligence, should prompt contractors to examine how to protect their own rights when the current data rights framework is applied to AI, say Tyler Evans and Caitlin Conroy at Steptoe.
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Jarkesy May Thwart Consumer Agencies' Civil Penalty Power
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy not only implicates future SEC administrative adjudications, but those of other agencies that operate similarly — and may stymie regulators' efforts to levy civil monetary penalties in a range of consumer protection enforcement actions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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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.