Public Policy

  • April 25, 2024

    DOJ Pressed On Prosecutions Of Muslim Asylum-Seekers

    The U.S. Department of Justice is facing new questions from Capitol Hill over prosecutions of Muslim asylum-seekers in the wake of a Los Angeles Times report showing that migrants from majority-Muslim countries were disproportionately imprisoned at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.

  • April 25, 2024

    Texas County's Electioneering Rules Face Questions In Court

    A Texas federal judge pushed a top Fort Worth-area county official on whether new restrictions on signage outside an election site were put in place to stop voter intimidation, pressing county officials on how the policy complies with the First Amendment.

  • April 25, 2024

    FDIC Tables Plans To Scrutinize Big 'Passive' Bank Investors

    Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. leaders on Thursday debated two competing proposals intended to address concerns about asset managers and other investors amassing outsized influence over banks whose shares they own, ultimately taking the rare step of tabling the measures as neither garnered majority support.

  • April 25, 2024

    Ariz. Tribes, Groups Seek Stay In SunZia Power Line Ruling

    Native American tribes and environmentalists are asking an Arizona federal district court for an emergency injunction that would stay a ruling that rejected their bid to block work on SunZia's $10 billion transmission line while they appeal the decision, arguing that construction is already going ahead in culturally sensitive locations.

  • April 25, 2024

    Conn. Judge Sends Colo. Mass Shooting Cases To State Court

    A Connecticut federal judge sent two lawsuits against gunmaker Sturm Ruger & Co. Inc. back to state court Thursday, finding that the complaints brought by the estates of two Colorado mass shooting victims did not meet a key standard for handling the claims in federal court.

  • April 25, 2024

    Crypto Co. Sues 'Crusading' Gensler Over SEC's Ether Stance

    Cryptocurrency software company Consensys Software Inc. sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday in Texas federal court over the agency's treatment of the Ethereum network's ether token as a security after the company received a so-called Wells notice that agency staff intends to recommend an enforcement action over its products.

  • April 25, 2024

    GOP Lawmakers Want Intel Chip Exports To Huawei Blocked

    Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., demanded Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Commerce "immediately revoke" all export licenses granted to Huawei, following the Chinese technology giant's recent announcement that it plans to use new Intel chips with artificial intelligence capabilities in its latest personal computers.

  • April 25, 2024

    Gov't To Use Tribal Energy Purchase Preference For First Time

    The Biden administration announced Thursday that it intends to purchase thousands of megawatts of carbon-pollution-free electricity certificates from tribal sources, marking the first time the government will use a nearly two-decade-old procurement preference for tribally sourced energy.

  • April 25, 2024

    ​​​​​​​Legal Battles Set To Begin On Broadband 'Neutrality' Regs

    Now that the Federal Communications Commission's Democratic leadership brushed past GOP members' opposition to net neutrality rules, it faces what could be a higher hurdle — growing resistance in the courts to expansive views of agency powers.

  • April 25, 2024

    Court Brushes Off Door Co.'s Bid To Hasten Duty Refund

    The U.S. Court of International Trade backed U.S. Customs and Border Protection's timeline for unwinding duties on door thresholds from Vietnam after the agency reversed a previous evasion finding, saying CBP's redetermination became final after the court's approval.

  • April 25, 2024

    Objector Takes $125M PACER Overcharge Deal To Fed. Circ.

    An objector to a $125 million deal resolving class action claims that the federal judiciary overcharges users of its PACER court records system is taking his challenge to the settlement to the Federal Circuit.

  • April 25, 2024

    Ex-Tabloid CEO Says Trump Was Furious When Affair News Hit

    Former American Media Inc. CEO and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker told a New York jury on Thursday that he paid off Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep her from going public about an affair with Donald Trump, who became enraged when news of the affair surfaced just days before the 2016 election.

  • April 25, 2024

    Mich. Drops Detroit Gerrymandering Appeal In $2M Fee Deal

    The Michigan commission tasked with drawing the state's legislative maps voted Thursday to forgo a U.S. Supreme Court appeal of a ruling that it unconstitutionally used race to craft Detroit voting districts.

  • April 25, 2024

    Biden Admin's Gas Venting Curbs Are Illegal, ND Says

    A North Dakota-led alliance of states has accused the Biden administration of pushing through limits on greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas sector illegally disguised as a rule to reduce industry waste, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court.

  • April 25, 2024

    FCC OKs $1.35B T-Mobile, Mint Deal With Unlocked Phones

    The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved T-Mobile's $1.35 billion purchase of Ka'ena, the parent company of Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds' wireless brand Mint Mobile, adopting as a condition for approval the carrier's commitment to more quickly "unlocking" its phones so they can be transferred between service providers.

  • April 25, 2024

    Wash. Large-Magazine Ban Stays As Court Official Fears Tragedy

    The Washington Supreme Court commissioner said Thursday the state can maintain its ban on the sale of large-capacity magazines for now, saying in his ruling he was kept awake at night over the potential that lifting the ban would allow an especially "awful" mass shooting.

  • April 25, 2024

    Privacy Hawks Plot What's Next After FISA Passage

    After the Senate sent a bill renewing the controversial warrantless foreign surveillance law to the president's desk on Saturday, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a staunch privacy advocate and one of the 34 senators to vote against it, said, "I'm not giving up."

  • April 25, 2024

    Colo. Regulators Say Past Suncor Spills Forced New Permit

    Colorado water quality regulators on Thursday urged a state judge not to pause the effects of a renewed water discharge permit that Suncor Energy is challenging as arbitrary and unduly expensive, arguing the new requirements in the updated permit are the company's own fault.

  • April 25, 2024

    Feds Say COVID Fraud Case Against Ex-Pol Clears Early Bar

    Federal prosecutors said Thursday that a former Massachusetts politician should save for trial his arguments seeking to dismiss claims that he lied to rake in COVID-19 relief funds and tried to avoid reporting income to the Internal Revenue Service. 

  • April 25, 2024

    Dominican Republic, Uzbekistan No Longer On IP Watch List

    The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Thursday it has removed the Dominican Republic and Uzbekistan from its watch list of countries with poor track records on intellectual property protection, keeping close trade partners Mexico and Canada on the roster.

  • April 25, 2024

    FERC Says National Grid Held Up To Winter Weather

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revealed during its monthly meeting Thursday that the nation's electric grid and natural gas systems largely operated without any major incidents when severe winter weather swept across the country in January, marking a stark improvement from previous winter storms.

  • April 25, 2024

    1st Circ. Tosses Second Vineyard Wind Challenge

    The First Circuit on Thursday rejected a legal challenge to the federal government's approval of a wind energy project off the coast of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, the second such ruling in as many days.

  • April 25, 2024

    NY Pot Regulator Seeks Dismissal Of Bias Suit

    New York's cannabis regulator on Wednesday asked a federal judge to toss a lawsuit litigated by a conservative legal organization that alleges that the state's social equity licensure program discriminates against white men, saying the plaintiffs lack standing.

  • April 25, 2024

    Wash. Appeals Court Rejects Seattle High-Rise Permit Dispute

    A Washington state appeals court sided with a developer on Thursday in a challenge to its plan for a 17-story apartment building on Seattle's waterfront, concluding that the project's opponents missed their chance to contest the city's decision not to hold the proposal to certain shoreline regulations.

  • April 25, 2024

    Fla. High Court Says PIP Law Doesn't Mandate 100% Payment

    The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Allstate Insurance Co. is not required to pay 100% of a chiropractic provider's charges under a personal injury protection policy, saying to enact such a requirement would misread both Florida's PIP law and Allstate's policy.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • The Corporate Transparency Act Isn't Dead Yet

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    After an Alabama federal court's ruling last week rendering the Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutional, changes to the law may ultimately be required, but ongoing compliance is still the best course of action for most, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.

  • A Former Bankruptcy Judge Talks 'Undue Hardship'

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    Former U.S. bankruptcy judge Robert Gordon reflects on his journey from student borrower to judicial observer, highlighting the challenges faced by modern students burdened with student loan debt and advocating for reform in bankruptcy laws, particularly regarding the "undue hardship" element of discharge.

  • Employers, Prep For Shorter Stock Awards Settlement Cycle

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    Companies that provide equity compensation in the form of publicly traded stock will soon have one less day to complete such transactions under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Nasdaq rules — so employers should implement expedited equity compensation stock settlement and payroll tax deposit procedures now, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Complying With Enforcers' Ephemeral Messaging Guidance

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    Given federal antitrust enforcers’ recently issued guidance on ephemeral messaging applications, organizations must take a proactive approach to preserving short-lived communications — or risk criminal obstruction charges and civil discovery sanctions, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • New FinCEN Guide Provides Useful BOI Context For Banks

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    Financial institutions should review a new Financial Crimes Enforcement Network compliance guide for helpful details about how the agency's beneficial ownership information database should be used, though questions remain about the access rule and whether it will truly streamline bank borrowers' Corporate Transparency Act due diligence, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.

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