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Public Policy
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April 16, 2024
NJ Judge Won't Nix 'County Line' Ballot For GOP Candidates
A New Jersey state judge has ruled that county clerks can use the state's controversial "county line" ballot design for the Republican primary election, striking a blow to four GOP candidates who sought the same relief as Democratic congressional hopefuls but who drew different results.
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April 16, 2024
CFPB Moves To 'Streamline' How It Tags Nonbanks For Exams
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday unveiled procedural adjustments to its process for singling out fintech firms and other nonbanks for examination, changes the agency attributed in part to plans for an internal reorganization of its supervision and enforcement unit.
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April 16, 2024
EPA Urges 5th Circ. To Back Win In Texas Air Quality Suit
U.S. regulators and the Sierra Club urged the Fifth Circuit not to upset a panel's ruling finding the government legally accepted pollution data from the conservation group to apply a poor air quality designation in two Texas counties surrounding a coal-fired power plant.
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April 16, 2024
Tribes, Lawmakers Call On Biden To Protect Historic Sites
A coalition of Native American tribal communities and federal lawmakers on Tuesday delivered a petition containing more than 800,000 signatures calling on the Biden administration to protect, expand and designate a slew of national monuments and sacred lands under the Antiquities Act.
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April 16, 2024
Colo. Shooting Case Could Return To State Court, Judge Hints
A federal judge in Connecticut hinted Tuesday that he might send cases by Colorado mass shooting victims against gunmaker Sturm Ruger & Co. back to state court, noting that only rarely may district court judges hear core state law claims when federal law provides an ingredient in the analysis.
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April 16, 2024
NC Justices Hint Contractor Qualifies For Tax Break
The North Carolina Supreme Court appeared ready to rule in favor of a contractor seeking a tax exemption reserved for manufacturers, with the justices concerned that hinging qualification on a sales percentage flouts the language of the applicable law.
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April 16, 2024
Jackson, Barrett Seek Enron Law Compromise In Jan. 6 Case
The U.S. Supreme Court grappled Tuesday with whether an obstruction of Congress statute enacted in the wake of an accounting scandal can be read broadly enough to prosecute alleged U.S. Capitol rioters.
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April 16, 2024
Ex-Mich. Speaker, Wife Charged With Embezzlement
Former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield was charged Tuesday with criminally misusing money from his nonprofit to pay for family trips and designer clothing while in office, as the state attorney general called on lawmakers to beef up Michigan's "worthless" campaign finance laws.
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April 16, 2024
GOP Senators Call IRS' E-File Program Too Costly
Senate Republicans continued to criticize the Internal Revenue Service's free tax filing pilot program during a Finance Committee hearing Tuesday, saying the program has not followed best practices and will be costly to implement long term.
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April 16, 2024
IRS Extends Excise Tax Relief For Min. Plan Distribution
Plans that fail to make certain required minimum distributions in 2024 will not be assessed an excise tax under changes made to retirement plan legislation, the Internal Revenue Service said in guidance released Tuesday.
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April 16, 2024
Public Advocates Say Surveillance Cams Could Disrupt Wi-Fi
Advocacy groups are banding together against Axon's bid for a Federal Communications Commission rule waiver to operate high-powered surveillance cameras, saying their signals could disrupt Wi-Fi use, especially in low-income neighborhoods.
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April 16, 2024
Shelf Co. Gets Dumping Duties For 4 Countries, But Not India
A domestic producer of industrial steel shelves secured most, but not all, of its requested anti-dumping duties on overseas producers, with the U.S. Department of Commerce levying tariffs topping 224% on Vietnamese producers, but none for Indian businesses.
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April 16, 2024
Court Urged Not To Quash Google's Agency Subpoenas
A special master has recommended that a Texas federal court allow Google to interview witnesses from three state agencies as the tech giant defends against a case from state-level enforcers accusing it of monopolizing key digital advertising technology.
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April 16, 2024
Florida Lost Its CWA Permitting Power. Now What?
A federal judge's decision to snatch away Florida's right to administer a Clean Water Act permitting program, which had been approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, serves as a warning to other states that might be considering taking over those powers and responsibilities.
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April 16, 2024
FTC To Unveil, Vote On Final Noncompetes Ban April 23
The Federal Trade Commission gave a one-week heads up Tuesday of its impending unveiling of — and vote on — the final version of a rule that would ban essentially all noncompete agreements employers impose on their workers.
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April 16, 2024
Smartmatic Settles Election Defamation Suit Against OANN
Electronic voting system company Smartmatic has settled its defamation suit in Washington, D.C., federal court alleging One America News Network peddled conspiracy theories claiming the firm rigged voting machines during the 2020 presidential election, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
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April 16, 2024
Feds Want To Boot Gibbons Atty From Menendez Bribery Case
Prosecutors plan to call a Gibbons PC attorney as a witness during the bribery trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and want him disqualified from representing another defendant in the case, they told a New York federal judge Tuesday.
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April 16, 2024
4th Circ. Slams Brakes On W.Va. Transgender Sports Ban
The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday put the clamps on a West Virginia law barring transgender athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity, finding that the restriction it placed on a trans middle schooler violated Title IX civil rights protections and may also violate the U.S. Constitution.
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April 16, 2024
Trade Commission Confirms Turkish Paper Bags Hurting US
The U.S. International Trade Commission unanimously voted Tuesday that paper shopping bags imported from Turkey are hurting the United States' domestic industry through unfairly lower prices.
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April 16, 2024
Boston Judge Wary Of Ordering Bias Probe For City Contracts
A Massachusetts federal judge on Tuesday questioned whether she has the authority to order the U.S. Department of Justice to look into alleged racism in the city of Boston's system of awarding contracts, and whether members of several advocacy groups even have standing to make the request.
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April 16, 2024
Judge Won't Rethink Wash. ICE Detention Hygiene Bill Injunction
A Washington federal judge stood by his month-old ruling that blocked the state from conducting surprise inspections at an immigration detention facility, saying the state hadn't shown that his decision was legally incorrect.
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April 16, 2024
Credit Union And 'Dreamers' Get Initial OK To Settle Bias Suit
A California federal judge preliminarily approved a settlement offering cash to individuals who accused Alliant Credit Union of denying them loans for being asylum claimants, recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or dependents of employment-based visa holders.
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April 16, 2024
5th Circ. Won't Disturb County Win In Officers' Retaliation Suit
The Fifth Circuit declined to reinstate constitutional claims from officers who said a constable punished them for not supporting his reelection campaign, upholding a finding that a Texas county can't be held liable for his actions.
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April 16, 2024
BigLaw Attys Among First 7 Jurors Picked In Trump's NY Trial
Two BigLaw attorneys on Tuesday were among seven people sworn in as jurors in Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial, which could proceed to opening statements as soon as Monday.
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April 16, 2024
AIG Unit Must Cover $20M Botched Tunnel Project, Court Told
A Michigan county's water resources commissioner and sewage disposal system accused an AIG unit of failing to arbitrate their coverage claims over a design contractor's faulty work on a tunnel project, claiming they've suffered more than $20 million in damages.
Expert Analysis
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Considering The Logical Extremes Of Your Legal Argument
Recent oral arguments in the federal election interference case against former President Donald Trump highlighted the age-old technique of extending an argument to its logical limit — a principle that is still important for attorneys to consider in preparing their cases, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Reducing The Risk Of PFAS False Advertising Class Actions
A wave of class actions continues to pummel products that allegedly contain per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances, with plaintiffs challenging advertising that they say misleads consumers by implying an absence of PFAS — but there are steps companies can take to minimize risk, say attorneys at Keller and Heckman.
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Planning For Stymied HSR Filings At FTC If Shutdown Occurs
If the government were to shut down in early March, the inability to submit Hart-Scott-Rodino filings with the Federal Trade Commission would grind transactions to a halt, and parties should consider numerous implications as they are negotiating or planning to close pending transactions, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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How High Court SEC Case Could Affect The ITC
While the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy will likely spare the U.S. International Trade Commission from major operative changes, the ITC’s ability to issue penalties for violations of its orders may change, say Gwendolyn Tawresey and Ryan Deck at Troutman Pepper.
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CFPB Overdraft Rule Could Mean Big Shift In Banking Biz
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed "to close a longstanding loophole" in the Truth in Lending Act by changing how it regulates overdraft fees, but underneath the headline-grabbing proposal is a foundational shift in how the bureau views overdraft services, say attorneys at Katten.
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Challenges Remain In Financing Energy Transition Minerals
COP28, the latest U.N. climate conference, reached a consensus on a just and equitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but more action and funding will be needed to ensure that developed countries responsibly source the minerals that will be critical for this process, say attorneys at Watson Farley.
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USCIS Fee Increases May Have Unintended Consequences
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ new fee schedule, intended to provide the agency with needed funds while minimizing the impact of higher fees on individual immigrants and their families, shifts too much of the burden onto employers, say Juan Steevens and William Coffman at Mintz.
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Navigating The FCC's Rules On AI-Generated Robocall Voices
The Federal Communications Commission's declaratory ruling issued last week extends the agency's regulatory reach under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to calls that use artificial intelligence technology to generate voices, laying out a compliance roadmap, but not making AI-cloned voices in robocalls illegal per se, say attorneys at Wiley Rein.
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Aviation Watch: 737 Max Blowout Raises Major Safety Issues
The sudden in-flight loss of a side panel on an Alaska Air 737-9 Max last month, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane's cabin, highlighted ongoing quality issues at Boeing, the jet's manufacturer — but the failure also arose from decisions made by the airline, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.
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Exporters Should Approach Self-Disclosure With Caution
A January Bureau of Industry and Security memorandum created an abbreviated process for disclosing export control violations that lack aggravating factors, but deciding which disclosure method to utilize remains a complex strategic undertaking to which companies must give careful consideration, say attorneys at Covington.
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Is Compulsory Copyright Licensing Needed For AI Tech?
The U.S. Copyright Office's inquiry into whether Congress should establish a compulsory licensing regime for artificial intelligence technologies that are trained on copyrighted works has received relatively little attention — but commenters recently opposed the regime under three key themes, say Michael Kientzle and Ryan White at Arnold & Porter.
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Exxon ESG Proxy Statement Suit May Chill Investor Proposals
Exxon Mobil’s recent use of a Texas federal lawsuit to intimidate shareholders into withdrawing a climate-friendly proxy proposal could inspire more public companies to sue to avoid adopting ESG resolutions — a power move that would chill activist investor participation and unbalance shareholder-corporate relations, say Domenico Minerva and James Fee at Labaton Keller.
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Series
Coaching High School Wrestling Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Coaching my son’s high school wrestling team has been great fun, but it’s also demonstrated how a legal career can benefit from certain experiences, such as embracing the unknown, studying the rules and engaging with new people, says Richard Davis at Maynard Nexsen.
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How Recent Laws Affect Foreign Purchase Of US Real Estate
Early diligence is imperative for U.S. real estate transactions involving foreign actors, including analysis of federal and state foreign investment laws implicated by the transaction, depending on the property's nature and location, the parties' citizenship, and the transaction's structure, say Massimo D’Angelo and Anthony Rapa at Blank Rome.
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Opinion
New Rule 702 Helps Judges Keep Bad Science Out Of Court
A court's recent decision to exclude dubious testimony from the plaintiffs' experts in multidistrict litigation over acetaminophen highlights the responsibility that judges have to keep questionable scientific evidence out of courtrooms, particularly under recent amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 702, says Sherman Joyce at the American Tort Reform Association.