Public Policy

  • July 31, 2024

    HSBC Says HUD Has Closed Fair Lending Probe

    HSBC's U.S. banking arm said it is no longer facing a multicity fair lending investigation from federal housing authorities after an outside complaint that prompted the probe was withdrawn.

  • July 31, 2024

    9/11 MDL Judge Probes Saudi Arabia's Latest Exit Bid

    A Manhattan federal judge peppered Saudi Arabia's lawyers with questions Wednesday as they argued that years of discovery have yielded no real evidence of a Saudi government spy helping organize the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

  • July 31, 2024

    After Sackett, A Colorado Town Grapples With Its Wetlands

    Residents of a small town in Colorado have been left to spar over the fate of its wetlands in the wake of Sackett v. EPA, highlighting how the court's curtailment of Clean Water Act protections has placed local, state and tribal governments in a regulatory vacuum.

  • July 31, 2024

    Pipeline Cos. Can Join FERC Approval Fight

    Companies behind a liquefied natural gas facility in Sonora, Mexico, and the Saguaro Connector Pipeline that will help serve it can weigh in on a challenge of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approvals for the pipeline, the D.C. Circuit said Wednesday.

  • July 31, 2024

    Senators Aim To Increase Injunctions In Patent Battles

    A new bipartisan bill in Congress would make it easier for federal courts to issue injunctions in patent cases, but critics say this would primarily help companies "that do not make any products or provide any services."

  • July 31, 2024

    Include Satellites In Broadband Updates, SpaceX Tells FCC

    SpaceX urged the Federal Communications Commission to include provisions for gateway earth station satellite hubs like its own in proposed regulations to expand broadband access within certain spectrum bands, telling the regulator that doing so would be a "win-win-win" for stakeholders.

  • July 31, 2024

    Telecom Trespassing On Reservation Land, Oregon Tribes Say

    Lumen Technologies Inc. is trespassing on territory that belongs to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation and has been for years, according to a lawsuit accusing the telecom of continuing to operate on an expired lease instead of striking a new deal for miles of laid fiber.

  • July 31, 2024

    Meadows Appeal May Help Clarify Immunity Ruling, Attys Say

    Legal scholars told Law360 on Wednesday that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' recent request to have the U.S. Supreme Court weigh in on whether his Georgia election interference case should be moved to federal court provides the justices with an opportunity to clarify key aspects of their recent presidential immunity ruling.

  • July 31, 2024

    737 Max Families Say Boeing Deal 'Morally Reprehensible'

    Families of victims of the 737 Max 8 crashes asked a Texas federal court Wednesday to reject Boeing's plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the "rotten deal" lets the American aerospace giant skirt culpability for the deaths of 346 people.

  • July 31, 2024

    WH Reviewing Green Card Rule For Mixed-Status Families

    A new rule allowing certain foreigners who are married to U.S. citizens and their children to apply for green cards without leaving the United States is under review at the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

  • July 31, 2024

    GOP Senate Bill To Bar FCC's AI Disclosure Rule Blocked

    A Republican effort in the U.S. Senate aiming to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from requiring broadcasters to disclose the use of artificial intelligence in political ads lost traction at the committee level Wednesday.

  • July 31, 2024

    Fla. Electric Co. Ex-CEO Gets 4 Years For Privatization Plot

    A Jacksonville, Florida, federal judge sentenced a former CEO of the city's electric company to four years in prison after a jury convicted him of fraud conspiracy charges in a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme connected to a process to privatize the public utility, prosecutors said Wednesday.

  • July 31, 2024

    EPA Floats Ban On Many Uses Of Carcinogen 1-BP

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed banning all consumer uses of the carcinogen 1-bromopropane — except in insulation — as well as some industrial and commercial uses.

  • July 31, 2024

    Senate Confirms State Judges To US District Courts In NY, PA

    The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Judge Meredith Vacca to the Western District of New York and U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph F. Saporito Jr. to the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

  • July 31, 2024

    Steward Health Care Gets OK To Close 2 Mass. Hospitals

    A Texas bankruptcy judge Wednesday approved the closure of two Massachusetts hospitals owned by Steward Health Care after the debtor said that it was unable to find buyers for them.

  • July 31, 2024

    Historical Association Backs Tribes In SunZia Power Line Row

    The National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers is asking the Ninth Circuit to intervene in a challenge by a coalition of Native American tribes and environmentalists seeking to block SunZia Transmission from routing a 520-mile power line through important cultural and historical sites in the San Pedro Valley.

  • July 31, 2024

    Sens. Reveal Bipartisan Trade Bill Streamlining Customs Laws

    Two senators from opposite sides of the aisle released a discussion draft and bill Wednesday of their proposed Customs Facilitation Act of 2024, which seeks to modernize U.S. customs laws and streamline processing goods and services crossing U.S. borders.

  • July 31, 2024

    Final DOI Report Finds Nearly 1,000 Died At Boarding Schools

    Nearly 1,000 Indigenous children died while attending federal government-run boarding schools, according to the Department of Interior's second — and final — report that follows a three-year investigation into harsh conditions the students were forced to endure over the course of more than a century.

  • July 31, 2024

    Mich. Justices Ask, Again, If Auto Reforms Cover Old Policies

    The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday asked parties in a crash insurance dispute to address a question on which it had already heard arguments earlier this year: whether no-fault reforms enacted in 2019 apply to preexisting policies or just to those issued after the reforms took effect.

  • July 31, 2024

    Wash. Court To Rethink Gas Chain's Tax Duty On Fuel Cards

    A Washington state appeals court said it would reconsider its May decision that a Pacific Northwest gas station chain that issued fuel cards to customers must pay the state business and occupation tax when holders of those cards purchase gas from other participating gas station chains.

  • July 31, 2024

    Separate Easement Contribution Docs Critical, IRS Atty Says

    Conservation easement donors must always keep separate documents from their donees that acknowledge the gifted property to qualify for a charitable tax deduction in the event the IRS requests such information during an audit, according to an agency counsel Wednesday.

  • July 31, 2024

    SEC Asked For Public Tax Reporting By Group With $2.3T

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission was asked Wednesday to begin a rulemaking procedure to require public country-by-country reporting of tax by nearly 90 investment funds, labor unions, activists and others with combined assets over $2.3 trillion.

  • July 31, 2024

    5th Circ. Pause Spells Doom For DOT Airline Fees Rule

    The Fifth Circuit gave the airline industry a temporary reprieve from a new U.S. Department of Transportation rule requiring carriers to more clearly disclose add-on fees upfront, a decision that stands to embolden opponents of the Biden administration's more aggressive consumer-focused policies.

  • July 31, 2024

    Black Worker Says PBGC Didn't Promote Him Due To His Race

    The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. passed over a Black worker for a senior director role in favor of a less qualified white woman and retaliated against him for a previously filed race discrimination complaint, a lawsuit filed in D.C. federal court said.

  • July 31, 2024

    NC Defense Attys Say Virus Law Case Can 'Unsettle' Immunity

    A North Carolina defense attorney group asked to jump into a medical malpractice suit in the state's high court Wednesday, offering what it described as a warning that if a decision stands on a COVID-19 law, immunity from lawsuits will be "unsettled."

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    After Chevron: Impact On Indian Law May Be Muted

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    Agency interpretations of Indian law statutes that previously stood the test of judicial review ​are likely to withstand new challenges even after the end of Chevron deference, but litigation in the area is all but certain, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • Opinion

    Trump Immunity Ruling Upends Our Constitutional Scheme

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump v. U.S. decision elevates the president to imperial status and paves the way for nearly absolute presidential immunity from potential criminal prosecutions — with no constitutional textual support, says Paul Berman at the George Washington University Law School.

  • High Court Paves Middle Ground For Proceedings Obstruction

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Fischer sensibly leaves the door open for prosecutors to make more nuanced assessments as to whether defendants' actions directly or tangentially impair the availability or integrity of anything used in an official proceeding, without criminalizing acts such as peaceful demonstrations, say attorneys at Perry Law.

  • How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board effectively gives new entities their own personal statute of limitations to challenge rules and regulations, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence may portend the court's view that those entities do not need to be directly regulated, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • Series

    Florida Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter of 2024 brought two notable bills that will affect Florida's banking and finance community across many issues, including virtual currency abandonment, cancellation of financial services on the basis of political opinions, and the exemption amount of motor vehicles, say Joshua Prever and Andrew Balthazor at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    After Chevron: FTC's 'Unfair Competition' Actions In Jeopardy

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    While the U.S. Supreme Court's decision ending Chevron deference will have limited effect on the Federal Trade Commission's merger guidelines, administrative enforcement actions and commission decisions on appeal, it could restrict the agency's expansive take on its rulemaking authority and threaten the noncompete ban, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Opportunities For Change In FHFA Practices

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of the Chevron doctrine should lead to better cooperation between the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Congress, and may give the FHFA a chance to embrace transparency and innovation and promote sustainable housing practices, says Mehdi Sinaki at Michelman & Robinson.

  • Constitutional Protections For Cannabis Companies Are Hazy

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    Cannabis businesses are subject to federal enforcement and tax, but often without the benefit of constitutional protections — and the entanglement of state and federal law and conflicting judicial opinions are creating confusion in the space, says Amber Lengacher at Purple Circle.

  • Supreme Court's ALJ Ruling Carries Implications Beyond SEC

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    In its recent Jarkesy opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the types of cases that can be tried before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house administrative law judges, setting the stage for challenges to the constitutionality of ALJs across other agencies, say Robert Robertson and Kimberley Church at Dechert.

  • Opinion

    A Tale Of 2 Trump Cases: The Rule Of Law Is A Live Issue

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision this week in Trump v. U.S., holding that former President Donald Trump has broad immunity from prosecution, undercuts the rule of law, while the former president’s New York hush money conviction vindicates it in eight key ways, says David Postel at Henein Hutchison.

  • USPTO Disclaimer Rule Would Complicate Patent Prosecution

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    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's proposed changes to terminal disclaimer practice could lead to a patent owner being unable to enforce a valid patent simply because it is indirectly tied to a patent in which a single claim is found anticipated or obvious in view of the prior art, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

  • 2nd Circ. ERISA Ruling May Help Fight Unfair Arb. Clauses

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    The Second Circuit recently held that a plaintiff seeking planwide relief under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act cannot be compelled to individual arbitration, a decision that opens the door to new applications of the effective vindication doctrine to defeat onerous and one-sided arbitration clauses, say Raphael Janove and Liana Vitale at Janove.

  • Series

    After Chevron: Various Paths For Labor And Employment Law

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    Labor and employment law leans heavily on federal agency guidance, so the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to toss out Chevron deference will ripple through this area, with future workplace policies possibly taking shape through strategic litigation, informal guidance, state-level regulation and more, says Alexander MacDonald at Littler.

  • 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.

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