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Public Policy
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April 16, 2024
Ga. Shouldn't 'Go Back' On Absentee Voter Rules, Judge Told
Back in court for its third election-related trial of 2024, the state of Georgia urged a federal judge Monday morning not to strike down increased regulations on the state's absentee ballot application process enacted as part of the state's controversial 2021 election law.
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April 15, 2024
Funeral Home With Decaying Bodies Accused Of COVID Fraud
A couple who allegedly stored 190 decomposing bodies in their funeral home have been indicted on federal charges that they also fraudulently obtained COVID-19 relief funds, which they spent on vacations and cosmetic surgery, among other things, Colorado federal prosecutors announced Monday.
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April 15, 2024
Structured Deposits Recalled In Ex-Ecuadorian Official's Trial
A bookkeeper testified Monday in Miami federal court that he conducted a series of structured deposits and other suspicious transactions while working at a tile company owned by the son of Ecuador's former comptroller general, who's accused of laundering millions of dollars in bribes from Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht SA.
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April 15, 2024
Ocean Agency Requires Cos. To Cover Well Razing Costs
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Monday unveiled a final rule aimed at ensuring oil and gas companies, and not taxpayers, are the ones footing the bill for decommissioning offshore wells and infrastructure.
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April 15, 2024
Colo. Ski Resort's Snowmaking Suit More Than A Decade Late
A Colorado federal judge on Monday tossed a lawsuit over a ski resort's permit to make snow using a nearby watershed that is a habitat for an imperiled trout species, siding with the U.S. Forest Service in concluding the resort's owner and operator should've filed the claim more than a decade earlier.
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April 15, 2024
Dems Grill Chamber Over 'Outrageous' CFPB Card Fee Suit
Two top Democratic senators are calling on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to explain why it sued to block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $8 credit card late fee rule, a case they say is "outrageous" and puts the interests of big banks over the group's rank and file.
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April 15, 2024
Trump Tells Justices Impeachment Required For Prosecution
Former President Donald Trump told the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday that the "inevitably and unavoidably" political nature of prosecuting a former president requires input from Congress, arguing the U.S. Constitution's framers carefully wrote the impeachment clause to act as an initial hurdle for criminal prosecutions.
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April 15, 2024
Gov't Says Mich. Court Lacks Authority Over U-Visa Delay Suit
The federal government on Friday urged a Michigan federal court to toss a proposed class action alleging unreasonable decision delays in U-visa petitions, saying the court wouldn't be able to cure the visa-seeking plaintiffs' alleged harm of being unable to work.
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April 15, 2024
SEC Scores Win In $119M Rochester, NY Muni Bond Suit
A New York federal judge on Monday granted an early win to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on its claims against an advisory and its two principals who were involved in a $119 million bond offering by the city of Rochester, New York, saying the firm failed to disclose conflicts of interest present in its fee arrangements.
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April 15, 2024
EPA Says Legacy Asbestos Poses Unreasonable Risk
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released on Monday its long-awaited draft for the second part of its asbestos risk evaluation, which determined handling asbestos associated with legacy uses presents undue human health risks.
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April 15, 2024
Dueling Bills Highlight Partisan Divide Over 'Judge Shopping'
Dueling proposals to limit so-called judge shopping were unveiled by Senate party leaders last week, sparking optimism that Congress will rein in plaintiffs' ability to bring cases before judges they think will be friendly to their views, while others raised questions about the proposals' feasibility.
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April 15, 2024
EPA Asks High Court To Preserve SF Water Pollution Regs
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve its water quality standards for San Francisco, which the city has challenged as vague, generic, and "virtually impossible" to comply with.
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April 15, 2024
House Rejects Bid To Overturn Spy Bill Authorization
The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday rejected an attempt to overturn legislation reauthorizing a controversial foreign surveillance program after several Republican lawmakers took issue with the exclusion of a warrant requirement for accessing U.S. citizens' information.
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April 15, 2024
Minimize Nat'l Security Regs On Broadband, Verizon Says
Verizon said the Federal Communications Commission should not impose national security reviews that could disrupt existing broadband service when it passes a net neutrality order as expected this month.
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April 15, 2024
Vidal Wants To Make Her Director Review Rules Official
After almost a year of running U.S. Supreme Court-mandated director reviews of patent board decisions through an interim process, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said Monday that it has landed on some proposed rules for how it wants to officially run those.
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April 15, 2024
Green Groups Defend Suit To Expel Ga. Island's Wild Horses
Conservation groups told a Georgia federal court on Monday that Peach State officials are not shielded from their lawsuit to make state and federal authorities remove feral horses they say are threatening endangered wildlife on Cumberland Island.
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April 15, 2024
Enviro Groups Urge 9th Circ. To Uphold Ax Of DOI Land Swap
Environmental groups and the National Congress of American Indians have thrown their support behind the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in calling on the Ninth Circuit to uphold a lower court ruling that the federal government's land exchange with agribusiness J.R. Simplot Co. was unlawful.
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April 15, 2024
Oil Co. Warns NC Justices Of 'Unfair' Results In Taking Case
An oil company and two other former plaintiffs from a settled state government land-taking proposed class action have warned the North Carolina Supreme Court that if the justices affirm an intermediate appellate ruling in a similar case, they would be reinforcing "unfair, unequal, disparate and divergent" treatment of property owners.
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April 15, 2024
Baltimore Taps DiCello Levitt, Saltz Mongeluzzi For Key Bridge
The city of Baltimore announced Monday it has hired DiCello Levitt and Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky PC as it plans legal action against those responsible for a container ship destroying the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month, the same day FBI agents boarded the ship as part of a criminal investigation.
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April 15, 2024
Academics Push To Cut Investor Arbitration From Trade Deals
Hundreds of law and economics professors have joined the chorus of calls on the left pressing U.S. President Joe Biden to snip investor-state dispute settlement provisions from existing trade deals, saying the legal mechanism privileges corporate entities over domestic citizens.
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April 15, 2024
Biden Approves Disaster Declarations For States, Tribe
The states of Oregon and California, along with one of their tribal communities, will receive federal emergency aid to help recover from severe winter storms that caused widespread damage and killed several people in January and February.
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April 15, 2024
Apple Defends Anti-Steering Rule Compliance In Epic Case
Apple told a California federal court it has fully complied with an order barring anti-steering rules in its App Store and said complaints from Epic Games, Microsoft and others about its compliance are just efforts by the companies to pad their own profits.
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April 15, 2024
Counties Say Colo. Can't Limit Their Cooperation With ICE
Two Colorado counties filed a lawsuit Monday challenging state laws that restrict how local governments can work with federal immigration authorities, arguing that the state constitution forbids such interference with a local government's ability to cooperate with the federal government.
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April 15, 2024
Justices Suggest Bribery Law Could Criminalize Routine Gifts
U.S. Supreme Court justices pressed the federal government Monday to specify what kinds of rewards fall under a bribery statute frequently used in public corruption prosecutions and why they should be considered graft, voicing concerns that ordinary people could face hefty prison time for routine gift-giving.
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April 15, 2024
Ind. Tax Board Hikes Home Value Based On Purchase Price
The Indiana Board of Tax Review increased the valuation of a couple's home based on its purchase price after finding that a sales comparison analysis by the property owners was insufficient to justify a lower value.
Expert Analysis
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A Defense Strategy For Addressing Copyright Fee-Shifting
Permissive fee-shifting under Section 505 of the Copyright Act poses unique challenges for copyright defendants, carrying an outsize impact on the economic incentive structure in copyright litigation, but relying on a Federal Rule of Civil Procedure may offer a potential solution by allowing defendants to recover attorney fees, say Hugh Marbury and Molly Shaffer at Cozen O'Connor.
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Opinion
DOJ Press Office Is Not Fulfilling Its Stated Mission
The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs’ apparent practice of issuing press releases when someone is indicted or convicted, but not when a defendant prevails, undermines its stated mission to disseminate “current, complete and accurate” information, and has negative real-world ramifications, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.
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An Overview Of Key Financing Documents In Venture Capital
The Delaware Chancery Court’s recent Moelis decision highlights the importance of structuring corporate governance around investor demand, meaning early-stage companies seeking venture funding through sales of preferred stock should understand the legal documents needed to do so successfully, say Daniel Bell-Garcia and Tristan Kaisharis at Winstead.
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Opinion
Expanded Detention Will Not Solve Immigration Challenges
The recently defeated bipartisan border package included provisions that would increase funding for detention, a costly distraction from reforms like improved adjudication and legal representation that could address legitimate economic and public safety concerns at much lower cost, say Alexandra Dufresne and Kyle Wolf at Cornell University.
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Ready Or Not, Big Tech Should Expect CFPB Surveillance
In light of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposed plan to supervise large companies providing the vast majority of digital money transfers, not only will Big Tech have to prepare for regulation previously reserved for traditional banks, but the CFPB will also likely face some difficult decisions and obstacles, says Meredith Osborn at Arnold & Porter.
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Opinion
Neb. Justices Should Weigh IRC Terms In Dividend Tax Case
Nebraska’s highest court, which will hear oral arguments in Precision CastParts v. Department of Revenue on April 1, should recognize that the Internal Revenue Code provides key clues to defining “dividends received or deemed to be received,” and therefore limits Nebraska’s tax on foreign-sourced corporate income, says Joseph Schmidt at Ryan.
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What New Waste Management Laws Signal For The Future
Several states have enacted extended producer responsibility and recycling labeling laws that will take effect in the next few years and force manufacturers to take responsibility for the end of life of their products, so companies should closely follow compliance timelines and push to innovate in the area, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Untangling The Legal Complexities Of Trade Secrets And AI
With broad adoption of generative artificial intelligence, some have suggested trade secret law is the best means for protecting innovations, but while this protection may apply to all forms of information, the breadth of coverage may make identifying the information and later misappropriation difficult, say Joshua Lerner and Nora Passamaneck at WilmerHale.
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A Look At 3 Noncompete Bans Under Consideration In NYC
A trio of noncompete bills currently pending in the New York City Council would have various effects on employers' abilities to enter into such agreements with their employees, reflecting growing anti-noncompete sentiment across the U.S., say Tracey Diamond and Grace Goodheart at Troutman Pepper.
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Reducing Risk While DOJ Plans New Whistleblower Rewards
In light of the Department of Justice's newly announced plan to create a comprehensive whistleblower reward program to fill the gaps in the current patchwork of federal incentives, companies should mitigate their risk of external claims now by implementing internal systems where employees can confidently and anonymously report concerns, say Caleb Hayes-Deats and Walter Hawes at MoloLamken.
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Series
Spray Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My experiences as an abstract spray paint artist have made me a better litigator, demonstrating — in more ways than one — how fluidity and flexibility are necessary parts of a successful legal practice, says Erick Sandlin at Bracewell.
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DOJ's Safe Harbor Policy May Quietly Favor M&A Enforcement
In a change that has received little attention, the U.S. Justice Department's recently codified safe harbor policy essentially reads the Antitrust Division's criminal enforcement out of the policy entirely, and now appears to favor merger enforcement in antitrust, rather than criminal enforcement, as originally intended, say Daniel Oakes and James Attridge at Axinn.
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Takeaways From The 2023 DOJ Fraud Section Report
Attorneys at Wiley discuss notable trends from the U.S. Department of Justice's recently reported Fraud Section activity last year and highlight areas of enforcement to watch for in the future, including healthcare fraud and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations.
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Draft Pay Equity Rule May Pose Contractor Compliance Snags
The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council's recently proposed rule that would prohibit government contractors from requesting certain job applicants' salary history seems simple on the surface, but achieving compliance will be a nuanced affair for many contractors who must also adhere to state and local pay transparency laws, say attorneys at Hogan Lovells.
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7 Takeaways From CFPB Circular On Digital Comparison Tools
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new guidance regarding digital comparison-shopping platforms for financial services products and services offers fresh insights into the bureau's interpretation of the abusiveness standard and expands on principles underlying its previous guidance on the topic, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.