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Public Policy
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September 03, 2024
Feds Abandon $12M Somali Fraud Case Against Atty
The U.S. government has dropped its Maryland federal court case against a lawyer who was set for trial this year on charges of misappropriating over $12 million in Somali state assets, citing "pre-trial evidentiary rulings."
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September 03, 2024
11th Circ. Won't Revive Fla. School's Loudspeaker Prayer Suit
The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a decision in favor of the Florida High School Athletic Association and its decision denying the use of a loudspeaker for prayer before sporting events, ruling that it could be regulated because it was government speech.
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September 03, 2024
5th Circ. Hesitant To Call Tornado Cash 'Entity'
A Fifth Circuit panel prodded the U.S. Department of the Treasury's argument that Tornado Cash counts as a corporation-like organization, telling the agency that its reasoning for calling the sanctioned crypto mixer an entity was "slippery" during oral arguments Tuesday.
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September 03, 2024
Feds Ask Sixth Circ. To Uphold Highway GHG Rule
The federal government called on the Sixth Circuit to overturn a district court ruling finding the Federal Highway Administration overstepped its authority by directing states to set targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from federally funded highway projects, arguing the rule aligns with Congress' instructions.
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September 03, 2024
FCC Moves Ahead On Indie Video Competition, Congress Told
The Federal Communications Commission could soon advance new rules that would make it easier for independent video programmers to gain a foothold in the market, the FCC's chief has told a key Democratic senator on communications policy.
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September 03, 2024
Utah Tribe Seeks Quick Win In Farm Water Diversion Fight
The Ute Indian Tribe is seeking a quick win in its challenge to a Utah farm that it claims diverted protected water to use for its cattle, arguing that in addition to a lack of jurisdiction, it's undisputed that the defendant willingly interfered with the tribe's property.
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September 03, 2024
3rd Circ. Preview: Starbucks Firing, Liquor Law In September
Two National Labor Relations Board cases grace the Third Circuit's September session, when panels will probe the agency's suits against Starbucks Corp. for firing Philadelphia workers attempting to unionize and a plastic company accused of firing a safety whistleblower.
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September 03, 2024
Union-Backed 'Captive Audience' Bill Heads To Calif. Governor
The California Senate voted in favor of a union-backed bill that would bar employers from requiring employees to attend meetings related to religious or political matters — including company-organized meetings used to discourage union-formation — sending the so-called captive audience bill to the governor's desk.
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September 03, 2024
Justices Deny Oklahoma's Bid To Block HHS Funding Cut
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied Oklahoma's request to stop the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from cutting funding over the state's refusal to refer family planning patients for abortion after the high court's Dobbs decision last year.
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September 03, 2024
Calif. Backs EPA's High Court Fight To Keep SF Water Limits
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's water quality standards for San Francisco are legal and should be upheld in the face of a challenge from the city, California and various green groups told the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
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September 03, 2024
Colo. Justices To Parse Public Interest Under Anti-SLAPP Law
Colorado's high court will consider whether the state's anti-SLAPP law requires a person to actually contribute to public discourse in order for their speech to be covered by the statute, and whether their motive matters, in a case concerning negative online posts about a veterinary clinic.
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September 03, 2024
NAACP, Others Fight Ga.'s Bid To Undo Election Law Block
The Georgia branch of the NAACP and a host of other groups are asking the Eleventh Circuit to affirm and expand a preliminary injunction blocking parts of a controversial Peach State election law as state officials are pushing to have the injunction overturned.
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September 03, 2024
NC Suit Over Blackbeard Ship Survives Another Attack
North Carolina's cultural resources agency isn't responsible for enforcing the terms for third-party usage of an image and video of Blackbeard's shipwreck, the state's Business Court ruled Friday in paring damages claims by the organization that discovered the pirate's wreckage.
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September 03, 2024
FCC Urged To Trim Rule Proposal For Blocking Spam Texts
Wireless carriers want the Federal Communications Commission to scale back a proposed rule for blocking spam texts to ensure legitimate messages can still go through despite tighter standards.
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September 03, 2024
UAW Loses Bid To Include Casinos In NJ Smoking Ban
A New Jersey state court judge on Friday tossed the United Auto Workers' complaint claiming a law excluding casino workers from secondhand smoking protections violates the state constitution, reasoning that the law doesn't inhibit the employees' right to pursue safety.
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September 03, 2024
Ga. Minor Says Hotel Knew About Trafficking But Didn't Help
An Atlanta-based hotel and its management company were hit with a lawsuit in Georgia federal court for allegedly doing nothing to stop the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl despite managers' and hotel employees' knowledge of the situation.
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September 03, 2024
Ohio AG Asks Appeals Court To Affirm Trans Care Restrictions
Ohio lawmakers acted within their authority to regulate the practice of medicine when they passed a law this year that restricts gender-affirming care for minors and prohibits transgender girls from participating in girls sports, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost told the state appeals court in a recent brief.
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September 03, 2024
FCC Bans Kaspersky Software In Authorized Equipment
The Federal Communications Commission is banning the use of certain Russian-made cybersecurity and antivirus software from Kaspersky Labs in agency-authorized telecommunications equipment, months after the U.S. Department of Commerce said the software could pose national security risks.
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September 03, 2024
Colo. AG Says Tenants Can Sue Blackstone Over Lease Terms
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser urged the state's Supreme Court on Friday to find that tenants can sue a group of Blackstone subsidiaries for deceptive trade practices over lease agreements that allegedly misrepresent the rights of tenants.
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September 03, 2024
Ex-Defense Contractor Arrested In $350M Tax Evasion Case
A former defense contractor who, with his wife, is facing a 30-count indictment alleging they were involved in a decades-long scheme to defraud the U.S. government and avoid taxes on more than $350 million in income was arrested Tuesday.
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September 03, 2024
EPA Should Have Rethought Smog Plan, DC Circ. Told
U.S. Steel Corp. told the D.C. Circuit that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was obligated to rethink its plan to reduce smog-forming emissions across several states once courts partially blocked the plan's implementation, saying those decisions vindicate arguments that the rule can't be legally crafted.
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September 03, 2024
Advocates Urge 8th Circ. To Keep Iowa Arrest Law Blocked
Immigration lawyers and advocates for domestic violence survivors slammed Iowa's defense of a state law authorizing the arrest of immigrants who reentered the country after deportation, telling the Eighth Circuit that the immigrants may have obtained humanitarian protections after removal.
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September 03, 2024
DOI Says Court Can't Force Policy Orders In Recognition Fight
U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is fighting a bid to force her to complete a final new rule for federal recognition or be held in contempt, saying that compelling the agency to conclude a policy decision in a matter of weeks is unreasonable and could have a harmful ripple effect.
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September 03, 2024
Calif. Eyes New Heavy-Duty Autonomous Truck Testing Regs
California is forging ahead with plans to test and deploy more heavy-duty autonomous trucks, at the same time that state lawmakers are seeking to ban autonomous trucks from operating without a human driver behind the wheel.
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September 03, 2024
Split 5th Circ. Dissolves La. Voting Consent Decree
An 11-member majority of the Fifth Circuit dissolved a 30-year-old voting consent decree over how justices are elected to Louisiana's highest court, finding in a split en banc opinion that the state has "satisfied its obligations."
Expert Analysis
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Look For Flags On Expert Claims After Sunday Ticket Reversal
A California federal judge’s recent reversal of a jury’s $4.7 billion antitrust verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket case indicates that litigants may be inclined to challenge expert testimony admissibility under Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, and that judges may increasingly accept such challenges, say attorneys at Kutak Rock.
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How Justices Upended The Administrative Procedure Act
In its recent Loper Bright, Corner Post and Jarkesy 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.