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Public Policy
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December 17, 2024
DOD Expands Data Rights For Small Biz R&D Program Cos.
The U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday issued rules expanding the data rights retained by small business research and development program participants, and codifying that unique rules for architectural and engineering contracts cover orders under multiple-award contracts.
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December 17, 2024
NTIA Puts $450M More Toward Wireless Supply Chain
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is putting an additional $450 million toward helping the industry build open radio access networks, which many have pointed to as the solution for pivoting away from Chinese-made technology due to security concerns.
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December 17, 2024
Texas Rep. Aims To Bar DOD Buys From China-Linked IT Cos.
Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, introduced a bill Tuesday that would prohibit the U.S. secretary of defense from entering into information technology contracts with companies with certain ties to China, saying cyberattacks have highlighted the vulnerability of the country's defense and IT systems to foreign interference.
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December 17, 2024
Family Separation Was Deliberate And Calculated, Report Says
Human Rights Watch said in a new report that as many as 1,360 children were never reunited with their parents after the Trump administration introduced a zero-tolerance policy that led to a deliberate increase in family separation at the Southern border.
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December 17, 2024
SEC, CFTC Members Eye Crypto Coordination Under Trump
Republican commissioners at the federal securities and futures regulators told crypto industry participants on Tuesday that they will urge their agencies to collaborate more closely on providing regulatory relief and clarity in the new year as they wait for lawmakers to get long-awaited crypto legislation across the finish line.
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December 17, 2024
Worker Claims Merger Can't Nix Pa. Medical Pot Protection
An engineering company unlawfully fired a Pennsylvania worker after he tested positive for cannabis usage, even though the employer knew about the worker's medical marijuana prescription, according to a lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania state court.
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December 17, 2024
Texas Lawmakers Issue 2nd Subpoena In Shaken Baby Case
Texas lawmakers issued a subpoena to a man convicted based on a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, marking their second attempt to hear his testimony at a House committee meeting on the state's so-called Junk Science Law.
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December 17, 2024
Senate GOP Enviro Leader Questions EPA On Grant Funding
The leading Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said Tuesday she's worried about the "potential for misuse" of the $30 billion in funding being doled out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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December 17, 2024
Mass. Judge Apologizes For Slamming Alito Over Flags
A Massachusetts federal judge has apologized for violating ethics rules when he publicly criticized U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the wake of reports that two flags used by Donald Trump supporters to protest the 2020 election were flown outside Alito's houses.
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December 17, 2024
Telecom Seeks Win In DC Schools Network Bidding Challenge
A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday scrutinized Allied Telecom’s claims that the D.C. public school system flouted federal law by tapping one its own agencies to provide network services, questioning whether the preemption claims are the Northern Virginia telecom’s only avenue for bringing its challenge.
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December 17, 2024
Sandoz Cuts $275M Deal For More Price-Fixing Claims
Swiss drugmaker Sandoz said Tuesday it has reached a $275 million settlement to end claims from consumers, insurers and others in the sprawling multidistrict litigation over alleged price-fixing in the generic-drug industry.
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December 17, 2024
DOJ Antitrust Division Head Kanter Stepping Down Friday
The head of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Jonathan Kanter, announced his imminent departure Tuesday, leaving the agency after a little over three years and with a legacy of dramatically ramped-up monopolization enforcement, an extremely low tolerance for potentially problematic transactions and more aggressive criminal enforcement.
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December 17, 2024
Mich. Couple Sues Town For Allowing Pot Co. To Expand
A Michigan couple claim a township is retaliating against them because of the husband's outspoken opposition to the recreational marijuana industry, accusing the municipal leadership of allowing a grow facility to expand next to their property and forcing them to "raise their children in a home that smells of marijuana."
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December 17, 2024
T-Mobile-UScellular Link Will Help Consumers, Think Tank Says
A free-market think tank is urging the federal government to clear the way for T-Mobile's $4.4 billion purchase of UScellular's wireless operations, saying in a new report that because the smaller UScellular poses no real competitive threat to T-Mobile, the deal could carry significant consumer benefits through increased competition.
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December 17, 2024
Visa Says 'Contradictory' Debit Card Market Dooms DOJ Suit
Visa Inc. formally asked a New York federal judge Monday to nix the U.S. Department of Justice monopolization lawsuit accusing it of paying off would-be debit network rivals and penalizing the use of alternate payment systems, arguing the government cannot mix-and-match its way into claiming the company holds a dominant market share.
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December 17, 2024
Alaskan Native Villages Say BEAD Window Can't Open Yet
Two Alaskan Native villages trying to force the clawback of $70 million in broadband funds want a federal court to stop the state broadband office from opening the window for BEAD applications, a request the telecoms involved have called a "brazen attempt" at seeking the same relief a different way.
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December 17, 2024
Revised LNG Export Study Flags Gas Price And Climate Worries
The Biden administration on Tuesday said that unconstrained U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas would increase both domestic energy prices and cumulative greenhouse gas emissions, and retained a pause on export project reviews that President-elect Donald Trump is expected to lift upon taking office.
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December 17, 2024
Biden Enacts Law Setting Exception To Some USPTO Fines
President Joe Biden signed a bill into law Tuesday that gives the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office the ability to waive fines for patent applicants who falsely claim they are entitled to fee reductions, if the error was made in good faith.
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December 17, 2024
Texas Judge Won't Pause Block Of Corp. Transparency Law
A Texas federal judge on Tuesday denied the government's request to stay his nationwide block of a corporate transparency law while an appeal is pending, saying his view that Congress lacks the constitutional authority to enact the legislation is likely to prevail at the Fifth Circuit.
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December 17, 2024
5th Circ. Tosses EPA Rule After Agency Loses Docs
The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday granted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's unusual request that the court vacate a challenged 2016 rule that partially disapproved regional haze plans created by Texas and Oklahoma and imposed a federal plan.
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December 17, 2024
House GOP Asks CVS How Its PBM Treats Smaller Pharmacies
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are demanding documents from CVS on its pharmacy benefit manager's treatment of independent pharmacies, continuing to press the healthcare giant over potentially anticompetitive conduct.
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December 17, 2024
The Biggest Georgia Legal Developments Of 2024
From navigating bombshell prosecutor romance allegations in the Georgia election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump and his co-defendants to vacating a $1.7 billion verdict against Ford Motor Co. in a fatal "Super Duty" rollover case, to seeing the state's longest-running criminal trial to a close, 2024 was a busy year for courts in the Peach State.
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December 17, 2024
CFPB Finalizes Rule For PACE Loans
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday finalized a rule that applies standard mortgage protections to so-called Property Assessed Clean Energy loans, where homeowners pay for upgrades through property tax bills.
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December 17, 2024
DHS Unveils H-1B Overhaul As Biden Admin Winds Down
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday unveiled its highly anticipated overhaul of the H-1B visa program for foreign specialty workers, codifying deference to prior approvals and tightening eligibility standards for the kinds of occupations that qualify.
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December 17, 2024
3M Fights Michigan's Mootness Claims In PFAS Rule Suit
Michigan is wrong to allege that 3M's challenge to rules on PFAS in tap water is moot, the company has told the state Supreme Court, claiming it will still be affected by the challenged regulations despite the state's arguments that new regulations supersede them.
Expert Analysis
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Compliance Pointers For Amended Pa. Data Breach Law
Recent updates to the Pennsylvania Breach of Personal Information Notification Act include a requirement that organizations alert the state's attorney general of certain consumer data breach notifications, and several incident response and cybersecurity considerations will be necessary to ensure compliance, say Matthew Meade and Laura Decker at Eckert Seamans.
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Smith's New Trump Indictment Is Case Study In Superseding
Special counsel Jack Smith’s recently revised Jan. 6 charges against former President Donald Trump provide lessons for prosecutors on how to effectively draft superseding indictments in order to buttress or streamline their case, as necessary, says Jessica Roth at Cardozo Law School.
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Opinion
FDIC's Foray Into Index Fund Rules Risks Regulatory Chaos
A proposed Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rule concerning control over passive index fund investments in banks is outside the agency's remit, clashes with an existing Federal Reserve process and would inhibit competition in the index fund sector, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.
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Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys
Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.
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Opinion
Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code
As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.
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What To Make Of Dueling Corporate Transparency Act Rulings
Although challenges to the Corporate Transparency Act abound — as highlighted by recent federal court decisions from Alabama and Oregon taking opposite positions on its constitutionality — the act is still law, so companies should comply with their filing requirements or face the potential consequences, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.
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California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that sought to impose stringent regulations on advanced artificial intelligence model development has sparked a renewed debate on how best to balance innovation with safety in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, say Bobby Malhotra and Carson Swope at Winston & Strawn.
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Staying Off The CFPB's Financial Services Offender Registry
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's soon-to-launch registry of financial services companies that have faced public enforcement orders is designed to ratchet up long-term scrutiny of entities that could become repeat offenders, so companies should take their new compliance and filing requirements seriously, say Andrea Mitchell and Chris Napier at Mitchell Sandler.
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New TCPA Rule Faces Uncertain Future Post-Loper Bright
The Federal Communications Commission's new rule aiming to eliminate lead generators' use of unlawful robocalls is now in doubt with the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, and the Eleventh Circuit's Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC is poised to be a test case of the agency's ability to enforce the Telephone Consumer Protection Act post-Chevron, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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A Look At Calif.'s New AI Law For Health Insurers
A newly enacted California law prohibits artificial intelligence tools from making medical necessity determinations for healthcare service plans or disability insurers, addressing core questions that have arisen around AI's role in coverage decisions, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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New HHS Research Misconduct Rules Bring Seismic Changes
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new rule regarding research misconduct investigations brings significant changes that focus on remediation, appeals and confidentiality, while other changes could result in institutions causing undue harm to scientists accused of such misconduct, say attorneys at Cohen Seglias.
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To Report Or Not To Report Others' Export Control Violations
A recent Bureau of Industry and Security enforcement policy change grants cooperation credit to those that report violations of the Export Administration Regulations committed by others, but the benefits of doing so must be weighed against significant drawbacks, including the costs of preparing and submitting a report, says Megan Lew at Cravath.
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Earned Wage Access Laws Form A Prickly Policy Patchwork
Conflicting earned wage access laws across the country, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently issued rule, mean providers must adopt a proactive compliance approach and adjust business models where needed, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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What FDIC Expansion Of Change In Bank Control Could Mean
A recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposal pertaining to the Change in Bank Control Act has the potential to create uncertainty around investments by mutual fund complexes in banking organizations, which represent a stable source of capital for the banking industry, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.