Public Policy

  • March 25, 2024

    5th Circ. Told Procurement Act Limits Biden's Wage Power

    The Biden administration lacks authority to implement a $15-per-hour minimum wage for government contractors, three Southern states told the Fifth Circuit, because the Procurement Act only empowers the executive branch to trim federal expenditures.

  • March 25, 2024

    Rep. Kim Still Suing Over NJ Ballot Issue Post-Murphy Exit

    U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., is not dropping his lawsuit challenging the fairness of New Jersey's layout for the primary election ballot despite the fact that his opponent for the Democratic nomination for the Senate, New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy, ended her campaign on Sunday.

  • March 25, 2024

    Spending Bill Gives $260M To DOL Wage Division

    The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division is expected to receive $260 million through the end of the fiscal year after President Joe Biden signed off on the latest bipartisan government funding bill.

  • March 25, 2024

    Ohio AG Says Pol Used Campaign Funds For Bribery Case Fees

    The legal woes of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder were compounded Monday with state charges that he used campaign money to cover legal fees stemming from his blockbuster conviction in federal court over the FirstEnergy Corp. bailout scandal.

  • March 25, 2024

    Black La. Residents Ask 5th Circ. To Revive Pollution Suit

    Black Louisianans are asking the Fifth Circuit to revive their lawsuit that alleges St. James Parish's government and the state Legislature intentionally approved harmful petrochemical facilities in predominantly Black districts and protected predominantly white districts from those facilities.

  • March 25, 2024

    'Mini' Arguments Loom Large On Mich. High Court's Docket

    A court rule unique to Michigan allows state Supreme Court justices to hear oral arguments without formally granting review in a case. The court has increasingly used the mechanism over the last decade, but it has divided the appellate bar. 

  • March 25, 2024

    Justices Nix Lenient Drug Sentence After 'Safety Valve' Ruling

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated a 100-month sentence given to a woman who pled guilty to drug offenses and remanded the case to the Fourth Circuit after the justices recently clarified which defendants qualify for "safety valve" relief under a 2018 federal law.

  • March 25, 2024

    High Court Won't Weigh In On ND Mineral Rights Takings Suit

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to wade into a fight over oil and gas mineral rights underneath a North Dakota lake, rejecting former rights owners' argument that states' sovereign immunity does not protect them from takings claims in federal court.

  • March 25, 2024

    Texas Judge Extends Stay On Border Wall Funding Order

    A Texas federal judge briefly extended a pause on an injunction directing the Biden administration to use funding Congress appropriated to build physical barriers on the Southwest border for that purpose, as the administration asks for clarification of the order, saying it could otherwise make it hard to build anything.

  • March 25, 2024

    Justices Won't Review Nullification Of Puerto Rico Labor Law

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a First Circuit finding that Puerto Rico's fiscal management board was within its authority to void a 2022 labor law expanding some benefits for private employees because it had not been given an opportunity to review the legislation.

  • March 25, 2024

    Farmers, Attys Say USDA Bias Payouts Can't Snub Fee Deals

    A pair of law firms from Ohio and Florida and their farmer clients have asked a federal judge to block the U.S. Department of Agriculture from paying out $2.2 billion in assistance directly to minority farmers it discriminated against, claiming the government disregarded contingent-fee agreements between the firms and the farmers.

  • March 25, 2024

    Minn. Bill Seeks Tax Credit For Building Conversions

    Minnesota would allow tax credits for certain costs related to the conversion of underutilized buildings to other commercial uses under legislation introduced Monday in the state Senate.

  • March 25, 2024

    Trump Gets Late Reprieve After Failing To Post $465M Bond

    A New York appellate panel said Monday that Donald Trump can pause enforcement of the state attorney general's $465 million civil fraud judgment by posting just $175 million while he appeals, after the former president complained that he was unable to secure a bond for the entire amount.

  • March 25, 2024

    FTX Clawbacks Unlikely To Help Bankman-Fried At Sentencing

    FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried probably won't find much success in arguing for a shorter prison term based on the billions of dollars recovered by the shuttered crypto exchange's bankruptcy estate, experts told Law360 ahead of this week's much-anticipated sentencing hearing.

  • March 25, 2024

    Justices Preserve Obama-Era Forest Monument Expansion

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review two appellate court rulings upholding former President Barack Obama's expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument on the Oregon-California border.

  • March 25, 2024

    Trump Can't Dismiss Hush Money Case, Trial Set For April

    A New York state judge on Monday emphatically denied Donald Trump's motion to dismiss the Manhattan district attorney's hush money case in the wake of a late evidence dump by federal prosecutors, scolding the former president's attorney and setting trial for April 15.

  • March 22, 2024

    Golfers Demand City Of LA End Tee Time Black Market

    Los Angeles golfers have sued the city claiming it's failing to stop black-market brokers from snatching up affordable tee times on municipal courses and reselling them for a profit.

  • March 22, 2024

    Feds Urge Justices To Reject Idaho's Abortion Ban Revival Bid

    The federal government said Idaho is pushing inconsistent positions on healthcare law as it tries to reinstate its abortion prohibition, telling the U.S. Supreme Court that the state still hasn't clearly articulated when it thinks abortions are federally required to save a person's life.

  • March 22, 2024

    Power Line's Refuge Crossing To Stay On Hold For Now

    A Wisconsin federal judge on Friday extended an order temporarily blocking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from executing a land swap that would allow the nearly completed Cardinal-Hickory Creek high-voltage transmission line to cross part of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

  • March 22, 2024

    Hostile Rancher Killed Migrant, Az. Prosecutors Tell Jury

    Arizona prosecutors went to trial Friday against a borderlands rancher they allege killed a migrant trespasser after a history of hostility toward border-crossers, while the man's counsel said he properly reported finding a dead body despite his deep fear that blame could be misdirected at him.

  • March 22, 2024

    Up Next At High Court: Abortion, Jury Trials And Estate Tax

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this week over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision expanding access to popular abortion pill mifepristone as well as whether juries should determine a defendants' eligibility for repeat offender enhanced sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act and how long federal employees have to appeal adverse employment decisions.

  • March 22, 2024

    Feds Delay Community Lending Assessment Change To 2026

    Federal banking regulators have pushed back a looming implementation date for part of their revamped community lending rules, delaying the roll-out of certain changes in a move that is raising fresh criticism of the rulemaking amid an industry-backed legal challenge.  

  • March 22, 2024

    Meta Can't Stop FTC Privacy Tweaks, Feds Say

    The Federal Trade Commission told the D.C. Circuit that Meta Platforms Inc. cannot nitpick the agency's structure to dodge in-house proceedings over proposed revisions to a $5 billion data privacy settlement between the commission and the social media giant.

  • March 22, 2024

    Don't Sweep Ads Into Regs On Foreign Airtime Buys, FCC Told

    A collection of broadcasters groups are asking the Federal Communications Commission to keep advertisements out of a potential commission rule requiring disclosures for foreign-sponsored airtime leases, and suggesting that the entire proposal would likely result in a court challenge if adopted.

  • March 22, 2024

    Real Estate Authority: NAR, Climate, Data Center Dollars

    Law360 Real Estate Authority covers the most important real estate deals, litigation, policies and trends. Catch up on this week's key developments by state — as well as on how the National Association of Realtors could shift broker fees, what the country's patchwork of climate action plans means for real estate, and why private equity is hot on data centers.

Expert Analysis

  • A New Push To Clear Up Marijuana's Foggy Legal Status

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    A recently publicized U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommendation to reschedule marijuana has reignited discourse over the drug's federal legal status — and although rescheduling would mitigate the legal risks for the industry and drastically increase the resources available for industry participants, the path forward will not be clear cut, say Joseph Cioffi and Louis DiLorenzo at Davis+Gilbert.

  • Wildfire Challenges For Utility Investors: Liability Theories

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    The greater frequency and scale of wildfires in the last several years have created operational and fiscal challenges for electric utility companies, including new theories of liability and unique operational and risk management considerations — all of which must be carefully considered by utility investors, say David Botter and Lisa Schweitzer at Cleary.

  • Under The Hood Of The SEC Securitization Conflict Rule

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    Elanit Snow and Julia Vitter of Proskauer consider the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently finalized rule that prohibits conflicts of interest in certain securitization transactions, uncovering what the new regulation does and doesn’t entail, why it was adopted, and how commenters' remarks affected the process.

  • Series

    Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.

  • Can A DAO Be Sued? SDNY Case May Hold The Answer

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    A case pending in the Southern District of New York will examine whether decentralized crypto co-op MakerDAO is a partnership with the capacity to be sued in federal court, and the decision could shape how legal frameworks will adapt to accommodate blockchain technologies moving forward, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • The Road Ahead For Florida's Drug Importation Program

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    Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Florida's drug importation program in January, a series of hurdles — including requisite buy-in from Canada — and potential legal challenges must be addressed before importation can begin, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Tips For Counsel Seeking Balance In The ESG Political Divide

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    Corporate counsel tasked with navigating environmental, social and governance factors in the current polarized political environment should not lose sight of best practices, including sticking to what the law requires and always telling the truth, say Jennifer Rubin at Mintz and Mike Rider at ResMed.

  • High Court Social Media Speech Ruling Could Implicate AI

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    In Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether certain state laws can restrict content moderation by social media platforms, but the eventual decision could also provide insight into whether the first amendment protects artificial intelligence speech, say Joseph Meadows and Quyen Dang at GRSM50.

  • Practical Steps For Navigating New Sanctions On Russia

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    After the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Russia – the largest to date since the Ukraine war began – companies will need to continue to strengthen due diligence and compliance measures to navigate the related complexities, say James Min and Chelsea Ellis at Rimon.

  • Justices' Trump Ballot Ruling: Purposivism In Textualist Garb

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump v. Anderson decision earlier this week, allowing former President Donald Trump to remain on state primary ballots, alleviates uncertainty and minimizes the potential for abuse in future cases, but is difficult to square with the court’s own account of its textualist interpretive methods, says Will Havemann at Hogan Lovells.

  • Assessing CDC's Revised Guideline On Opioid Prescriptions

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    Kenneth Weinstein, Nicholas Van Niel and Kate Uthe at Analysis Group look at newly available data to evaluate the impact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's revised opioid monitoring guideline have had on prescription trends in recent years, highlighting both specific and overall decreases.

  • Opinion

    UK Whistleblowers Flock To The US For Good Reason

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    The U.K. Serious Fraud Office director recently brought renewed attention to the differences between the U.K. and U.S. whistleblower regimes — differences that may make reporting to U.S. agencies a better and safer option for U.K. whistleblowers, and show why U.K. whistleblower laws need to be improved, say Benjamin Calitri and Kate Reeves at Kohn Kohn.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC

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    The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Opinion

    There Is No NCAA Supremacy Clause, Especially For NIL

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    A recent Tennessee federal court ruling illustrates the NCAA's problematic position that its member schools should violate state law rather than its rules — and the organization's legal history with the dormant commerce clause raises a fundamental constitutional issue that will have to be resolved before attorneys can navigate NIL with confidence, says Patrick O’Donnell at HWG.

  • Zero-Point Offender Eligibility May Hinge On Meaning Of 'And'

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    Some white collar defendants’ eligibility for the new zero-point offender sentencing adjustment comes down to whether the word “and” really means “and” — a question the U.S. Supreme Court is set to resolve in its upcoming Pulsifer v. U.S. decision, which could affect thousands of incarcerated people, say Brandon McCarthy and Nikita Yogeshwarun at Katten.

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