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Public Policy
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October 01, 2024
Colo. Murder Case Prosecutors Censured After Botched Probe
Two Colorado attorneys who worked as prosecutors in the failed high-profile prosecution of a man charged with murdering his wife have agreed to public censure as discipline for their roles in the botched proceeding that led to a recent opinion disbarring the elected district attorney who oversaw the case.
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October 01, 2024
NJ Panel Backs Conflicts Waiver, Rejects Online Rebukes
A New Jersey Supreme Court committee overseeing attorney ethics rules has decided against recommending the state bar's request to give lawyers latitude to disregard client confidentiality when responding to posts online accusing them of misconduct, while supporting conflict of interest waivers for the state's attorney general.
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October 01, 2024
Foreclosure Class Wants To Stop Mich. Atty's Victim Outreach
Lawyers behind a proposed tax foreclosure class action in Michigan federal court have said an attorney who recently secured a settlement in a similar case sent a misleading solicitation letter to a client in a bid to undermine the proceedings.
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October 01, 2024
Treasury Plans Final Direct Pay Partnership Regs By Year-End
The U.S. Treasury Department is eyeing the end of the year to finalize regulations for development projects to elect out of their partnership tax status to qualify for a direct cash payment of their clean energy tax credits, an official said Tuesday.
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October 01, 2024
NLRB Attys Press For Dartmouth Basketball Bargaining Order
The National Labor Relations Board should order Dartmouth College to bargain with its unionized men's basketball team, board prosecutors told the NLRB, arguing that the college's refusal to do so broke federal law.
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October 01, 2024
When The Client Is The Mayor, The Usual Rules Don't Apply
Representing a public official, whether the mayor of New York City, a state legislator or a city council member, poses unique challenges for even the most experienced lawyers, who often find themselves torn between fighting battles in the press and protecting their client in court.
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October 01, 2024
Colo. Must Face Bulk Of Airline Group's Sick Leave Challenge
A Colorado federal judge refused to throw out a suit from an airline lobbying group alleging the state's sick leave law is unlawful, though he agreed to toss the group's Railway Labor Act claim because the act doesn't meaningfully disrupt current collective bargaining agreements.
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October 01, 2024
Adams Says Feds Sought To 'Tarnish' Him With Leaks
New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked a Manhattan federal judge Tuesday to sanction Southern District prosecutors for allegedly leaking the details of a criminal investigation for nearly a year leading up to his corruption indictment, saying negative press has hurt his standing with the public and undermined his right to a fair trial.
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October 01, 2024
NYC Bar Urges Congress To Place Ethics Rules On High Court
The New York City Bar Association called on Congress to put U.S. Supreme Court justices under enforceable ethics rules in a report released Tuesday, throwing its support behind reforms, such as the creation of a Judicial Investigation Panel and an Office of the Inspector General.
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September 30, 2024
AI Safety Bill Veto Shows Calif. Taking Regulatory 'Baby Steps'
The California governor's rejection of sweeping legislation to ensure the safe deployment of large-scale artificial intelligence models — and his simultaneous embrace of more targeted proposals to regulate the technology — is likely to result in the wider creation of regimes that favor "baby steps" over broad strokes, experts say.
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September 30, 2024
Colo. Says Kroger Merger Would Divest To 'Retail Liquidator'
Colorado enforcers told a state judge Monday that Kroger Co.'s plan to inoculate against the anticompetitive effects of its $25 billion merger with Albertsons is doomed to fail because the company that would acquire hundreds of stores is a "liquidator" with no intention of running the stores long term.
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September 30, 2024
Texas' Standing Theory Yet To Be Tested At High Court
Litigation challenging federal immigration policy has become a cornerstone for both Democratic and Republican-led states, but Texas-led suits have introduced a unique theory of standing that has yet to be tested in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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September 30, 2024
Ga.'s 'Heartbeat' Abortion Ban Struck Down Once Again
Georgia residents had their legal access to abortion temporarily restored Monday as the state's so-called heartbeat abortion ban was again struck down by a judge whose previous move to block the 2019 law had been reversed by the state's highest court.
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September 30, 2024
Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action
The year's spookiest month is looking scary-good for appellate aficionados, as famed oral advocates joust in October over net neutrality and Uber's extraordinary bid to unravel multidistrict litigation — just two of the high-profile arguments previewed in this edition of Wheeling & Appealing. October also begins with former President Jimmy Carter turning 100, and we'll test your knowledge of his profound impact on the judiciary.
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September 30, 2024
Calif. Becomes Latest To Ban 'Captive Audience' Meetings
California has become the 10th state to ban so-called captive audience meetings, with Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a union-backed bill that bars employers from making workers attend meetings on religious or political matters, such as forming a union.
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September 30, 2024
Licensed DC Pot Shops Take Aim At Illicit Stores
A new lawsuit in D.C. federal court is taking aim at allegedly "unlicensed and illegal cannabis dispensaries" in the district, saying the unregulated market is squeezing out legal businesses.
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September 30, 2024
If Not Asylum Curbs, What Else? Mayorkas Says In Defense
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas pointedly criticized those who have condemned new restrictions on asylum-seekers, saying Monday the limits must be viewed in light of a need for order at the southern border.
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September 30, 2024
Wi-Fi Experts Hope Gov't Opens More Midband Airwaves
A new report from the group WifiForward touts wireless internet services as a major driver of the U.S. economy and urges the federal government to quickly open portions of the 7 gigahertz airwaves to expand their availability across the country.
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September 30, 2024
GM's Cruise To Pay $1.5M Penalty Over SF Robotaxi Crash
General Motors Co.'s Cruise LLC agreed to pay a $1.5 million civil penalty for failing to promptly disclose that one of its self-driving vehicles last year had dragged a pedestrian for 20 feet, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on Monday.
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September 30, 2024
Newsom Signs Landmark Intersectionality Anti-Bias Bill
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill enshrining intersectionality in the state's anti-discrimination laws, making California the first state in the country to explicitly recognize the concept, the governor's office announced over the weekend.
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September 30, 2024
Commerce Dept. Seeks To Streamline AI Development Exports
The U.S. Department of Commerce issued a final rule Monday to streamline the export of items to preapproved data centers in foreign countries, which is intended to help boost the development of artificial intelligence.
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September 30, 2024
USPTO Locks In Director Review Rule, 3 Years After Arthrex
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal issued a final rule Monday on the agency's process for having the director review certain Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions, solidifying a mandate laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court three years ago.
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September 30, 2024
Ex-Fla. State Sen. Convicted Of Setting Up 'Ghost Candidate'
A Miami jury found former Florida state Sen. Frank Artiles guilty on Monday of campaign contribution violations related to a scheme to prop up a "ghost candidate" to swing a state Senate election to a Republican candidate.
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September 30, 2024
2 Crypto Think Tank Execs To Step Down At End Of Year
Crypto policy think tank Coin Center said Monday that its executive director and one of its senior lawyers plan to step down at the end of the year.
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September 30, 2024
Alaska-Hawaiian Merger, An Aviation Anomaly
A promise to keep their distinct brands and a smaller national market share with few overlapping routes helped Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines seal their merger, a rare feat amid the Biden administration's tough antitrust enforcement and zealous opposition to consolidation, experts say.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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Loper Fuels Debate Over Merchant Cash Advances As Credit
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent rejection of the Chevron doctrine in Loper Bright may escalate a Florida federal court dispute between the Revenue Based Finance Coalition and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over whether merchant cash advances should be considered credit under the Dodd-Frank Act, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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Bank M&A Continues To Lag Amid Regulatory Ambiguity
Bank M&A activity in the first half of 2024 continued to be lower than in prior years, as the industry is recovering from the 2023 bank failures, and regulatory and macroeconomic conditions have not otherwise been prime for deals, say Robert Azarow and Amber Hay at Arnold & Porter.
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FTC's Drug Middlemen Probe Highlights Ongoing Scrutiny
The Federal Trade Commission's interim staff report on its inquiry into pharmacy benefit managers suggests that the industry will remain under an enforcement microscope for the foreseeable future due to concerns about how PBMs affect drug costs and accessibility, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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How High Court Ruling Is Shaping Homelessness Policies
The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson to allow enforcement of local ordinances against overnight camping is already spurring new policies to manage homelessness, but the court's ruling does not grant jurisdictions unfettered power, say Kathryn Kafka and Alex Merritt at Sheppard Mullin.