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Public Policy
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September 19, 2024
Republicans Air Grievances At House Hearing on FTC Practices
The Federal Trade Commission ought to stick to combating consumer scams and leave the competition regulation alone — that was the general tenor of Republicans on Wednesday morning at a House hearing about the agency's past and present practices.
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September 19, 2024
Paxton Sues Harris County To Stop New Income Program
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton slapped Harris County with a petition Thursday, accusing the county of violating the state constitution by proceeding with its "guaranteed income" program despite having the initial version halted by the Texas Supreme Court in parallel litigation.
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September 19, 2024
CFPB's Chopra Sounds Alarm On Home Insurance 'Crisis'
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra called Thursday for concerted policy action to tame spiking homeowners insurance costs and said he's looking into streamlining rules on mortgage refinancing to help consumers take advantage of the Federal Reserve's shift into rate-cutting mode.
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September 19, 2024
8th Circ. Says No Detention Time Limit For Deportees
The Eighth Circuit has ruled that a district court wrongly determined that the due process rights of an Ivory Coast native convicted of robbery were violated after he spent a year in federal custody waiting for a removal decision.
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September 19, 2024
Dallas Judge's Ruling Leaves State Fair Gun Ban Intact
A Dallas County judge upheld in a Thursday ruling the State Fair of Texas's new rule banning handguns on its premises, rejecting an injunction attempt that would have struck down the rule on the grounds that the fair takes place on government property.
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September 19, 2024
FCC Chief Tanks Trump Call To Pull ABC Licenses
The government has no intention of seeking to revoke ABC's broadcast licenses at the behest of former President Donald Trump, the head of the Federal Communications Commission told lawmakers Thursday.
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September 19, 2024
NY Tribe Settles With Lottery Co. Over Gaming On Tribal Land
The Cayuga Nation and New York's licensed mobile lottery provider have reached a settlement in the federally recognized tribe's lawsuit seeking to block the state gaming commission from operating games on tribe's self-proclaimed reservation.
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September 19, 2024
Wash. Justices Strike Down County's Rural Winery Regs
The Washington State Supreme Court has struck down an Evergreen State county's regulations for wineries and tasting rooms on rural land near Seattle, saying Thursday the local government violated long-term planning and land use law by downplaying potential environmental consequences of the rules before passing them.
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September 19, 2024
US Argues Court Can't Stop Tribe From Blocking Roads
The U.S. government told a Wisconsin federal judge that a town's lawsuit seeking to stop the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians from barricading roads on tribal land can't be enforced, saying the Native American tribe is immune from the suit.
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September 19, 2024
FTC's Holyoak Offers 'Alternative Vision' For Privacy, AI Work
The Federal Trade Commission needs to rein in its work on data privacy and artificial intelligence rather than pursue sweeping actions that exceed its regulatory authority and threaten to compromise the support and funding the agency gets from Congress, according to one of its Republican commissioners.
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September 19, 2024
Newsmax Appeals Quash Of Smartmatic Atty Subpoenas
Newsmax Media Inc. is appealing a Florida judge's decision to quash its attempt to subpoena a slew of criminal defense attorneys — representing Smartmatic USA Corp. executives in a criminal case over a Philippines elections contract — in Smartmatic's defamation suit over Newsmax reports tying the voting tech company to alleged conspiracies to steal the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
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September 19, 2024
Pa. Justices Cement Dismissal Of Ballot Date Rule Challenge
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court headed off voting-rights groups' effort to quickly revive a challenge to state rules for signing and dating mail-in ballots, clarifying Thursday that a statewide court would still lack jurisdiction even if the challengers added all 67 counties to the case.
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September 19, 2024
Ch. 7 Trustee Urges Justices To Uphold Return Of Taxes
The bankruptcy trustee of a defunct Utah transportation company warned the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday that overturning a decision forcing the IRS to return tax payments made by company directors to cover their personal debts would encourage shareholder fraud.
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September 19, 2024
Florida Banker Denies Laundering Money For Father
A Florida banker pled not guilty Thursday to federal charges connected to laundering money for his father, who was convicted for his role in a corruption scandal involving canceling fines for a defective hydroelectric dam in exchange for millions in bribes while he served as Ecuador's comptroller.
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September 19, 2024
Ga. Judge Won't Touch State's Unlimited Funds Law
The state of Georgia has temporarily beaten back the latest challenge to a 2021 law that allows certain political candidates to sidestep campaign contribution limits, after a federal judge on Thursday declined to hand the state's Democratic Party an injunction blocking the statute.
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September 19, 2024
Union Pacific Contractors Again Escape Texas Enviro Claims
A Texas appeals court on Thursday affirmed a trial court's decision to dismiss without prejudice the claims scores of people lodged against two Union Pacific Railroad Co. contractors in their litigation over cancer-causing contamination related to a Houston rail yard.
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September 19, 2024
NC Justice Dept. Resolves Atty's Sex, Race Bias Suit
The North Carolina Department of Justice agreed to settle a Black attorney's lawsuit alleging she was passed over for promotion in favor of a less qualified white man, according to court filings, just weeks after a federal judge refused to toss the case.
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September 19, 2024
Senate Panel Holds Steward CEO In Contempt After No-Show
A U.S. Senate committee voted unanimously Thursday to hold Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre in civil and criminal contempt after he defied a subpoena to testify about the bankrupt health system's downfall.
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September 19, 2024
5th Circ. Says Deported Honduran Wrongly Deemed A Felon
The Fifth Circuit has vacated the removal order of a Honduran woman charged as an accessory to an armed robbery, finding that the Louisiana statute she was deported under for an aggravated felony doesn't align with the federal definition of the removable offense of obstruction of justice.
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September 19, 2024
EPA Urges DC Circ. Not To Block Coal Ash Rule Implementation
A Kentucky electric utility is "misleading" the D.C. Circuit about how clean former coal ash pits are once the material is removed, and should not be allowed to block implementation of a new coal ash rule, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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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.
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What BIPA Reform Law Means For Biometrics Litigation
A recently signed Illinois law amending the Biometric Information Privacy Act limits defendants' liability exposure on a per-scan basis and clarifies that electronic signatures constitute a valid written release, establishing additional issues that courts will need to address in future BIPA litigation, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.
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Assessing The Practicality Of Harris' Affordable Housing Plan
Vice President Kamala Harris' proposed "Build the American Dream" plan to tackle housing affordability issues takes solid recommendations into account and may fare better than California's unsuccessful attempt at a similar program, but the scope of the problem is beyond what a three-point plan can solve, says Brooke Miller at Sheppard Mullin.
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Philly Project Case Renews Ongoing Fraud Theory Tug-Of-War
In its upcoming term, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Kousisis v. U.S., a case involving wire fraud convictions related to Philadelphia bridge repair projects, and may once again further rein in prosecutorial attempts to expand theories of fraud beyond core traditional property rights, say Jonathan Halpern and Kyra Rosenzweig at Holland & Knight.
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Opinion
Proposed Law Would Harm NYC Hospitality Industry
A recently proposed New York City Law that would update hotel licensing and staff coverage requirements could give the city commissioner and unions undue control over the city's hospitality industry, and harm smaller hotels that cannot afford full-time employees, says Stuart Saft at Holland & Knight.
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Opinion
Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process
Blanket investor and funding agreement disclosures should be required in all civil cases where the investor has a financial interest in the outcome in order to address issues ranging from potential conflicts of interest to national security concerns, says Bob Goodlatte, former U.S. House Representative for Virginia.
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Regulators Are Revamping Use Of Bank Service Company Act
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Though the Bank Service Company Act was written six decades ago, banks and service providers should be alert to the evolving ways financial regulators are using the law as a tool for scrutinizing bank-fintech partnerships and third-party service providers that could put consumers at risk, say James Bergin and Paul Lim at Arnold & Porter.
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Series
After Chevron: What To Expect In Consumer Protection At FTC
Although the Federal Trade Commission's bread-and-butter consumer protection law enforcement actions are unlikely to be affected, the Loper Bright decision may curb the FTC's bolder interpretations of the statutes it enforces, says Mary Engle at BBB National Programs.
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Carbon Offset Case A Win For CFTC Enviro Fraud Task Force
An Illinois federal court's decision in Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Ikkurty — earning the CFTC a sizeable monetary award that will likely incentivize similar enforcement pursuit — shows the impact of the commission's Environmental Fraud Task Force, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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RealPage Suit Shows Growing Algorithm, AI Pricing Scrutiny
The U.S. Department of Justice's suit against RealPage for helping fix rental rates, filed last week, demonstrates how the use of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools to assist with pricing decisions is drawing increasing scrutiny and action across government agencies, and specifically at the Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ, say Andre Geverola and Leah Harrell at Arnold & Porter.
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Whistleblowers Must Note 5 Key Differences Of DOJ Program
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recently unveiled whistleblower awards program diverges in key ways from similar programs at other agencies, and individuals must weigh these differences and look first to programs with stronger, proven protections before blowing the whistle, say Stephen Kohn and Geoff Schweller at Kohn Kohn.
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What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires
Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.
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Calif. Ruling Clarifying Paystub Compliance Is Win For Cos.
In rare good news for California employers, the state Supreme Court recently clarified that workers couldn’t win extra penalties in wage and hour cases by claiming their employer intentionally violated state paystub law if the employer believed it had complied in good faith, say Drei Munar and Kirk Hornbeck at Hunton.
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Considering Noncompete Strategies After Blocked FTC Ban
A Texas district court's recent decision in Ryan v. Federal Trade Commission to set aside the new FTC rule banning noncompetes does away with some immediate compliance obligations, but employers should still review strategies, attend to changes to state laws and monitor ongoing challenges, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.