Public Policy

  • July 18, 2024

    Texas Can't Nix EEOC Guidance Over Gender Identity

    A Texas federal judge refused to grant the state attorney general's request to do away with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's enforcement guidance over gender identity, saying the state needs to file a new lawsuit and not piggyback on a case that was closed two years ago.

  • July 18, 2024

    Ind. Tax Board Agrees With $2M Valuation Of Unfinished Home

    An Indiana local assessor correctly valued an unfinished mansion at $2.2 million in 2021 and $2.4 million in 2022, a state review board determined after agreeing with the assessor's cost approach.

  • July 18, 2024

    Trade Court Dumps Tile Duties Set After Secretive Meeting

    A U.S. Court of International Trade judge overturned duties on marble-topped tile from China on Thursday, holding that federal officials failed to divulge the specifics of a closed-door meeting with a U.S. tile producer related to their investigation.

  • July 18, 2024

    NJ Gov., Ex-Elections Chief Spar Over Push To Resign

    Garden State Gov. Phil Murphy told a New Jersey state judge Thursday claims from the former elections chief that his civil rights were violated when he was pushed to resign allegedly in retaliation for a satirical article should be tossed, arguing there is nothing in the law that prevents him from asking a state official to resign.

  • July 18, 2024

    Judge With Lake Property Exits $217M Dam Repair Tax Suit

    A Michigan federal judge said he would step aside in a fight over a $217 million tax assessment to fund dam reconstruction because he's part of the assessment district, though he warned that hundreds of plaintiffs could have their own conflicts.

  • July 18, 2024

    Vermont Suit Accuses PBMs Of Price-Fixing

    Vermont's attorney general filed suit against pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and CVS Wednesday, accusing the companies of abusing their market power to drive up prescription costs for consumers and squeezing out price competition from small pharmacies.

  • July 18, 2024

    Most Top US Cos. To Report Tax Under Aussie Bill, Study Says

    Australia's Senate is expected to consider adoption next month of the world's most extensive public country-by-country reporting rules, which would require 51% of large U.S. multinational corporations to disclose tax arrangements retroactively from July 1, according to a study published Thursday.

  • July 18, 2024

    Final IRS Rules Require Beneficiaries To Take Distributions

    Beneficiaries of retirement account owners who died after starting to take distributions must continue taking the distributions annually, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday in final regulations on required minimum distributions that rejected feedback saying the requirement was overly complex.

  • July 18, 2024

    Police Dept. Beats Cop's Suit Over Political Rally Attendance

    A California police department defeated an officer's lawsuit alleging he was unlawfully fired after attending a "Stop the Steal" rally in early 2021, with a federal judge finding he was fired based on social media posts that violated department policies, not his political activities.

  • July 18, 2024

    Colo. Judge Ends Voter Intimidation Case Midtrial

    A Colorado federal judge on Thursday put an abrupt end to a bench trial in a lawsuit accusing members of a 2020 election denier group of illegal voter intimidation, concluding there was not enough evidence to back up the claims brought by voting rights groups.

  • July 18, 2024

    Ex-BigLaw Atty Gets Nearly 2 Years For Election Crimes

    A former BigLaw attorney was sentenced to 21 months in prison Thursday after being convicted of campaign finance violations tied to a failed run for U.S. Congress, with a Boston federal judge citing the defendant's legal acumen and experience as a law clerk as evidence he "should have known" better.

  • July 18, 2024

    CFPB Eyes Loan Treatment For 'Earned Wage' Cash Advances

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moved Thursday to apply federal truth-in-lending requirements to the growing market for fintech cash advances, issuing a proposed rule that would classify many "earned wage access" products as consumer loans needing clear pricing disclosures.

  • July 17, 2024

    EPA Disputes High Court Link To Texas Clean Air Act Case

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency argued that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling blocking a federal plan to reduce cross-state pollution does not impact the EPA's decision to reject state plans submitted by Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

  • July 17, 2024

    DOI Rejects Calif. Tribal Members' Lineal Descent Claims

    The U.S. Department of the Interior is backing its bid to dismiss a D.C. federal court lawsuit brought by family members who seek control of the California Valley Miwok Tribe, highlighting its argument that their claims have already been decided in several prior cases.

  • July 17, 2024

    PJM Jumps Into 3rd Circ. Row Over Transmission Project

    A Pennsylvania commission's request to have the Third Circuit reinstate its rejection of a power transmission project would impinge on PJM Interconnection's federally mandated planning process, the regional grid operator said in an amicus brief filed Wednesday.

  • July 17, 2024

    MTA Sued For Bus Service Cuts After Congestion Plan Nixed

    New York City's Public Advocate hit the Metropolitan Transportation Authority with a proposed state court class action Wednesday aimed at reversing bus service cuts implemented after Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly canceled plans for congestion pricing, slashing billions in anticipated revenue for the MTA.

  • July 17, 2024

    SEC's Peirce Calls For Rule Agenda Reset After Court Rulings

    Hester Peirce, a member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, called on the agency Wednesday to reconsider its rulemaking agenda given recent court rulings, saying it should "really think about hewing closely" to its statutory mandate, in comments made just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to end Chevron deference.

  • July 17, 2024

    Special Counsel To Appeal Ax Of Trump Classified Docs Case

    Special Counsel Jack Smith told a Florida federal court Wednesday that he was challenging U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's order earlier this week tossing the classified documents criminal case against Donald Trump, according to a notice of appeal.

  • July 17, 2024

    Calif. Asks 9th Circ. To Lift Injunction On Kids' Privacy Law

    California urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to remove an injunction blocking a groundbreaking new law requiring social media platforms to bolster privacy protections for children, defending the protections and arguing that any unconstitutional provision should be severed following the U.S. Supreme Court's Moody v. NetChoice decision.

  • July 17, 2024

    Colo. Federal Judge Tells Attys To Focus On Fundamentals

    U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews told a room of attorneys Wednesday he's concerned by the sloppiness of veteran lawyers he's witnessed in the past year, prompting him to be more of a stickler on procedure than when he was a magistrate judge.

  • July 17, 2024

    Top Florida Real Estate News In 2024 So Far

    Catch up on the hottest real estate news out of Florida so far this year, from alleged zoning abuse and bankruptcy to a brewing condo crisis and a seven-figure highway expansion. 

  • July 17, 2024

    FTC Cites 3rd Circ. In Defending Noncompete Ban

    The Federal Trade Commission has continued to argue against a preliminary injunction a tree services company wants against its noncompete ban, directing a Pennsylvania federal judge to look at a Third Circuit decision from the day before calling for a high bar on initial court blocks absent immediate and permanent harm.

  • July 18, 2024

    CORRECTED: Green Card Process For Mixed-Status Families Opens Aug. 19

    The Biden administration said Wednesday that unauthorized spouses and children of U.S. citizens can start applying on Aug. 19 for a new program that will allow them to get green cards without having to leave the country, in addition to other announcements aimed at increasing access to counsel in immigration courts and boosting noncitizens' ability to work. Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the start date of the parole-in-place program for unauthorized spouses and children of U.S. citizens. The error has been corrected.

  • July 17, 2024

    Commerce Tees Up Dumping Duties On 4 Countries' Melamine

    The U.S. Department of Commerce preliminarily found that foreign producers of a compound used to create plastic dishware, utensils and countertops were receiving government subsidies that gave them an unfair edge in the U.S. market.

  • July 17, 2024

    Lawmakers Say Bid To Toss Monument Suit Is A 'Red Herring'

    The Arizona Legislature is fighting a bid by the Biden administration to dismiss a challenge to a presidential proclamation that established an Indigenous site as a national monument in the Grand Canyon region, arguing that the state's constitution gives the lawmakers power over state trust lands.

Expert Analysis

  • What The FTC Report On AG Collabs Means For Cos.

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    The Federal Trade Commission's April report on working with state attorneys general shows collaboration can increase efficiency and consistency in how statutes are interpreted and enforced, which can minimize the likelihood of requests for inconsistent injunctive relief that can create operational problems for businesses, say attorneys at Kelley Drye.

  • New Crypto Reporting Will Require Rigorous Recordkeeping

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    The release of a form for reporting digital asset transactions is a pivotal moment in the Internal Revenue Service's efforts to track cryptocurrency activities that increases oversight by requiring brokers to report investor sales and exchanges, say Shaina Kamen and Max Angel at Holland & Knight.

  • A Comparison Of FDIC, OCC Proposed Merger Approaches

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    Max Bonici and Connor Webb at Venable take a closer look at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's respective bank merger proposals and highlight certain common themes and important differences, in light of regulators continually rethinking their approaches to bank mergers.

  • Series

    Being An EMT Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While some of my experiences as an emergency medical technician have been unusually painful and searing, the skills I’ve learned — such as triage, empathy and preparedness — are just as useful in my work as a restructuring lawyer, says Marshall Huebner at Davis Polk.

  • Behind Court Challenges To The FTC's Final Noncompete Rule

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent final rule banning noncompetes may not go into effect any time soon amid a couple of Texas federal court challenges seeking to bar the rule's implementation, which will likely see appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, says Michael Elkins at MLE Law.

  • Colo. Lending Law Could Empower State-Chartered Banks

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    Lending programs that rely on rate exportation by state banks should pay close attention to legislative activity and ongoing litigation surrounding Colorado's decision to opt out of rate exportation, which could set a precedent that state-chartered banks have power on par with national banks, says Tom Witherspoon at Stinson.

  • Tax Assessment: Recapping Georgia's Legislative Session

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    Jonathan Feldman and Alla Raykin at Eversheds Sutherland examine tax-related changes from Georgia’s General Assembly — such as the governor’s successful push to accelerate income tax cuts — and suggest steps to take before certain tax incentives are challenged in the state's next legislative session.

  • In Debate Over High Court Wording, 'Wetland' Remains Murky

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    Though the U.S. Supreme Court's decision limiting the Clean Water Act’s wetlands jurisdiction is now a year old, Sackett v. EPA's practical consequences for property owners are still evolving as federal agencies and private parties advance competing interpretations of the court's language and methods for distinguishing wetlands in lower courts, says Neal McAliley at Carlton Fields.

  • SEC Amendments May Launch New Execution Disclosure Era

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently adopted amendments to Rule 605 of Regulation NMS for executions on covered orders in national market system stocks modernize and enhance execution quality reporting, but serious guidance is still needed to make the reports useful for the public investor, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Ga. Law Creates Challenges For Foreign Ownership Of Land

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    Under Georgia's new law limiting certain foreign possessory interests in agricultural land and land near military properties, affected foreign persons and entities will need to do significantly more work in order to ensure that their ownership remains legal, say Nellie Sullivan and Lindsey Grubbs at Holland & Knight.

  • Mitigating Incarceration's Impacts On Foreign Nationals

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    Sentencing arguments that highlighted the disparate impact incarceration would have on a British national recently sentenced for insider training by a New York district court, when compared to similarly situated U.S. citizens, provide an example of the advocacy needed to avoid or mitigate problems unique to noncitizen defendants, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert.

  • How HHS Discrimination Rule Affects Gender-Affirming Care

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    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new final rule, which reinterprets the Affordable Care Act's anti-discrimination provision, greatly clarifies protections for gender-affirming care and will require compliance considerations from sponsors and administrators of most group health plans, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Geothermal Energy Has Growing Potential In The US

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    Bipartisan support for the geothermal industry shows that geothermal energy can be an elegant solution toward global decarbonization efforts because of its small footprint, low supply chain risk, and potential to draw on the skills of existing highly specialized oil and gas workers and renewable specialists, say attorneys at Weil.

  • Tiny Tweaks To Bank Merger Forms May Have Big Impact

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    The impact of proposed changes to the Federal Reserve Board's and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s bank merger review forms would be significant, resulting in hundreds of additional burden hours for bank merger applicants and signaling a further shift by the prudential bank regulators toward more rigorous scrutiny of mergers, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Legal Issues To Watch As Deepfake Voices Proliferate

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    With increasingly sophisticated and accessible voice-cloning technology raising social, ethical and legal questions, particularly in the entertainment industry and politics, further legislative intervention and court proceedings seem very likely, say Shruti Chopra and Paul Joseph at Linklaters.

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