Public Policy

  • August 02, 2024

    Privacy & Cybersecurity Midyear Report: 4 Areas To Watch

    New York and Colorado shook up the data privacy landscape by enacting groundbreaking laws protecting children online and clamping down on high-risk uses of artificial intelligence during the first half of 2024, and both states and the federal government are expected to devote considerable attention to these areas in the coming months. 

  • August 02, 2024

    Manhattan DA Slams Trump's 'Regurgitated' Recusal Bid

    The Manhattan district attorney pilloried Donald Trump's renewed request for the judge overseeing his hush money case to recuse himself, branding it a "regurgitated" attempt to rehash issues the court already decided without any new facts — besides Kamala Harris' presidential bid.

  • August 02, 2024

    Akin Debuts AI Law & Regulation Info Tracker

    Global BigLaw firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP launched a tracker to help monitor changing policies related to artificial intelligence in various fields including intellectual property, data privacy, health and national security.

  • August 02, 2024

    Prosecutors Back NJ Judicial Privacy Law's Constitutionality

    Daniel's Law is a "commonsense" measure necessary to counter the surge in threats and violence against judges and law enforcement officers, and it places only a "modest" burden on commercial data brokers, federal prosecutors told a New Jersey federal court weighing the future of the law.

  • August 02, 2024

    DC Circ. Rejects Speech Rights Challenge To DMCA

    A D.C. Circuit panel on Friday knocked down a challenge to a provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that bars circumventing digital locks on copyrighted material, ruling that the law is in line with the First Amendment.

  • August 02, 2024

    NYC Courts' $9.5M Accounting Error Quietly Broke The Law

    Internal audits found New York City courts violated state law by failing to turn over $9.5 million to the state treasury — the result of clerks not keeping tabs on public money in recent years.

  • August 02, 2024

    SEC Narrows Its Rulemaking Focus As Election Looms

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's aggressive rulemaking spree is showing signs of dwindling as November elections loom, although several proposals could be primed for autumn votes if regulators wish to tackle hot-button topics.

  • August 02, 2024

    Tribes Seek Commission's Help On Canada Mining Policy

    A consortium of southeast Alaska tribes is urging the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to call on Canada and British Columbia to formally consult and obtain their "free, prior and informed consent" ahead of looming permitting decisions for the Eskay Creek gold mine.

  • August 02, 2024

    Land Sale Deals Allowed In Colo. Eminent Domain Dispute

    A Colorado appeals court ruled against the city of Westminster in its eminent domain action, ruling that three comparable sales contracts and an adjacent land parcel's $51.5 million purchase and sale contract can be admitted as evidence in a valuation trial.

  • August 02, 2024

    Aussie Panel Opposes Aligning Public Tax Reporting With EU

    The benefits of Australia's public country-by-country reporting bill would diminish if it were limited to jurisdictions covered by the European Union's regime, as businesses have requested, the Australian Senate's economics committee reported Friday.

  • August 02, 2024

    DC Circ. Says Precedent Allows H-1B Spousal Work Permits

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld an Obama-era program authorizing some spouses of highly skilled foreign workers to get work permits, rejecting a challenge from an organization of former IT workers who say they are being displaced by temporary visa holders.

  • August 02, 2024

    Plumbing Co. Sales Reps Owed OT, 1st Circ. Affirms

    A group of more than 600 sales representatives at a Massachusetts-based plumbing and HVAC wholesaler are eligible for overtime pay, the First Circuit concluded on Thursday, affirming a lower court's finding on a Fair Labor Standards Act complaint brought by the government.

  • August 02, 2024

    3 Candidates In Running To Replace Washington AG

    Washington voters on Tuesday will narrow the candidates aspiring to become the state's next attorney general, choosing from among a former U.S. attorney, a state lawmaker who was a county prosecutor, as well as a mayor and attorney who is a gun rights advocate.

  • August 02, 2024

    Kilpatrick Adds Government Relations Adviser In DC

    Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP has hired a former Cox Communications government and public affairs senior specialist, who joined the firm as a government relations adviser, to advise clients on federal funding and navigating state and federal grant programs.

  • August 02, 2024

    FCC Beefs Up Compensation For Phone Caption Services

    The Federal Communications Commission has agreed to a five-year plan that raises compensation for internet-enabled phone caption providers, although Republican commissioners balked at details of the plan and one called on the FCC to move toward greater use of automation technologies.

  • August 02, 2024

    DOJ Sues TikTok For Sweeping Children's Privacy Breaches

    The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday hit TikTok and its parent company with a highly anticipated lawsuit accusing the short-form video app of engaging in "widespread" violations of children's privacy law by collecting a "wide variety" of personal information from kids under 13 without parental consent. 

  • August 01, 2024

    More 'Equitable' Banking? This Ex-Biden Official Has A Plan

    A former Biden U.S. Treasury Department official on Thursday outlined a progressive policy agenda that could provide a road map for bank regulators in the next administration, saying there's more that can and should be done to make the banking system stronger and fairer.

  • August 01, 2024

    Monsanto Wants Wash. Justices To Deny PCB Tort Petition

    Monsanto Co. has urged Washington state's highest court to deny three schoolteachers' request for review of a recent appellate court decision overturning their $185 million win in a chemical poisoning trial, saying the plaintiffs haven't met their burden to show the case warrants the justices' attention.

  • August 01, 2024

    Texas Biz Court Costs Unlikely To Be Prohibitive, Experts Say

    The Texas business court's fee schedule is unlikely to price potential litigants out, but many questions remain about the efficiency of the new venue's fee schedule, experts told Law360.

  • August 01, 2024

    Mich. Justices Uphold Tighter Manure Discharge Regs

    A split Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld state regulators' increased protective permit conditions for animal feeding operations and said challengers to those conditions must fully exhaust administrative appeals before they can bring the issue to court.

  • August 01, 2024

    DOJ Unveils Whistleblower Pilot, But Garners Atty Criticism

    The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday officially launched its pilot program to reward whistleblowers who alert prosecutors to significant corporate misconduct, although some whistleblower attorneys decried the program's award caps and what they described as its lack of enforceability.

  • August 01, 2024

    Calif. AG Says States Opposing 'Clean Fleets' Law Tout EVs

    California's Attorney General Rob Bonta looked to slam the brakes Wednesday on a legal challenge brought by 16 states against the Golden State's Advanced Clean Fleets regulation, saying the complaint must be dismissed for lack of standing because the states themselves are encouraging electric vehicle production.

  • August 01, 2024

    Conservation Groups Take Aim At ESA Regs

    Conservation groups are asking a California federal judge to throw out Endangered Species Act regulations put forward earlier this year, claiming federal agencies shortchanged their environmental review duties and moved ahead with changes that will harm the imperiled plants and animals the statute is supposed to protect.

  • August 01, 2024

    Feds Say Farmworkers Should Have Sued State Over Wages

    The U.S. Department of Labor has urged a Washington federal court to toss a farmworker union's challenge to policies governing the prevailing wage, saying the union's issues actually stem from how state officials interpreted federal rules governing the wage rate.

  • August 01, 2024

    Google Beats RNC's Claims It Censored Fundraising Emails

    A California federal judge on Wednesday tossed the Republican National Committee's lawsuit accusing Google of being politically motivated and violating the state's Unfair Competition Law by sending RNC fundraising emails to Gmail users' spam folders, finding the conduct may be unfair in a "colloquial" sense, but is not illegal.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    After Chevron: Environmental Law May Face Hurdles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling overturning Chevron deference could prove to be as influential as the original 1984 decision, with far-reaching implications for U.S. environmental laws, including rendering recently promulgated regulations more vulnerable to challenges, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.

  • Why High Court Social Media Ruling Will Be Hotly Debated

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    In deciding the NetChoice cases that challenged Florida and Texas content moderation laws, what the U.S. Supreme Court justices said about social media platforms — and the First Amendment — will have implications and raise questions for nearly all online operators, say Jacob Canter and Joanna Rosen Forster at Crowell & Moring.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Good News For Gov't Contractors In Litigation

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    The net result of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Chevron deference is that individuals, contractors and companies bringing procurement-related cases against the government will have new pathways toward success, say Joseph Berger and Andrés Vera at Thompson Hine.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Scale Tips Favor Away From HHS Agencies

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    The loss of Chevron deference may indirectly aid parties in challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' interpretations of regulations and could immediately influence several pending cases challenging HHS on technical questions and agency authority, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Series

    After Chevron: FDA Regulations In The Crosshairs

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine is likely to unleash an array of challenges against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, focusing on areas of potential overreach such as the FDA's authority under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Realtor Settlement May Create New Antitrust Pitfalls

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    Following a recent antitrust settlement between the National Association of Realtors and home sellers, practices are set to change and the increased competition may benefit both brokers and homebuyers, but the loss of the customary method of buyer broker compensation could lead to new antitrust concerns, says Colin Ahler at Snell & Wilmer.

  • Navigating The New Rise Of Greenwashing Litigation

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    As greenwashing lawsuits continue to gain momentum with a shift in focus to carbon-neutrality claims, businesses must exercise caution and ensure transparency in their environmental marketing practices, taking cues from recent legal challenges in the airline industry, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

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    On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Expect Limited Changes In USPTO Rulemaking

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Chevron deference will have limited consequences for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office given the USPTO's unique statutory features, but it is still an important decision for matters of statutory interpretation, especially those involving provisions of the America Invents Act, say Andrei Iancu and Cooper Godfrey at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • Preparing For CFPB 'Junk Fee' Push Into Mortgage Industry

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    As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau considers expanding its "junk fee" initiative into mortgage closing costs, mortgage lenders and third parties must develop plans now that anticipate potential rulemaking or enforcement activity in this space, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Opinion

    It's Time For Nationwide Race-Based Hair Protections

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    While 24 states have passed laws that prohibit race-based hair discrimination, this type of bias persists in workplaces and schools, so a robust federal law is necessary to ensure widespread protection, says Samone Ijoma and Erica Roberts at Sanford Heisler.

  • Series

    After Chevron: EEOC Status Quo Will Likely Continue

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    As the legal landscape adjusts to the end of Chevron deference, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s rulemaking authority isn’t likely to shift as much as some other employment-related agencies, says Paige Lyle at FordHarrison.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Impact On Indian Law May Be Muted

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    Agency interpretations of Indian law statutes that previously stood the test of judicial review ​are likely to withstand new challenges even after the end of Chevron deference, but litigation in the area is all but certain, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • Opinion

    Trump Immunity Ruling Upends Our Constitutional Scheme

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump v. U.S. decision elevates the president to imperial status and paves the way for nearly absolute presidential immunity from potential criminal prosecutions — with no constitutional textual support, says Paul Berman at the George Washington University Law School.

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