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Public Policy
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April 26, 2024
Remote Class, Medical News, More: Texas High Court Roundup
The Supreme Court of Texas ruled on a handful of issues Friday, including the liability of universities for switching to remote learning, the responsibility of an employer for not providing a worker with concerning medical news and how a settlement credit should be applied to a final judgment.
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April 26, 2024
Ex-McKinsey Partner Says Firm Made Him Opioids 'Scapegoat'
A former McKinsey & Co. partner lobbed defamation claims at the consulting firm, claiming Friday that it lied to the government and the public about his purported role in deleting evidence amid government investigations into the firm's work with opioid manufacturers, an alleged scheme designed to make him the "scapegoat."
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April 26, 2024
Trump Casts Tabloid Deal As 'Standard Operating Procedure'
Donald Trump's attorneys tried to undermine Manhattan prosecutors' lead witness in his criminal trial on Friday, casting his deal to boost his presidency with the help of a friendly tabloid baron as nothing more than a savvy business relationship that was perfectly legal.
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April 26, 2024
New PTAB Briefing Plan Likely To Get Patent Owner Pushback
A proposed rule to create a separate round of briefing in Patent Trial and Appeal Board cases about whether the board should use its discretion to deny review may rankle patent owners, attorneys say, since it could effectively restrict their available arguments in many cases.
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April 26, 2024
TikTok Ban Reveals Congress' Power In Place Of CFIUS Limits
The new law calling for TikTok's Chinese parent company to sell the app or get banned in the U.S. reflects the limits of national security reviews and shows how Congress and the president may bolster, or circumvent, them going forward.
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April 26, 2024
HHS Finalizes Bolstered Sexual Orientation Bias Protections
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday unveiled a final rule designed to beef up protections against discrimination in healthcare, in particular protecting access to healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community as well as for other vulnerable populations.
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April 26, 2024
Senate Bill Would Vet FCC Rural Program Applicants
A bill that would make the vetting process tougher for rural broadband telecoms trying to get their hands on Federal Communications Commission-provided high-cost subsidies may advance Wednesday if all goes well during committee.
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April 26, 2024
St. John's Hoops Players Say NCAA Can't Block Their Play
Two St. John's University basketball players sued the NCAA Friday in New York, saying it arbitrarily denied them waivers for its "five-year rule" that prohibits student-athletes from competing in more than four seasons in any one sport, after they lost a season during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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April 26, 2024
Orgs Ask Biden, Congress To Impel Ligado Order's Reversal
It's time for the Federal Communications Commission to retract its controversial order allowing satellite communications company Ligado Networks to operate over a slice of spectrum known as the L-band, over 100 groups have banded together to tell Congress and the Biden administration.
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April 26, 2024
2nd Circ. Revives NY's Low-Income Broadband Pricing Law
The Second Circuit has breathed new life into a New York state law that requires internet service providers to offer reduced-price broadband plans, ruling Friday that a lower court was wrong to block the law nearly three years ago.
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April 26, 2024
CFTC Receives Competing Visions For AI's Regulatory Future
Business lobbyists have urged the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to lean on existing regulations to address the financial industry's use of artificial intelligence, while skeptics say those regulations don't go far enough to guard against the technology's potential to spur market crashes and data breaches.
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April 26, 2024
4 Takeaways From Final EPA Power Plant Rules
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's long-awaited rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants accelerates the timeline for the electricity sector's transition away from fossil fuels, though there's plenty of legal and political uncertainty to consider. Here are four key takeaways from the EPA's power plant moves.
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April 26, 2024
Wash. Judge Doubts He Can Block Kroger Merger
A Washington state judge expressed "serious doubts" Friday he could block the $24.6 billion Kroger and Albertsons merger but declined to dismiss the state attorney general's lawsuit seeking to derail the deal, saying that the state still had more narrowly tailored remedies to address its anti-competition concerns.
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April 26, 2024
Europeans Try To Ease Dispute Process In Canada Trade Pact
The European Commission on Friday proposed new rules to help small and medium-sized businesses access a yet-to-be established investor court that was included in the bloc's nearly seven-year-old trade deal with Canada.
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April 26, 2024
Rail Group Sues Minnesota Over New Hazmat Safety Fee Law
The lead lobbying group for the largest freight railroads sued Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in federal court on Friday, challenging a state law requiring railroads to dedicate $2.8 million for responding to hazardous material incidents.
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April 26, 2024
Sen. Panel Set To Vote On Dems' Spectrum Auction Bill
A Senate panel plans to vote on a bill that would renew the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction powers and address a shortfall in the agency's national security program.
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April 26, 2024
Feds Probe Tesla Autopilot Recall Fix Amid 'Misuse' Risks
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating whether Tesla's software update following a December recall, intended to more clearly warn drivers to stay alert and attentive while using its vehicles' Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system, effectively addressed the risks of "driver misuse."
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April 26, 2024
Crypto Atty's Senate Bid Takes Detour For SEC-Coinbase Suit
The pro-cryptocurrency attorney vying to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts added to his pro bono work in the digital asset space on Friday by taking up the mantle for Coinbase users in the crypto exchange's ongoing battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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April 26, 2024
Support For 9th Circ. Rehearing In Oak Flat Dispute Mounting
At least 100 religious and nonprofit groups, law scholars, Native American coalitions and tribes are urging the Ninth Circuit to consider a full panel en banc hearing on a challenge to block a copper mining company from destroying a sacred Indigenous religious site in central Arizona.
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April 26, 2024
Judge Made Right Call To Save DHS Parole Program, Feds Say
The Biden administration has assured a Texas federal judge that he made the right call tossing a lawsuit that Republican-led states launched challenging a parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, saying evidence showed that the program didn't financially harm the states.
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April 26, 2024
Custodia Balks At KC Fed's $25K Legal Bill After Account Suit
Custodia Bank on Friday urged a Wyoming federal judge not to award the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's request for roughly $25,000 in attorney fees and litigation costs in a suit that the cryptocurrency-focused bank recently lost, saying the payout could deter others from pursuing "David and Goliath" lawsuits against the government.
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April 26, 2024
Thomas' Long Quest To Undo A 'Grave Constitutional Error'
A quarter-century after Justice Clarence Thomas cast a pivotal vote against jury trial rights and rapidly regretted it, his relentless campaign to undo the controversial precedent is suddenly center stage with a serious shot at succeeding, as judges and lawyers increasingly deem the decision dubious and the U.S. Supreme Court chips away at its edges.
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April 26, 2024
Ex-USPTO Solicitor Heads To Carmichael IP
A veteran intellectual property attorney who once served as the chief legal officer at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has made the move to Carmichael IP PLLC.
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April 26, 2024
9th Circ. Won't Block Calif.'s Universal Service Funding Rule
The Ninth Circuit on Friday rejected a push to block California's new contribution regime for its statewide universal service fund, with the appellate judges ruling that the challenge from T-Mobile and its subsidiaries was unlikely to succeed on the merits.
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April 26, 2024
ERISA Suits Targeting Annuity Deals Could Escalate
A quartet of lawsuits targeting employers who terminate their pension plans and exchange them for annuity insurance contracts could trigger a new wave of class action litigation if they gain traction, since hundreds of thousands of retirees have been subject to pension risk transfers in recent years, attorneys say.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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How Policymakers Can Preserve The Promise Of Global Trade
Global trade faces increasing challenges but could experience a resurgence if long-held approaches adjust and the U.S. accounts for factors that undermine free trade's continuing viability, such as regional trading blocs and the increasing speed of technological advancement, says David Jividen at White & Case.
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10 Areas To Watch In Aerospace And Defense Contracting Law
The near future holds a number of key areas to watch in aerospace and defense contracting law, ranging from dramatic developments in the space industry to recent National Defense Authorization Act updates, which are focused on U.S. leadership in emerging technologies, say Joseph Berger and Chip Purcell at Thompson Hine.
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Opinion
Proposed MDL Management Rule Needs Refining
Proponents of the recently proposed Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 16.1 believe it may enhance efficiency in multidistrict litigation proceedings if adopted, but there are serious concerns that it could actually hinder plaintiffs' access to justice through the courts — and there are fundamental flaws that deserve our attention, says Ashleigh Raso at Nigh Goldenberg.
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How New SEC Rule May Turn DeFi Participants Into 'Dealers'
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced a new rule to amend its definition of a securities "dealer," but the change could have concerning implications for decentralized finance and blockchain, as the SEC has suggested it may subject DeFi participants to registration requirements and other regulations, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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Opinion
Litigation Funding Needs Regulating To Meet Ethics Standards
Third-party litigation funding can provide litigants with access to the legal system, but, as recent cases show, the funding agreements carry the potential for exploitation and may conflict with core aspects of the attorney-client relationship, making the need for a balanced regulation self-evident, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.
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Opinion
Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year
As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.
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How Harsher Penalties For AI Crimes May Work In Practice
With recent pronouncements from the U.S. Department of Justice that prosecutors may seek sentencing enhancements for crimes committed using artificial intelligence, defense counsel should understand how the sentencing guidelines and statutory factors will come into play, says Jennie VonCannon at Crowell & Moring.
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Opinion
NIST March-In Framework Is As Problematic As 2021 Proposal
While the National Institute of Standards and Technology's proposed march-in framework on when the government can seize patents has been regarded as a radical departure that will support lowering prescription drug costs, the language at the heart of it is identical to a failed 2021 notice of proposed rulemaking, says attorney Kelly Morron.
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AI In Performance Management: Mitigating Employer Risk
Companies are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence tools in performance management, exposing organizations to significant risks, which they can manage through employee training, bias assessments, and comprehensive policies and procedures related to the new technology, say Gregory Brown and Cindy Huang at Jackson Lewis.
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Legal Issues When Training AI On Previously Collected Data
Following the Federal Trade Commission's recent guidance about the use of customer data to train artificial intelligence models, companies should carefully think through their terms of service and privacy policies and be cautious when changing them to permit new uses of previously collected data, says James Gatto at Sheppard Mullin.
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Protested CFPB Supervisory Order Reveals Process, Priorities
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s order announcing its first use of special oversight power to place installment lender World Acceptance Corp. under supervision despite resistance from the company provides valuable insight into which products and practices may draw bureau scrutiny, and illuminates important nuances of the risk assessment procedures, say Josh Kotin and Michelle Rogers at Cooley.
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Series
Riding My Peloton Bike Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Using the Peloton platform for cycling, running, rowing and more taught me that fostering a mind-body connection will not only benefit you physically and emotionally, but also inspire stamina, focus, discipline and empathy in your legal career, says Christopher Ward at Polsinelli.