Public Policy

  • November 13, 2024

    Wash. Attys Expect Gov. And AG Will Keep Them Busy

    Despite President-elect Donald Trump's anticipated de-emphasis of regulatory enforcement, Washington state antitrust and consumer protection attorneys are still expecting plenty of work in the coming years, as the new Democratic governor-attorney general duo are expected to step up local enforcement.

  • November 13, 2024

    Defenders, Prosecutors Clash On Proposed Wash. Case Caps

    As public defenders called on the Washington Supreme Court on Wednesday to adopt lightened caseload standards to stem the exodus of attorneys from the indigent defense field, prosecutors chalked up those concerns to career dissatisfaction and cautioned the court the updated rules would catapult local governments into budgetary crisis.

  • November 13, 2024

    Transport Co. Wants To End Calif. Family Separation Suit

    Transportation services provider MVM Inc. urged a California federal judge to toss a proposed class action by a father and son who were separated after crossing the border, arguing Tuesday the Trump-era separation policy was enacted by the U.S. government, and that MVM was simply executing its contractual duties.

  • November 13, 2024

    DOJ Doc Pushes For Strong Antitrust Compliance Programs

    Companies hoping antitrust compliance programs will mitigate or even eliminate U.S. Department of Justice criminal prosecution for bid-rigging, price-fixing and market allocation schemes need strong monitoring, remediation, oversight and responsibility, according to new guidance released Tuesday.

  • November 13, 2024

    Md. Electricity 'Greenwashing' Law Is A Muzzle, Judge Told

    A Maryland law attempting to crack down on electricity suppliers' "greenwashing" claims unconstitutionally mandates companies speak about their product in a way that conforms to what the state considers "sustainable energy," a renewable energy company and an advocacy organization argued in Maryland federal court.

  • November 13, 2024

    Cox Eyes Federal Suit After RI Court Tosses BEAD Case

    Cox Communications has signaled that it may sue in federal court after a Rhode Island state judge tossed on jurisdictional grounds its complaint accusing state officials of botching the rollout of federal broadband deployment dollars.

  • November 13, 2024

    TikTok Asks To Keep NC AG's Addiction Complaint Redacted

    TikTok Inc. is asking a North Carolina state court to keep redacted portions of a complaint by the state alleging that it targets youth to make them compulsive and addicted users, saying parts of the complaint include information from confidential documents and trade secrets.

  • November 13, 2024

    Copyright Chief: Fair Use A Tough Issue In Upcoming AI Report

    An upcoming report from the U.S. Copyright Office addressing questions of infringement and training artificial intelligence models with copyrighted material will address fair use, Shira Perlmutter, the office's director, told a U.S. Senate oversight panel Wednesday.

  • November 13, 2024

    Boston Says Celebrity Chef Owes $1.6M In Taxes

    The city of Boston is taking celebrity chef Barbara Lynch to court, alleging that for more than a decade she has failed to pay over $1.6 million in personal property taxes for her group of restaurants, which she is in the process of closing and attempting to sell.

  • November 13, 2024

    Detroit Fire Fee Ruling Concerns Mich. Justice

    A Michigan Supreme Court justice on Wednesday said he was troubled by a lower appellate ruling he said seemed to imply that municipalities can work around a state law barring sneaky taxes, in this case by stating a charge for fire prevention services is really just the cost of a permit allowing property owners to do business in Detroit.

  • November 13, 2024

    EPA Tells DC Circ. That Mercury Rule Is Sound

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the D.C. Circuit that opponents of its rule strengthening standards for mercury and other toxic air emissions at power plants are seeking to hamstring the agency with a too-narrow interpretation of the Clean Air Act.

  • November 13, 2024

    Judge Won't Rethink Mootness Of Air Force Vax Mandate Suit

    A Georgia federal judge on Tuesday refused to reconsider his finding that a challenge by U.S. Air Force personnel to the military's now-rescinded COVID-19 vaccination mandate on religious grounds is moot, holding there is no live controversy to keep the case going.

  • November 13, 2024

    Trump Is Poised, Once Again, To Jolt US Trade Policy

    Donald Trump's first stint in the White House saw steep tariffs against China and other trade partners, and with the Biden administration having largely maintained and even expanded those levies, the president-elect is well-positioned to further pull those levers.

  • November 13, 2024

    Space Activities Need Licensing Latitude, Chamber Says

    The Federal Communications Commission could stifle in-space manufacturing growth if it decides to license new space stations only for individual services instead of broader, category-wide uses, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said.

  • November 13, 2024

    FTX Prosecutors Tout Tech Chief's 'Outstanding Cooperation'

    Manhattan federal prosecutors urged a lenient sentence for former FTX technology chief Zixiao "Gary" Wang, telling the court on Wednesday that his "outstanding cooperation" was instrumental in securing the lightning-fast indictment and ultimate conviction of founder Sam Bankman-Fried for an $11 billion fraud that sank the crypto exchange.

  • November 13, 2024

    Outgoing DOJ Antitrust Head Wants To Unstack Healthcare

    The U.S. Department of Justice's top antitrust official looked to the future Tuesday, of both healthcare and his own exit with the change in presidential administration, as he defended the Biden era's more aggressive, nuanced approach to merger enforcement that wouldn't allow massive insurers and others to stack up the industry like Tetris.

  • November 13, 2024

    Republicans Ask Pa. Justices To Cement Ballot Date Rule

    Although a Pennsylvania court decision tossing a rule for mail-in ballots was supposed to only apply to a September special election in Philadelphia, Republican groups have asked the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania to review it and more broadly uphold the rule requiring a handwritten date on the ballots' outer envelopes.

  • November 13, 2024

    Madigan's Atty Seeks To Discredit Key Government Witness

    The cross-examination of a former ComEd executive who wore a wire for the government as it built its corruption case against ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan veered Wednesday into the informant's messy divorce proceedings and his failure to disclose felony charges when trying to buy a gun to kill snakes, as Madigan's attorneys tried to call his credibility into question.

  • November 13, 2024

    Short-Term Rental Owners 'Unreasonable,' Dallas Tells Court

    A Dallas short-term rental advocacy organization loves to focus on property rights, but it never considered the rights of neighbors who want safe neighborhoods and don't want to live next to an active business, a city attorney told a Fifth Court of Appeals panel during oral arguments Wednesday.

  • November 13, 2024

    Colo. A2J Commission Will Launch Listening Tour Next Year

    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Melissa Hart told a room of attorneys on Wednesday that the state's Access to Justice Commission is preparing a 2025 "listen and learn" tour to solicit ideas on how to better serve Coloradans who struggle to afford legal representation.

  • November 13, 2024

    DOD Issues Strategy For Military Base Private 5G Networks

    The U.S. Department of Defense released its strategy for deploying private 5G networks that are upgraded and specifically tailored for needs that can't be met by public commercial networks.

  • November 13, 2024

    LNG Co. Says Full DC Circ. Must Revive Texas Project

    The company behind a liquefied natural gas project on the Texas Gulf Coast urged the full D.C. Circuit on Wednesday to vacate a panel's ruling nixing its federal approval, citing another panel's decision finding the White House Council on Environmental Quality's National Environmental Policy Act regulations are unenforceable.

  • November 13, 2024

    SEC's Uyeda Says Limits On Private Funds Need Review

    Smaller private and venture capital funds could benefit from less-stringent registration requirements, a Republican member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told an advisory panel Wednesday, saying the time is ripe to review whether existing thresholds still make sense.

  • November 13, 2024

    Trump Picks Former Democrat Gabbard For Intelligence Chief

    President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he had chosen former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as his nominee for director of national intelligence, also confirming he had chosen Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as his secretary of state.

  • November 13, 2024

    Trump's Choice Of Matt Gaetz For AG Hints At Cannabis Policy

    President-elect Donald Trump's announcement Wednesday that he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., one of the relatively few Republican proponents of cannabis legalization, to be the next U.S. attorney general marks an early sign of how his administration will consider marijuana policy.

Expert Analysis

  • 4 Ways To Prepare For DOD Cyber Certification Rule

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    Given the U.S. Department of Justice's increased scrutiny of contractor compliance with cybersecurity requirements, it is critical that contractors take certain steps now in response to the U.S. Department of Defense's proposed Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification implementation rule, say Townsend Bourne and Lillia Damalouji at Sheppard Mullin.

  • FTC Focus: How Scrutiny Of PBMs And Insulin May Play Out

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    Should Express Scripts' recent judicial challenge to the Federal Trade Commission succeed, any new targets could add litigation and choice of forum to their playbooks, and potential FTC court action on insulin could be forced to parallel venues as the issues between the commission and PBMs evolve, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • A Look At How De Minimis Import Rules May Soon Change

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    The planned implementation of executive actions focused on the de minimis rule as it applies to shipments means companies should use this interval to evaluate the potential applicability and impact of Section 301, Section 201 or Section 232 duties on their products, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Key Takeaways From DOJ's New Corp. Compliance Guidance

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s updated guidance to federal prosecutors on evaluating corporate compliance programs addresses how entities manage new technology-related risks and expands on preexisting policies, providing key insights for companies about increasing regulatory expectations, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • What's In The Cards For CFTC's Election Betting Case

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    A D.C. federal judge's Sept. 12 ruling, allowing KalshiEx to offer derivative contracts trading on the outcome of the U.S. congressional elections over objections from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, could mark a watershed moment in the permissibility of election betting if upheld on appeal, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • What To Know About Latest Calif. Auto-Renewal Law Update

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    While businesses have about nine months to prepare before the recently passed amendment to California's automatic renewal law takes effect, it’s not too early to begin working on compliance efforts, including sign-up flow reviews, record retention updates and marketing language revisions, say Gonzalo Mon and Beth Chun at Kelley Drye.

  • The Key Changes In Revised FDIC Hiring Regulations

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    Attorneys at Ogletree break down the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s new rule, effective Oct. 1, that will ease restrictions on financial institutions hiring employees with criminal histories, amend the FDIC's treatment of minor offenses and clarify its stance on expunged or dismissed criminal records.

  • FDIC's Cautious Approach To Industrial Banks, Reaffirmed

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    Although the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. recently approved an industrial loan company's deposit insurance application and proposed new rules regarding parent companies, these developments do not represent a liberalization or modernization of the FDIC's regulatory framework, say Max Bonici and Andrew Bigart at Venable.

  • How Lucia, Jarkesy Could Affect Grocery Merger Challenge

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    While the Federal Trade Commission is taking a dual federal court and administrative tribunal approach to block Kroger's merger with Alberstons, Kroger's long-shot unconstitutionality claims could potentially lead to a reevaluation of the FTC's reliance on administrative processes in complex merger cases, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.

  • How NLRB Memo Balances Schools' Labor, Privacy Concerns

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    Natale DiNatale at Robinson & Cole highlights the recent National Labor Relations Board advice memorandum that aims to help colleges reconcile competing obligations under the National Labor Relations Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as university students flock toward unionization.

  • Taking Stock Of FCC's New Spectrum Rule For Drones

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    While an order recently adopted by the Federal Communications Commission is intended to provide drones with rapid access to a limited amount of spectrum in the 5030-5091 megahertz band, the commission envisions an incremental approach to full usage that will play out over the course of the coming months and years, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Basel Endgame Rules: A Change Is Coming

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    The Federal Reserve Board's recently announced recalibration of the Basel endgame proposal begins a critical chapter in the evolution of not only the safety and soundness of U.S. banks, but also of banks' abilities to lend and support American businesses and consumers, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Ruling On Foreign Dividend Break Offers 2 Tax Court Insights

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    In Varian v. Commissioner, the U.S. Tax Court allowed a taxpayer's deduction for dividends from foreign subsidiaries, providing clarity on how the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision may affect challenges to Treasury regulations, and revealing a potential disallowance of foreign tax credits, say attorneys at Davis Polk.

  • How Loper Bright Is Affecting Pending FCC Litigation

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    Pending challenges against Federal Communications Commission orders at the Sixth and Eleventh Circuits following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright highlight that counsel must be familiar with the statutes, regulations and precedent relevant to the FCC to best navigate the rapidly changing compliance landscape, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

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