Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Public Policy
-
September 19, 2024
NY Tribe Settles With Lottery Co. Over Gaming On Tribal Land
The Cayuga Nation and New York's licensed mobile lottery provider have reached a settlement in the federally recognized tribe's lawsuit seeking to block the state gaming commission from operating games on tribe's self-proclaimed reservation.
-
September 19, 2024
Wash. Justices Strike Down County's Rural Winery Regs
The Washington State Supreme Court has struck down an Evergreen State county's regulations for wineries and tasting rooms on rural land near Seattle, saying Thursday the local government violated long-term planning and land use law by downplaying potential environmental consequences of the rules before passing them.
-
September 19, 2024
US Argues Court Can't Stop Tribe From Blocking Roads
The U.S. government told a Wisconsin federal judge that a town's lawsuit seeking to stop the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians from barricading roads on tribal land can't be enforced, saying the Native American tribe is immune from the suit.
-
September 19, 2024
FTC's Holyoak Offers 'Alternative Vision' For Privacy, AI Work
The Federal Trade Commission needs to rein in its work on data privacy and artificial intelligence rather than pursue sweeping actions that exceed its regulatory authority and threaten to compromise the support and funding the agency gets from Congress, according to one of its Republican commissioners.
-
September 19, 2024
Newsmax Appeals Quash Of Smartmatic Atty Subpoenas
Newsmax Media Inc. is appealing a Florida judge's decision to quash its attempt to subpoena a slew of criminal defense attorneys — representing Smartmatic USA Corp. executives in a criminal case over a Philippines elections contract — in Smartmatic's defamation suit over Newsmax reports tying the voting tech company to alleged conspiracies to steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
-
September 19, 2024
Pa. Justices Cement Dismissal Of Ballot Date Rule Challenge
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court headed off voting-rights groups' effort to quickly revive a challenge to state rules for signing and dating mail-in ballots, clarifying Thursday that a statewide court would still lack jurisdiction even if the challengers added all 67 counties to the case.
-
September 19, 2024
Ch. 7 Trustee Urges Justices To Uphold Return Of Taxes
The bankruptcy trustee of a defunct Utah transportation company warned the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday that overturning a decision forcing the IRS to return tax payments made by company directors to cover their personal debts would encourage shareholder fraud.
-
September 19, 2024
Florida Banker Denies Laundering Money For Father
A Florida banker pled not guilty Thursday to federal charges connected to laundering money for his father, who was convicted for his role in a corruption scandal involving canceling fines for a defective hydroelectric dam in exchange for millions in bribes while he served as Ecuador's comptroller.
-
September 19, 2024
Ga. Judge Won't Touch State's Unlimited Funds Law
The state of Georgia has temporarily beaten back the latest challenge to a 2021 law that allows certain political candidates to sidestep campaign contribution limits, after a federal judge on Thursday declined to hand the state's Democratic Party an injunction blocking the statute.
-
September 19, 2024
Union Pacific Contractors Again Escape Texas Enviro Claims
A Texas appeals court on Thursday affirmed a trial court's decision to dismiss without prejudice the claims scores of people lodged against two Union Pacific Railroad Co. contractors in their litigation over cancer-causing contamination related to a Houston rail yard.
-
September 19, 2024
NC Justice Dept. Resolves Atty's Sex, Race Bias Suit
The North Carolina Department of Justice agreed to settle a Black attorney's lawsuit alleging she was passed over for promotion in favor of a less qualified white man, according to court filings, just weeks after a federal judge refused to toss the case.
-
September 19, 2024
Senate Panel Holds Steward CEO In Contempt After No-Show
A U.S. Senate committee voted unanimously Thursday to hold Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre in civil and criminal contempt after he defied a subpoena to testify about the bankrupt health system's downfall.
-
September 19, 2024
5th Circ. Says Deported Honduran Wrongly Deemed A Felon
The Fifth Circuit has vacated the removal order of a Honduran woman charged as an accessory to an armed robbery, finding that the Louisiana statute she was deported under for an aggravated felony doesn't align with the federal definition of the removable offense of obstruction of justice.
-
September 19, 2024
EPA Urges DC Circ. Not To Block Coal Ash Rule Implementation
A Kentucky electric utility is "misleading" the D.C. Circuit about how clean former coal ash pits are once the material is removed, and should not be allowed to block implementation of a new coal ash rule, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
-
September 19, 2024
Calif. Port's Approval Of Hydrogen Project Challenged
Two conservation groups filed a California state court lawsuit challenging the Port of Stockton's review and approval of a hydrogen production and distribution facility, arguing it conducted an inadequate environmental review and failed to ensure project impacts are mitigated.
-
September 19, 2024
Puerto Rico, Navient Ink $7.7M Student Loan Forgiveness Deal
Navient Corp. has reached an agreement with Puerto Rico's attorney general to forgive at least $7.7 million in private student loans after being accused of past predatory lending to student borrowers and pervasive loan servicing failures.
-
September 19, 2024
FERC Must Heed DC Circ. 'Shift' On Gas Reviews, Chair Says
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Willie Phillips said Thursday that the D.C. Circuit wrongly wiped out the agency's approval of a Northeast pipeline expansion project, but acknowledged that recent court decisions will force FERC to rethink how it reviews gas infrastructure projects.
-
September 19, 2024
GOP's Broadband Permit Overhaul 'Dangerous,' Localities Say
Local governments urged congressional leaders to reject a Republican-backed plan to revamp permitting laws that delay new broadband deployment projects, calling the proposal a "dangerous" step toward limiting city and county rights.
-
September 19, 2024
Judge Keeps Hur Investigation Ghostwriter Tapes Sealed
A D.C. federal judge said Thursday she would review portions of President Joe Biden's ghostwriter's interview with special counsel Robert Hur's office to see if more of it should be publicly released, but denied a separate request from the Heritage Foundation to make the audio of the same conversation public.
-
September 19, 2024
New NJ Senator Seeks Postelection Vote On 3rd Circ. Nominee
New Jersey's new U.S. senator, freshly sworn-in Democrat George Helmy, hopes the Senate will vote after the election on the long-stalled nomination of Adeel Mangi to the Third Circuit, which includes his state.
-
September 19, 2024
Feds Defend At-Sea Monitoring Rule Despite Chevron Demise
The federal government is defending its power to require fishermen to partially fund the cost of compliance monitors aboard their ships, arguing to the D.C. Circuit that the demise of the so-called Chevron deference doesn't change the fact that federal law authorizes the at-sea monitoring rules.
-
September 19, 2024
Ex-La. Assistant DA Indicted In Bribery, Laundering Case
A former assistant district attorney in Lafayette, Louisiana, has been indicted on allegations he conspired to solicit kickbacks and accept bribes while overseeing the 15th Judicial District Attorney's Office's pretrial intervention program.
-
September 19, 2024
Feds, Wis. Military Affairs Office Ink Deal In Pay Bias Suit
The Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs will pay $175,000 to end a U.S. Department of Justice suit alleging it offered a female job applicant a lower salary than what it paid a man for the same position, according to a filing Thursday in federal court.
-
September 19, 2024
Halted DOL Fiduciary Regs Could Open Lane For SEC Action
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission might need to help clear up confusion about fiduciary investment advice standards in the wake of two Texas judges halting new retirement security regulations from the Labor Department, members of an SEC investor advisory committee said Thursday.
-
September 19, 2024
Senate Tees Up Vote On Tax Court Nominee
The U.S. Senate set the stage Thursday to proceed with a vote on one of President Joe Biden's picks to fill an open seat on the U.S. Tax Court.
Expert Analysis
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
DOJ Paths To Limit FARA Fallout From Wynn's DC Circ. Win
After the D.C. Circuit’s recent Attorney General v. Wynn ruling, holding that the government cannot compel retroactive registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the U.S. Department of Justice has a few options to limit the decision’s impact on enforcement, say attorneys at MoFo.
-
Series
Playing Dungeons & Dragons Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Playing Dungeons & Dragons – a tabletop role-playing game – helped pave the way for my legal career by providing me with foundational skills such as persuasion and team building, says Derrick Carman at Robins Kaplan.
-
A Look At The Regulatory Scrutiny Facing Liquid Restaking
Recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement actions highlight the regulatory challenges facing emerging financial instruments like liquid restaking tokens and services, say Daniel Davis and Alexander Kim at Katten.
-
Del. Dispatch: Director Caremark Claims Need Extreme Facts
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently dismissed Caremark claims against the directors of Centene in Bricklayers Pension Fund of Western Pennsylvania v. Brinkley, indicating a high bar for a finding of the required element of bad faith for Caremark liability, and stressing the need to resist hindsight bias, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
-
Series
After Chevron: Challenges Loom For PBGC Actions
After Loper Bright, two recent actions taken by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. already under scrutiny seem destined to be challenged and resolved under the new standard of judicial deference, which will greatly affect employers with potential withdrawal liability exposure, say Robert Perry and David Pixley at Jackson Lewis.
-
Opinion
USPTO AI Patent Guidance Leaves Questions Unanswered
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s recent guidance on artificial intelligence patent eligibility is unlikely to answer many of the open questions that AI patent applicants face, as it includes nominally new analysis that applicants can adopt to analyze their inventions, say attorneys at Fenwick & West.