Public Policy

  • August 20, 2024

    DHS Watchdog Says ICE Needs To Better Monitor Migrant Kids

    The inspector general for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said the agency needs to better monitor the status and location of unaccompanied migrant children after their release from federal custody to better protect them.

  • August 20, 2024

    Amgen's Drug Price Suit An Issue For Legislature, Judge Told

    A Colorado nonprofit that advocates for the poor told a federal judge Tuesday that Amgen's lawsuit over the state's drug price cap system is little more than a disagreement with lawmakers' policy choices disguised as a constitutional issue.

  • August 20, 2024

    Wash. Judges Won't Upend Tobacco Payout Ruling

    A Washington appellate court on Monday rejected attempts by Philip Morris and other tobacco companies to pay the state less under a 1998 master settlement agreement, upholding an arbitrator's determination that the state was enforcing a law covering payment.

  • August 20, 2024

    FCC Says No To 8 Nonprofit Stations In Texas

    The Federal Communications Commission says it is not approving eight applications for new low power FM stations because the Christian entities that applied for them appear to actually all be part of the same organization, which does not qualify as an educational nonprofit.

  • August 20, 2024

    Utah Tells Justices Feds Must Relinquish Land In State

    The federal government is unconstitutionally hoarding and profiting from public lands in Utah, and the state is missing out on economic and development opportunities that are rightfully its own, it told the U.S. Supreme Court in a proposed lawsuit filed Tuesday.

  • August 20, 2024

    Credit Union, 'Dreamers' Get Final OK To Settle Loan Bias Suit

    A California federal judge gave the final stamp of approval to a class settlement offering cash to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and other immigrants who alleged a Chicago-based credit union denied them loans due to their immigration status.

  • August 20, 2024

    US Sanctions Ex-Haitian President Over Drug Trafficking

    The Biden administration on Tuesday sanctioned a former president of Haiti, claiming he abused his position to facilitate drug trafficking.

  • August 20, 2024

    EPA Urges DC Circ. To Uphold Particulate Matter Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is defending its decision to ratchet down a fine particulate matter air pollution standard, telling the D.C. Circuit that states and industry groups challenging it aren't seriously questioning the scientific support for the change and misread the Clean Air Act to argue that the agency overstepped.

  • August 20, 2024

    DOI Issues 1st Floating Offshore Wind Energy Lease

    The U.S. Department of the Interior on Monday announced its first-ever floating offshore wind energy research lease, which will allow for up to 12 floating wind turbines off the coast of Maine.

  • August 20, 2024

    UN Dives Into Murky Waters Of Taxing Digital Services

    The United Nations has its sights set on cross-border services in the digital economy as its framework convention on tax takes shape, but it remains unclear how countries will define that broad and hotly contested topic as they work toward a treaty.

  • August 20, 2024

    IRS Fee Hikes Threaten Tax Justice For Small Businesses

    The Internal Revenue Service is expected to continue raising the cost for private letter rulings that clarify tax matters and provide taxpayer certainty, prompting concerns among tax professionals that economic justice may become unattainable for small businesses unable to bear these escalating costs.

  • August 20, 2024

    Colorado County Says Aetna Owes $1.1M In Rebates

    Aetna Life Insurance Co. is withholding more than $1 million in pharmacy rebates from a Colorado county under an inapplicable early termination clause after local leaders switched to United Healthcare for health insurance services in 2023, according to a federal lawsuit.

  • August 20, 2024

    Anthropic Hit With Another Copyright Suit Over LLM Training

    Anthropic PBC was hit with a proposed class action Monday in California federal court from a group of journalists and authors alleging the artificial intelligence giant is exploiting their copyrighted materials to train its large language model, Claude, without permission or a license, and has become enormously successful at their expense.

  • August 20, 2024

    LOT Polish Airlines Objects To DOJ-Boeing 737 Max Plea Deal

    LOT Polish Airlines has urged a Texas federal judge to reject Boeing's plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the deal deprives restitution to airline customers that incurred millions in losses because Boeing defrauded regulators about the 737 Max 8's development.

  • August 20, 2024

    Ga. Power Says Factory Redo Can't Free Nestle From Service

    Georgia's largest electricity provider tried to convince the state's high court Tuesday that a pet food manufacturer can't use its factory renovations to skirt a nearly 50-year-old state law requiring large electricity consumers to be wedded to a single provider in perpetuity.

  • August 20, 2024

    Pa. Justices Say No Public Benefit To Railroad Land Grab

    The general public needed to be the primary beneficiary for a railroad to use eminent domain to take over part of a property and reactivate a siding, and that standard was harder to meet now compared with when a century-old precedent was set, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled Tuesday.

  • August 20, 2024

    Texas Judge Blocks FTC's Impending Ban On Noncompetes

    A Texas federal judge on Tuesday permanently blocked the Federal Trade Commission's looming ban on noncompete agreements in employment contracts, setting aside the regulation with a conclusion that it's beyond the agency's authority.

  • August 20, 2024

    Split SEC Adopts PCAOB Rules On Auditor Liability

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved Tuesday to hold accountants to a higher standard when auditing public companies, which the majority said provided a necessary and long-awaited update to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's rules while detractors argued it could dissuade people from working in the industry.

  • August 20, 2024

    Power Plant Rule Stay Is Unwarranted, EPA Tells Justices

    U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar called on the U.S. Supreme Court to reject industry groups' and Republican-led states' attempts to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rule curbing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, saying the agency did not exceed its statutory authority.

  • August 20, 2024

    Local Chamber Can't Keep CFPB Case In Texas, Agency Says

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a Texas federal judge that the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce has, at most, a flimsy connection to a challenge to a new $8 credit card late fee rule, renewing its call to dismiss the local chamber and transfer the case in its latest brief.

  • August 20, 2024

    Feds Can't Delay Justice In Reservation Shooting, Family Says

    The family of a Tohono O'odham Nation man who was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents says the federal government's efforts to quell requests for those officers' names is a move to delay justice, arguing that without early discovery the court could find them unaccountable for the incident.

  • August 20, 2024

    DOD Tells DC Circ. It Can Set Criteria For Soldier Citizenship

    The U.S. Department of Defense is urging the D.C. Circuit to reverse a district court injunction permanently blocking the agency from setting service duration requirements for noncitizen soldiers to become citizens, saying Congress authorized it to do so.

  • August 20, 2024

    Cannabis Entrepreneur Can't Sue County Over Seized Property

    A Puget Sound-area cannabis entrepreneur cannot pursue claims that local law enforcement damaged company property seized during an arrest on felony charges that were ultimately dropped, a Seattle federal judge has ruled, saying the businessman signed away his right to litigation.

  • August 20, 2024

    FCC Can't Subsidize Off-Campus Wi-Fi, Think Tank Argues

    A free-market group criticized the Federal Communications Commission's new program to subsidize Wi-Fi service for schools and libraries, saying it is not just a dubious policy choice but breaks with the statutory limits that Congress set for the E-Rate program.

  • August 20, 2024

    At Nutter, Old Guard Meets New In Expanded Gov't Practice

    Twenty-five years after they first met at Boston's Suffolk University Law School as professor and student, Bill Kennedy and Dan Mulhern are teaming up to lead an expanded government affairs and public policy practice at Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP.

Expert Analysis

  • FDA's Multifaceted Role On Display In MDMA Therapy Scrutiny

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    Ongoing deliberations at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder serves as a window into the intricate balance of scientific innovation and patient safety oversight, and offers crucial insights into regulatory nuances, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell and Kevin Lanzo at Pharmaka Clinical Consulting.

  • Lead Like 'Ted Lasso' By Embracing Cognitive Diversity

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    The Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso” aptly illustrates how embracing cognitive diversity can be a winning strategy for teams, providing a useful lesson for law firms, which can benefit significantly from fresh, diverse perspectives and collaborative problem-solving, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.

  • Preparing For Increased Scrutiny Of Tech Supply Chains

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    The U.S. Department of Commerce's recent action prohibiting sales of a Russia-based technology company's products in the U.S. is the first determination under the information technology supply chain rule, and signals plans to increase enforcement of protections that target companies in designated foreign adversary jurisdictions, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Chevron's End Puts Target On CFPB's Aggressive BNPL Rule

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    A recent interpretative rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, subjecting buy-now, pay-later loans to the same regulations as credit cards, is unlikely to survive post-Chevron challenges of the rule's partisan and shaky logic, say Scott Pearson and Bryan Schneider at Manatt.

  • Boeing Plea Deal Is A Mixed Bag, Providing Lessons For Cos.

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    The plea deal for conspiracy to defraud regulators that Boeing has tentatively agreed to will, on the one hand, probably help the company avoid further reputational damage, but also demonstrates to companies that deferred prosecution agreements have real teeth, and that noncompliance with DPA terms can be costly, says Edmund Vickers at Red Lion Chambers.

  • Keeping Up With Carbon Capture Policy In The US And EU

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    Recent regulatory moves from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the European Commission in the carbon capture, sequestration and storage space are likely to further encourage the owners and operators of fossil fuel-fired power plants to make decisions on shutdowns or reconfiguration to meet the expanding requirements, say Inosi Nyatta and Silvia Brünjes at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • New State Climate Liability Laws: What Companies Must Know

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    New legislation in Vermont and New York creating liability and compliance obligations for businesses deemed responsible for climate change — as well as similar bills proposed in California, Massachusetts and Maryland — have far-reaching implications for companies, so it is vital to remain vigilant as these initiatives progress, say Gregory Berlin and Jeffrey Dintzer at Alston & Bird.

  • EU Investor-State Dispute Transparency Rules: Key Points

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    The European Union's recent vote to embrace greater transparency for investor-state arbitration will make managing newly public information more complex for all parties in a dispute — so it is important for stakeholders to understand the risks and opportunities involved, say Philip Hall, Tara Flores and Charles McKeon at Thorndon Partners.

  • Analyzing FDA Draft Guidance On Clinical Trial Diversity

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    In light of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's draft guidance on clinical trial diversity action plans, there are several important considerations for sponsors and clinical researchers to keep in mind to prevent delay in a drug or device application, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Justices' Criminal Law Decisions: The Term In Review

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    Each of the 11 criminal decisions issued in the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently concluded term is independently important, but taken together, they reveal trends in the court’s broader approach to criminal law, presenting both pitfalls and opportunities for defendants and their counsel, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

  • What's New In The AI Healthcare Regulatory Space

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    Attorneys at Hogan Lovells review the current legal and regulatory landscape for artificial intelligence applications in healthcare, touching on policies around safety, transparency, nondiscrimination and reimbursement, and what to expect in the future.

  • Biden Policy Gives Employers New Ways To Help Dreamers

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    A new Biden administration immigration policy makes the process more predictable for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients to seek employment visas, and, given uncertainties surrounding DACA’s future, employers should immediately determine which of their employees may be eligible, says Jennifer Kim at Moore & Van Allen.

  • 25 Years Of OECD's Anti-Bribery Convention

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    Marking its 25th anniversary this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's anti-bribery convention has advanced legislative reforms and reshaped corporate conduct in dozens of countries amid the persistent challenges of uneven enforcement and political pressure, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Despite Calif. Delays, Climate Disclosure Rules Are Coming

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    Progress continues on state, federal and international climate disclosure regimes, making compliance a key concern for companies — but the timeline for implementation of California's disclosure laws remains unclear due to funding and timing disputes, says David Smith at Manatt Phelps.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Bid Protest Litigation Will Hold Steady For Now

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    Though the substantive holding of Loper Bright is unlikely to affect bid protests because questions of statutory interpretation are rare, the spirit of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision may signal a general trend away from agency deference even on the complex technical issues that often arise, say Kayleigh Scalzo and Andrew Guy at Covington.

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