Public Policy

  • July 30, 2024

    GAO Says Courts Should Improve Staff Complaint Collection

    The federal judiciary, which has over 30,000 employees, has taken actions to address misconduct in the workplace since 2017, but one area in need of improvement is its data collection, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.

  • July 30, 2024

    Ga. Gov Fights Dems Bid To Block Fundraising Law

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp urged a Georgia federal judge to deny a bid by the state's Democratic Party to temporarily block a 2021 law that created fundraising organs for a select few state elected officials, allowing them to raise unlimited cash and skirt a ban on lawmakers fundraising.

  • July 30, 2024

    Mich. COVID-19 Liability Law Shields Regular Healthcare Too

    A 2020 law protecting healthcare providers and facilities from liability for their response to the early COVID-19 pandemic also applies to regular care provided during that time, a Michigan appellate panel said, finding that resources diverted because of the state's response affected other areas of care.

  • July 30, 2024

    Fla.'s Workplace DEI Training Rules Get Permanently Blocked

    A Florida federal judge made permanent a ban on a state law provision that prevents employers from promoting various sex- and race-based concepts in diversity training sessions after the state said it wouldn't challenge an Eleventh Circuit ruling upholding a preliminary injunction on the measure.

  • July 30, 2024

    FTC, Career Step Pitch $43.5M Deal For Alleged Bogus Claims

    Career Step LLC, a for-profit online career training company, has struck a $43.5 million proposed settlement to resolve Federal Trade Commission claims it targeted servicemembers and their spouses with deceptive advertising about its programs and the successes of its students.

  • July 30, 2024

    What Mass. Attys Will Be Watching In The 2nd Half Of 2024

    Two potentially sweeping Massachusetts high court rulings and a long-awaited employment bill lingering in the State House are among the issues Bay State attorneys say they are monitoring closely heading into the latter half of 2024.

  • July 30, 2024

    Texas, Meta Reach Historic $1.4B Deal In Biometric Data Suit

    The state of Texas has reached a historic $1.4 billion settlement with Meta Platforms Inc. in a lawsuit accusing the social media giant of illegally collecting Facebook users' biometric data through its now-discontinued facial recognition feature, attorneys for the state announced Tuesday.

  • July 29, 2024

    5th Circ. Pauses DOT's New 'Junk Fees' Rule Amid Review

    The Fifth Circuit on Monday agreed to temporarily block a U.S. Department of Transportation rule requiring airlines to clearly disclose add-on fees upfront while the appellate court reviews the rule, which has been challenged by major airlines and airline associations.

  • July 29, 2024

    NYC Prof And Purported Dissident A Chinese Spy, Jury Hears

    A New York academic and author secretly acted as an agent of the Chinese government in the United States, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday, betraying pro-democracy activists by feeding information to China's intelligence service.

  • July 29, 2024

    Calif. High Court Says Co-Worker's Slur Can Be Harassment

    The California Supreme Court on Monday revived a race bias suit brought by a longtime employee of the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, finding that her co-worker's one-time use of a racial slur may indeed have been so severe that it created a hostile work environment.

  • July 29, 2024

    Live Nation Judge Tightens In-House Counsel's Access To Docs

    A New York federal judge imposed new restrictions Monday on Live Nation in-house counsel's access to documents and testimony from witnesses from its rivals in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust lawsuit, tightening a days-old two-tiered system after hearing concerns from those competitors.

  • July 29, 2024

    11th Circ. Affirms Ga. Prison Officer Immunity For Strip Search

    An Eleventh Circuit panel said that Georgia prison officers violated a woman's constitutional rights when they subjected her to a strip search and manual body cavity search during a visit to see her incarcerated husband, but precedent blocks it from overturning a ruling holding the officers were entitled to qualified immunity.

  • July 29, 2024

    'Speculative' Harms Thwart Customs Broker's Bid For TRO

    The U.S. Court of International Trade refused to bar the U.S. Customs and Border Protection from requiring a customs broker to remedy alleged violations of two trade programs without first providing facts concerning the purported violations, saying the broker's claimed injuries were "speculative" at best.

  • July 29, 2024

    Virtu Pushes For SEC Crackdown On 'Penny Stock' Listings

    Virtu Financial Inc. is pressing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to force Nasdaq and other exchanges to crack down on so-called penny stocks, petitioning the agency to initiate rulemaking that would stop companies struggling to stay above $1 per share from continuing to trade on the exchanges.

  • July 29, 2024

    Chemical Groups Say Chevron Sinks EPA Ethylene Oxide Rule

    A chemical company and two chemical associations are telling the D.C. Circuit that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision undermines the federal government's risk value for ethylene oxide, which they are challenging as being too high.

  • July 29, 2024

    CFPB Cites Thomas In New Bid To Transfer Late Fee Rule Suit

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday took another whack at getting an industry-backed legal challenge to its $8 credit card late fee rule transferred from Texas federal court to Washington, D.C., this time drawing on U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for a little rhetorical help.

  • July 29, 2024

    Split 11th Circ. Won't Revive Class Action Over USCIS Denials

    A split Eleventh Circuit panel on Monday backed the dismissal of claims from five immigrants given temporary protected status but later rejected for green cards, saying the court doesn't have jurisdiction to review U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services matters due to a precedential 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

  • July 29, 2024

    8th Circ. Urged To Ax FDIC's Multiple NSF Fee Guidance

    Minnesota state bankers have urged the Eighth Circuit to uphold their challenge to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guidance conscribing the use of non-sufficient funds fees, arguing a Minnesota federal judge was wrong to reject their case as premature.

  • July 29, 2024

    S. Africa Advances WTO Citrus Cases To Panel Stage

    South Africa is advancing legal challenges against measures the European Union imposed on citrus imports to guard against infestation by both a specific species of moth and a fungus that blemishes fruit rinds, calling for the establishment of two World Trade Organization dispute panels.

  • July 29, 2024

    NIST Lays Out 200+ Ways To Tackle Generative AI Risks

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology has recommended hundreds of actions that can be taken to address issues of data privacy, intellectual property, environmental impact and more raised by generative artificial intelligence.

  • July 29, 2024

    Making Broadcasters File Disaster Reports Not Wise, FCC Told

    Broadcasters say it's a bad idea for the Federal Communications Commission to force them to start reporting disaster-related outages to the agency like other communications companies are required to because it would distract them from reporting about whatever disaster is happening.

  • July 29, 2024

    Bishops Say Boarding School Bill Lacks Churches' Input

    The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says two federal bills that will create a commission charged with making policy recommendations to address the legacy of Indian boarding schools lack any religious representation and give unnecessary broad subpoena power over its churches' historical records.

  • July 29, 2024

    FTC, Challengers, Their Backers Vie For Noncompetes' Fate

    The fate of the Federal Trade Commission's noncompete ban is on the line as the agency trades blows with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other challengers spread across three different federal courts, all now grappling with a decision last week providing important backing to the FTC's rulemaking authority.

  • July 29, 2024

    UCLA Faces Likely Preliminary Injunction Over Gaza Protests

    A California federal judge said Monday that he plans to issue a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by three Jewish UCLA students who allege they were discriminated against during a campus protest over Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, but he wants the parties to try first to craft one.

  • July 29, 2024

    Wash. Says At-Home Rape Kit Law Targets Harm, Not Speech

    Washington pushed back against a company's bid to pause enforcement of a ban on the sale of "DIY" DNA collection kits to sexual assault survivors, saying the prohibition is meant to prevent victims from being tricked into thinking the kit results will stand up in court.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • What NYC's Green Fast Track Means For Affordable Housing

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    New York City's Green Fast Track for Housing initiative, which went into effect last month, aims to speed up the environmental review process for modest residential developments and could potentially pave the way for similar initiatives in other cities, say Vivien Krieger and Rachel Scall at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Series

    After Chevron: No Deference, No Difference For SEC Or CFTC

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    The Chevron doctrine did not fundamentally alter the interplay between the courts and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the development of the securities and commodities laws — and its demise will not do so either, says Dan Berkovitz at Millennium Management.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • Justices' Bribery Ruling: A Corrupt Act Isn't Necessarily Illegal

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    In its Snyder v. U.S. decision last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a bribery law does not criminalize gratuities, continuing a trend of narrowing federal anti-corruption laws and scrutinizing public corruption prosecutions that go beyond obvious quid pro quo schemes, say Carrie Cohen and Christine Wong at MoFo.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Roundup

    After Chevron

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    In the month since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 26 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

  • Takeaways From New HHS Substance Use Disorder Info Rules

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    A new U.S. Department of Health and Human Services rule continues the agency's efforts to harmonize complex rules surrounding confidentiality provisions for substance use disorder patient records, though healthcare providers will need to remain mindful of different potentially applicable requirements and changes that their compliance structures may require, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Expect Few Changes In ITC Rulemaking

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion overruling the Chevron doctrine will have less impact on the U.S. International Trade Commission than other agencies administering trade statutes, given that the commission exercises its congressionally granted authority in a manner that allows for consistent decision making at both agency and judicial levels, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

  • Opinion

    Reform NEPA To Speed Mining Permits, Clean Energy Shift

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    It is essential to balance responsible regulatory oversight with permit approvals for mining projects that are needed for the transition to renewable energy — and with the National Environmental Policy Act being one of the leading causes of permit delays, reform is urgently needed, say Ana Maria Gutierrez and Michael Miller at Womble Bond.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter of 2024 in California, which saw efforts to expand consumer protection legislation and enforcement actions in areas of federal focus like medical debt and student loans, demonstrated that the state's role as a trendsetter in consumer financial protection will continue for the foreseeable future, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 6 PTAB Events To Know From The Last 6 Months

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    The first half of 2024 brought a flurry of Patent Trial and Appeal Board developments that should be considered in post-grant strategies, including proposed rules on discretionary denial and director review, and the first decisions of the Delegated Rehearing Panel, say attorneys at Fish & Richardson.

  • Key Takeaways From High Court's Substitute Expert Decision

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Smith v. Arizona decision, holding that the confrontation clause generally bars prosecutors’ use of a substitute expert witness at trial, will have the most impact in narcotics and violent crime cases, but creative defense lawyers may find it useful in white collar cases, too, say Joshua Naftalis and Melissa Kelley at Pallas Partners.

  • Opinion

    Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

  • How Generative AI May Aid Merger Clearance Process

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    Generative artificial intelligence capable of analyzing and searching large datasets stands to revolutionize the merger clearance process, including by significantly reducing the time and effort required to respond to Hart-Scott-Rodino second requests, say Kenneth Koch and Brian Blush at BDO USA.

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