Public Policy

  • June 25, 2024

    Project Veritas Rips Ore. Recording Ban At En Banc 9th Circ.

    Project Veritas urged an en banc Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday to find that Oregon's decades-old statute that makes it a felony to secretly record people in public places violates the First Amendment, arguing the "dangerous" statute deters investigative journalism as "one of the broadest recording laws in the nation."

  • June 25, 2024

    UPenn Palestinian Org Can't Block Congress' Doc Request

    An association of pro-Palestinian faculty and students at the University of Pennsylania can't sue the school to stop it from sending documents about the group's activities to a U.S. House committee that expressed concern about alleged antisemitic activities, a Pennsylvania federal judge has ruled.

  • June 25, 2024

    Feds Transfer Nearly 12,000 Acres To Minnesota Tribe

    A Native American tribe in northern Minnesota has added nearly 12,000 acres of forest land to its reservation following an agreement signed by the U.S. Forest Service.

  • June 25, 2024

    AT&T Says No Windfall From FirstNet Managing 4.9 GHz Band

    AT&T is finally weighing in on the robust debate over whether the FCC should hand over control of the recently revamped 4.9 gigahertz public safety band to an entity with strong ties to the telecom behemoth, denying that it would get a "windfall" if the agency were to go through with it.

  • June 25, 2024

    Bulk Of Colo. Climate Case Against Oil Giants Beats Dismissal

    A Colorado state judge has paved the way for a county's lawsuit against major oil and gas companies that aims to hold them liable for damages caused by climate change, rejecting bids to toss claims for public and private nuisance, conspiracy and unjust enrichment.

  • June 25, 2024

    Mich. Judge Blocks State Abortion Waiting Period, Counseling

    A Michigan state judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a 24-hour waiting period, mandatory counseling and other requirements on people seeking abortions in the state, finding they likely violate an amendment in the state constitution guaranteeing the right to an abortion.

  • June 25, 2024

    CFPB Delays Start Of Small-Biz Loan Rule Deadlines Until '25

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday formally pushed back the compliance deadlines for its contested rule that establishes reporting requirements for the small-business lending market, putting nearly 10 more months on the clock for banks and other lenders after a court-ordered stay.

  • June 25, 2024

    USDA Tackles 'Inconsistent' Court Handling Of Packers Suits

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture sought Tuesday to empower itself, and perhaps individual farmers, in lawsuits against allegedly unfair practices in the livestock, meat and poultry industries, by proposing a new rule that would replace the current case-by-case adjudication of what counts as a violation of the Packers and Stockyards Act.

  • June 25, 2024

    Norfolk Southern Torched In NTSB Final Derailment Findings

    Norfolk Southern used "reprehensible" tactics to interfere with the investigation into last year's derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and pushed for an "unnecessary" controlled vent and burn of highly flammable vinyl chloride during the accident's chaotic aftermath, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    GOP Lawmakers Urge 8th Circ. To Quash SEC's Climate Rule

    A group of 35 Republican lawmakers on Tuesday moved to weigh in on the consolidated challenge to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently adopted climate disclosure rule, arguing that the Eighth Circuit should vacate the measure due to a lack of clear congressional authorization.

  • June 25, 2024

    Verizon To Pay $1M For Southeast 911 Outage, FCC Says

    Verizon has agreed to pay just more than $1 million and follow a compliance plan after a December 2022 breakdown of 911 connectivity throughout the Southeast, the Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    Intl. Trade Commission Takes Up 2 New China Import Probes

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has initiated import injury investigations into allegedly dumped and subsidized golf carts from China and brake drums from China and Turkey, the agency announced in a pair of Federal Register notices Tuesday.

  • June 25, 2024

    Split DC Circ. Backs Bush-Era Mining Deregulation

    A divided D.C. Circuit panel on Tuesday upheld a Bush-era mining regulation that removed limits on how much land near a mining site can be used for secondary operations like waste disposal, ruling against environmental groups that accused regulators of illegally walking back a more restrictive interpretation of federal mining law.

  • June 25, 2024

    Flint Judge Wants To Keep City 'Motivated' To Fix Lead Pipes

    A Michigan federal judge on Tuesday all but approved a proposal from the state to step in and help the city of Flint finish replacing lead water service lines and restoring properties for residents, noting the city's repeated failures to meet its obligations under a 7-year-old settlement agreement.

  • June 25, 2024

    After Rahimi Win, Feds Set Sights On Felon Gun Ban

    In a bid to capitalize on last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a federal law that prohibits domestic abusers from possessing firearms, the U.S. solicitor general has called on the justices to next tackle a slew of constitutional challenges to the separate, sweeping ban on people convicted of felonies owning guns.

  • June 25, 2024

    Ga. County Wants Battery Fire Suit Sent Back To State Court

    A Georgia county that sued an electric vehicle battery manufacturer for allegedly dumping hundreds of batteries that led to a massive fire at a local recycling plant asked a federal judge Monday to send the case back to state court.

  • June 25, 2024

    Judge Says Sales Discount Doesn't Justify Redoing Steel Duty

    The U.S. Court of International Trade refused to force the U.S. Department of Commerce to raise antidumping duties on Australian hot-rolled steel to account for a discount that an Australian producer offered its importer, saying the importer paid the duty when it took the steel from the producer.

  • June 25, 2024

    No Need To Ship Net Neutrality Appeals To DC, 6th Circ. Told

    The Sixth Circuit should stand up to the "concerted effort" to push administrative law matters out of other appellate courts and into the D.C. Circuit by refusing to transfer a bundled set of challenges to the FCC's new net neutrality rules, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has said.

  • June 25, 2024

    Indiana U Settles Ricin-Carrying Fruit Fly Export Violations

    Indiana University has escaped fines, but it must instead educate the broader academic community at large on export controls under a settlement with the U.S. Department of Commerce after the institution sent unlicensed shipments overseas, of fruit flies carrying a subunit of ricin.

  • June 25, 2024

    FCC Says Anti-Redlining Rule 'Dutifully' Carries Out Law

    The Federal Communications Commission has urged the Eighth Circuit to toss multiple industry challenges to its rules against discrimination in broadband deployment, saying its use of a wide-reaching standard for prohibited bias fits the law's requirements.

  • June 25, 2024

    Dems Seek 'Honest Evaluation' Of New ICBM Program

    Thirteen Democrats, including the co-chairs of the Congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, are calling for an "honest evaluation" of the U.S. Air Force's new intercontinental ballistic missile program due to cost overruns.

  • June 25, 2024

    $3M Broker Commission Deal Stayed To Await NAR Settlement

    A Massachusetts federal court will not consider a $3 million settlement reached between home sellers and a multiple listing service over broker commission rules until after a decision on a much larger settlement in the separate sprawling case against the National Association of Realtors.

  • June 25, 2024

    NC Development Bill Violates UN Declaration, Tribe Says

    A North Carolina tribe is fighting state legislation that it says does not assure protections over one of the most significant archaeological Native American discoveries in recent years, arguing its language violates international law and centuries-old treaties.

  • June 25, 2024

    Russian Ferrosilicon Gets Preliminary Duties Topping 748%

    The U.S. Department of Commerce handed down preliminary duties of 283.27% and 748.58% in its anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, respectively, into Russian producers of ferrosilicon, a key input in steelmaking.

  • June 25, 2024

    Ariz. Lawmakers Say State Has No Interest In Monument Fight

    The Arizona State Legislature says Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes can't show that they have an interest in lawsuits against President Joe Biden's proclamation designating an Indigenous site in the Grand Canyon region a national monument and they shouldn't be allowed to intervene in the litigation.

Expert Analysis

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Recent Rulings On Text Message Data

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    Electronically stored information on cellphones, and in particular text messages, can present unique litigation challenges, and recent court decisions demonstrate that counsel must carefully balance what data should be preserved, collected, reviewed and produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • CFPB Reality Check: Video Game Cash Is Still Money

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent report examining payments within online video games indicates that financial services offered within the game marketplace are quickly evolving to the point where they are indistinguishable from traditional financial services subject to regulation, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • What CRA Deadline Means For Biden Admin. Rulemaking

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    With the 2024 election rapidly approaching, the Biden administration must race to finalize proposed agency actions within the next few weeks, or be exposed to the chance that the following Congress will overturn the rules under the Congressional Review Act, say attorneys at Covington.

  • 5 Takeaways From FDA's Biosimilars Promotion Guidance

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expands upon other recent efforts to clarify expectations for biosimilar and interchangeable labeling, highlighting a number of potential missteps that could draw attention from regulators, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • The Legal Issues Raised In Minn. Rate Exportation Opt-Out Bill

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    A recent Minnesota House bill would amend state law by opting out of the federal interest rate preemption and introduce several legal gray areas if passed, including issues regarding loan location, rates on credit card loans and values of state charters, says Karen Grandstrand at Fredrikson & Byron.

  • Rebuttal

    Time For Congress To Let Qualified Older Pilots Keep Flying

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    While a previous Law360 guest article affirmed the current law requiring airline pilots to retire at age 65, the facts suggest that the pilots, their unions, the airlines and the flying public will all benefit if Congress allows experienced, medically qualified aviators to stay in the cockpit, say Allen Baker and Bo Ellis at Let Experienced Pilots Fly.

  • Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

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    Dechert attorneys analyze six years of patent owners' preliminary responses to inter partes review petitions to determine whether the elimination of the presumption favoring the petitioner as to preinstitution testimonial evidence affected the usefulness of expert testimony in responses.

  • Fostering Employee Retention Amid Shaky DEI Landscape

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    Ongoing challenges to the legality of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are complicating efforts to use DEI as an employee retention tool, but with the right strategic approach employers can continue to recruit and retain diverse talent — even after the FTC’s ban on noncompetes, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.

  • Are Concessions In FDA's Lab-Developed Tests Rule Enough?

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    Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new policy for laboratory-developed tests included major strategic concessions to help balance patient safety, access and diagnostic innovation, the new rule may well face significant legal challenges in court, say Dominick DiSabatino and Audrey Mercer at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow

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    The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.

  • How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers

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    Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.

  • What's Extraordinary About Challenges To SEC Climate Rule

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    A set of ideologically diverse legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule have been consolidated in the Eighth Circuit via a seldom-used lottery system, and the unpredictability of this process may drive agencies toward a more cautious future approach to rulemaking, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • 8 Questions To Ask Before Final CISA Breach Reporting Rule

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    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s recently proposed cyber incident reporting requirements for critical infrastructure entities represent the overall approach CISA will take in its final rule, so companies should be asking key compliance questions now and preparing for a more complicated reporting regime, say Arianna Evers and Shannon Mercer at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • Key Priorities In FDIC Report On Resolving Big Bank Failures

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s report last month on the resolvability of large financial institutions contains little new information, but it does reiterate key policy priorities, including the agency's desire to enhance loss-absorbing capacity through long-term debt requirements and preference for single-point-of-entry resolution strategies, say attorneys at Freshfields.

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