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Public Policy
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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September 19, 2024
Tax Or Fee, Utility Rates Beyond Review, Ga. Justices Hear
A Georgia city told the state Supreme Court on Thursday that its use of utility fees to bolster city coffers was not an illegal tax, despite a sports bar owner's claims to the contrary, and that a trial court rightly said it could not decide the matter.
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September 19, 2024
Feds Say Menendez Retrial Bid Ignores 'Overwhelming' Proof
Prosecutors urged a Manhattan federal judge to reject former Sen. Bob Menendez's request for a new trial on corruption and bribery charges, arguing that evidence of his guilt was "overwhelming."
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September 19, 2024
AT&T Exec's Bribery Trial Ends With Hung Jury
An Illinois federal judge declared a mistrial in a key corruption case after jurors told him twice Thursday they could not reach a unanimous verdict on any of the charges against an AT&T executive accused of illegally influencing former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan.
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September 19, 2024
H&R Block Again Asks 8th Circ. To Remove ALJs In Ad Suit
H&R Block asked the Eighth Circuit to reconsider its denial of the company's request to stop administrative law judges from presiding over its coming false-advertising hearing before the Federal Trade Commission, saying the court's one-sentence ruling lacked any explanation despite the significant constitutional issues involved.
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September 19, 2024
Federal Judicial Picks For 3 States Advance To Full Senate
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee sent four judicial nominations to the full Senate on Thursday, including that of a former U.S. attorney nominee whose confirmation was blocked by Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, before he became a vice presidential nominee.
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September 19, 2024
Nine Countries Sign Treaty For OECD Min. Tax On Payments
Indonesia, Turkey, Congo and six other countries signed a multilateral treaty aimed at implementing a 9% minimum tax on income sent from their jurisdictions to low-taxed entities within a corporate group, the OECD said Thursday.
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September 19, 2024
Squire Patton Hires Ex-Defense Secretary Mark Esper
Former Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, who clashed with former President Donald Trump, has joined Squire Patton Boggs LLP to advise clients on national security matters and domestic and foreign policy, the firm announced Thursday.
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September 18, 2024
Kids' Online Safety, Privacy Bills Move To House Floor
The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday advanced a pair of bipartisan bills aimed at enhancing children's digital safety and data privacy, despite several lawmakers voicing concerns with recent changes that a sponsor acknowledged left one measure a "weakened version" of the proposal that passed the U.S. Senate.
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September 18, 2024
Google Judge Wonders: Does Ad Tech Benefit Publishers?
The Virginia federal judge weighing the fate of Google's display advertising placement business zeroed in Wednesday on a key aspect of the search giant's defense against a Justice Department monopolization suit — the assertion that even if company practices disadvantaged rival ad exchanges, they benefited publishers.
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September 18, 2024
CFPB Says Fintech's Funding Challenge 'Misconstrues' Law
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told a California federal judge that its lawsuit accusing fintech lender SoLo Funds Inc. of falsely touting interest-free loans on its platforms should proceed despite SoLo's claims that the agency is operating with an illegal funding scheme, among other things.
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September 18, 2024
DuPont Heirs Beat ERISA Suit Over 1947 Trust At 3rd Circ.
The Third Circuit reversed a decision Wednesday and found DuPont heirs aren't liable for Employee Retirement Income Security Act violations in a dispute over who's to blame for underfunding a now-insolvent trust that was created by their grandmother in 1947 and paid the heirs and their workers retirement benefits.
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September 18, 2024
FBI Dismantles Chinese Botnet, Urges Victims To Seek Aid
FBI Director Christopher Wray announced Wednesday that the law enforcement agency has knocked out a botnet operated by a Chinese government-sponsored hacker group that was stealing confidential data by infecting internet-connected devices.
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September 18, 2024
Mich. Justices Continue To Fight Over Minimum Wage Ruling
Michigan's minimum wage will rise to $12.48 an hour in February, the state Supreme Court confirmed Wednesday in an order that settled a debate over how to calculate the new wage floor, but rehashed internal disagreements over the court's July decision to increase the minimum wage.
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September 18, 2024
Colo. Urges 10th Circ. To Restore Interest Rate Opt-Out Law
Colorado has urged the Tenth Circuit to accept its "straightforward interpretation" of an interest rate opt-out law, arguing federal lawmakers would have used other language if they didn't want the state to place more restrictive caps on loans made by banks located outside the state.
Expert Analysis
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NYC Wage Info Bill Highlights Rise In Pay Transparency Laws
With New York City the latest to mull requiring companies to annually report employee wage data, national employers should consider adapting their compliance practices to comply with increasingly common pay transparency and disclosure obligations at state and local levels, says Kelly Cardin at Littler Mendelson.
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Assessing Whether Jarkesy May Limit FINRA Prosecutions
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Jarkesy v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, holding that civil securities fraud defendants are entitled to jury trials, may cause unpredictable results when applied to Financial Industry Regulatory Authority prosecutions, say Barry Temkin and Kate DiGeronimo at Mound Cotton.
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The Bank Preemption Ripple Effects After Cantero, Flagstar
The importance of federal preemption for financial institutions will only increase as technology-driven innovations evolve, which is why the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Cantero v. Bank of America and vacatur of Kivett v. Flagstar Bank have real modern-day significance for national banks, say attorneys at WilmerHale.
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Examining Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Of AI Inventions
In light of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office data showing that patent applications for artificial intelligence inventions are likelier to get rejected based on patent-ineligible subject matter, inventors seeking protection should be aware of the difficulties and challenges pertaining to patent eligibility, say Georgios Effraimidis at NERA and Joel Lehrer at Goodwin.
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Series
Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer
My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.
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What Cos. Need to Know About Battery Labeling Law
With new labeling requirements for button cell battery packaging taking effect in September, manufacturers and importers must review compliance, testing procedures, and necessary paperwork as the consequences of noncompliance can lead to costly penalties and supply chain woes, says Aasheesh Shravah at CM Law.
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What Drug Cos. Must Know About NY Price Transparency Law
Drug manufacturers must understand the contours of New York's recently implemented law requiring self-reporting of drug price increases, as well as best practices for compliance and challenges against similar laws in other states, say Elizabeth Bierut and Angie Garcia at Friedman Kaplan.
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Navigating The Uncertain Landscape Of Solar Tariffs
Solar cell and module manufacturers, exporters and importers must navigate an uncertain compliance landscape, given ongoing challenges to U.S. Department of Commerce antidumping and countervailing duty determinations, which have been mounted both by U.S. and non-U.S. manufacturers, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Amid SEC Rule Limbo, US Cos. Subject To ESG Regs In EU
Though the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is facing legal challenges to its climate-disclosure rulemaking, the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive in the European Union will force U.S. companies to comply with exactly the kinds of ESG disclosures that are not yet mandated in the U.S., say attorneys at Squire Patton.
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Pros, Cons Of Disclosing Improper Employee Retention Credit
Employers considering the Internal Revenue Service’s second voluntary disclosure program, which allows companies to avoid penalties for erroneously claiming employee retention credits for the 2021 tax year by repaying the credits and naming the tax advisers who encouraged these abusive practices, should carefully weigh the program’s benefits against its potential drawbacks, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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Until Congress Acts, EDNY 'Insider Betting' Case Is Premature
The Eastern District of New York’s novel wire fraud conspiracy indictment in U.S. v. Pham may have prematurely heralded a new era in federal gambling enforcement, but in the absence of an “insider betting” statute, sportsbooks — not prosecutors — should be responsible for enforcing their terms of use, says attorney Jonathan Savella.
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How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'
Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.
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Election Outlook: A Precedent Primer On Content Moderation
With the 2024 election season now in full swing, online platforms will face difficult and politically sensitive decisions about content moderation, but U.S. Supreme Court decisions from last term offer much-needed certainty about their rights, say Jonathan Blavin and Helen White at Munger Tolles.
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Banking Compliance Takeaways From Joint Agency Statement
Federal bank regulatory agencies’ recent joint statement warning of risks associated with third-party fintech deposit services spotlights a fundamental problem that may arise with bank deposit products that are made through increasingly complex customer relationships, says Tom Witherspoon at Stinson.
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Workday AI Bias Suit Suggests Hiring Lessons For Employers
As state laws and a federal agency increasingly focus on employment bias introduced by artificial intelligence systems, a California federal court's recent decision to allow a discrimination suit to proceed against Workday's AI-driven recruitment software, shows companies should promptly assess these tools' risks, say attorneys at Williams & Connolly.