Public Policy

  • April 19, 2024

    DOI Bans New Mining Claims On 4,200 Acres Of NM Land

    The U.S. Department of the Interior has closed down any new mining claims for the next 50 years on 4,200 acres in Sandoval County, New Mexico, in an effort to protect the area with significant cultural ties to two Native American tribes.

  • April 19, 2024

    DC Circ. Won't Reverse Wash. Tribe's Recognition Order

    A D.C. Circuit panel has rejected a bid by a Washington tribe to vacate an order denying it federal recognition for the fourth time while barring it from raising any further jurisdictional arguments to collaterally attack a lower court's dismissal of the case.

  • April 19, 2024

    DC Circ. Backs GOP Operative's Election Finance Conviction

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld a political operative's conviction for illegally funneling money from a Russian businessman into Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, ruling that a law enacted in the wake of the Enron accounting scandal can be used to prosecute certain campaign finance crimes.

  • April 19, 2024

    Sentence For Pandemic Funds Theft Seems To Split 2nd Circ.

    A three-judge panel of Second Circuit jurists seemed split Friday over whether a Connecticut man's eight-year prison sentence for stealing COVID-19 funds from the city of West Haven was too harsh, with one judge expressing skepticism and two hinting it was likely appropriate.

  • April 19, 2024

    Vegas Paper Wants Antitrust Suit Paused For Appeal

    The Las Vegas Review-Journal asked a Nevada federal judge to pause the Las Vegas Sun's antitrust suit against it, pending an appeal to the Ninth Circuit over the core agreement between the papers that the Review-Journal says the judge wrongly cleared.

  • April 19, 2024

    SpaceX Wants 'Flexible' Net Neutrality Rules For Satellites

    SpaceX is continuing its push for the rights of broadband providers to manage their networks, asking the Federal Communications Commission in a meeting this week to allow for a "flexible standard" as the commission's vote to reinstate net neutrality regulations approaches.

  • April 19, 2024

    Enviro Groups Say Federal Plan Threatens At-Risk Bats

    A coalition of environmental groups sued the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday in North Carolina federal court alleging that a plan to allow logging in the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests will harm endangered bats on the brink of extinction.

  • April 19, 2024

    UN Should Eye Unitary Taxes, DSTs For Tax Pact, Report Says

    Governments should use the United Nations tax convention as an opportunity to advance the overhaul of nexus away from transfer pricing and toward formulary apportionment, including digital services taxes, to achieve unitary taxation on corporate profits, scholars at the Brookings Institution said Friday in a report.

  • April 19, 2024

    DOJ Can't Coordinate Google Ad Tech Discovery With Texas

    A Virginia magistrate judge on Friday denied a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to coordinate discovery in its suit accusing Google of monopolizing key digital advertising technology with a similar case from state enforcers pending in Texas.

  • April 19, 2024

    Up Next At High Court: Abortions & Presidential Immunity

    The U.S. Supreme Court will return Monday for the term's final week of oral arguments, during which it will consider several high-stakes disputes, including whether a federal healthcare law can preempt state abortion bans and whether former President Donald Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal charges related to official acts.

  • April 19, 2024

    NY Lawmakers Approve Overhauling Cannabis Tax System

    New York is slated to scrap its potency-based tax system for adult-use cannabis and replace it with a more streamlined wholesale tax structure in June under a budget-related bill approved by state lawmakers.

  • April 19, 2024

    Fla. Can't Wage Real Estate War On Foreigners, 11th Circ. Told

    A group of Chinese citizens and a brokerage firm urged the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to block Florida from enforcing a law prohibiting certain foreign nationals from owning land while they challenge the statute's constitutionality, saying it's discriminatory and preempted by federal authority.

  • April 19, 2024

    Commerce Again Ordered To Back Chinese Flooring Duty Data

    The U.S. Court of International Trade on Friday ordered the U.S. Department of Commerce to again justify using Brazilian data when calculating duties for Chinese wood flooring, saying Commerce failed to back its decision with evidence for a second time.

  • April 19, 2024

    IRS Previews New Digital Assets Reporting Form

    The Internal Revenue Service released a draft of a form brokers will have to use for the first time to disclose their digital asset sales to the agency, including instructions for taxpayers whose transactions are subject to the reporting requirements. 

  • April 19, 2024

    NY Nixes Power Deals With Trio Of Offshore Wind Projects

    New York officials on Friday said they wouldn't offer power contracts to a trio of offshore wind projects, the latest setback for the Empire State in efforts to make offshore wind a key component of its clean energy future.

  • April 19, 2024

    NY AG Doubts Trump Insurer Can Cover $175M Bond

    The New York Attorney General's Office told a Manhattan court Friday it has doubts about a California insurer's ability to cover a $175 million bond imposed on Donald Trump after a civil trial in which he was found responsible for conspiring to inflate his wealth for financial gain.

  • April 19, 2024

    Biden Administration Sharply Limits Drilling In Alaska Arctic

    The Biden administration on Friday issued new restrictions on oil and gas leasing across vast swathes of Alaska's Arctic while simultaneously ruling out construction of a controversial road state officials proposed to access mining areas in sensitive wilderness.

  • April 19, 2024

    Bankruptcy Bill Seeks To Aid Sex Abuse Victims

    A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would help sexual abuse victims by limiting the ability of their abusers to shield themselves by filing for bankruptcy, according to the bipartisan pair backing the proposed legislation.

  • April 19, 2024

    NY Scraps Proposal Impacting Local Broadband Networks

    Public broadband advocates are applauding a budget bill approved by New York's state Legislature that lacks previously proposed language they say would have weakened the state's rollout of locally owned wireless networks.

  • April 19, 2024

    Trump's Trial Is Unprecedented. Attys On Juries? Not So Much

    With two BigLaw attorneys tapped for the jury box in Donald Trump's first-in-history criminal case, Law360 spoke to trial vets who said their own experience in this tables-turned situation shows lawyers can make for highly engaged jurors under the right circumstances.

  • April 19, 2024

    Blumenauer: This 4/20 Will Be The Last For Schedule I Pot

    U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., one of the most ardent champions of marijuana policy reform on Capitol Hill, said Friday that he was optimistic 2024 would be final year that cannabis would remain a Schedule I substance under federal law.

  • April 19, 2024

    Gibbons Atty Won't Testify In Menendez Bribery Trial

    A Gibbons PC lawyer who is counsel for one of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's co-defendants in his federal bribery trial set to start next month will not be called to the witness stand after defense lawyers and prosecutors agreed Friday to a stipulation about the facts that would have been part of his testimony.

  • April 19, 2024

    Climate Lawsuits Aren't The SEC's Only Legal Headache

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been grabbing headlines over the past couple of months as it attempts to fend off a host of lawsuits challenging recently enacted climate disclosure rules, but the agency has been no stranger to litigation brought by business groups opposing everything from new stock buyback disclosures to the agency's growing private fund oversight to its hands-off approach to crypto rule writing. 

  • April 19, 2024

    Ex-Defender Says High Court Ruling Backs Bias Claims

    A former assistant federal defender urged a North Carolina district court to consider a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in her sexual harassment lawsuit, arguing the high court's decision backs her claims for employment discrimination against the federal judiciary.

  • April 19, 2024

    The Week In Trump: NY Trial And A High Court Date Loom

    Despite a few snags, jury selection for Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan unfolded relatively quickly, clearing the way for opening statements Monday in the historic case as the former president prepped for a U.S. Supreme Court debate over his supposed immunity.

Expert Analysis

  • Communication Is Key As CFPB Updates Appeals Process

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    Though a recently updated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule expands financial institutions' abilities to appeal supervisory decisions, creating strong relationships and open communication channels with CFPB examiners may help resolve disputes faster than the more cumbersome formal process, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • Considerations For Disclosing AI Use In SEC Filings

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    Recent remarks from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler should be heard as a clarion call for public companies to disclose artificial intelligence use, with four takeaways on what companies should disclose, says Richard Hong at Morrison Cohen.

  • Unpacking The New Russia Sanctions And Export Controls

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    Although geographically broad new prohibitions the U.S., U.K. and EU issued last week are somewhat underwhelming in their efforts to target third-country facilitators of Russia sanctions evasion, companies with exposure to noncompliant jurisdictions should pay close attention to their potential impacts, say attorneys at Shearman.

  • Args In APA Case Amplify Justices' Focus On Agency Power

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    In arguments last week in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve, the U.S. Supreme Court justices paid particular importance to the possible ripple effects of their decision, which will address when a facial challenge to long-standing federal rules under the Administrative Procedure Act first accrues and could thus unleash a flood of new lawsuits, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • After TikTok, Tiptoeing Toward Patent Transfer Alignment

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    Following the Fifth Circuit's TikTok decision, which aimed to standardize transfer analysis in patent cases, the Federal Circuit and Texas federal courts facing transfer requests have taken small steps to consider the practical realities of patent litigation, reinforcing the intensely factual focus of the analysis, says Charles Fowler at McKool Smith.

  • Mitigating Whistleblower Risks After High Court UBS Ruling

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    While it is always good practice for companies to periodically review whistleblower trainings, policies and procedures, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent whistleblower-friendly ruling in Murray v. UBS Securities helps demonstrate their importance in reducing litigation risk, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • What Recent Setbacks In Court Mean For Enviro Justice

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    Two courts in Louisiana last month limited the federal government's ability to require consideration of Civil Rights Act disparate impacts when evaluating state-issued permits — likely providing a framework for opposition to environmental justice initiatives in other states, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • New Hydrogen Regulations Show The Need For IP Protections

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    The introduction of hydrogen regulations, such as the IRS' proposed tax credit for clean hydrogen under the Inflation Reduction Act, are reshaping the competitive landscape, with intellectual property rights an area of increased emphasis, say Evan Glass and James De Vellis at Foley & Lardner.

  • Setting The Stage For High Court BofA Escrow Interest Case

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    Dori Bailey and Curtis Johnson at Bond Schoeneck examine relevant legislation and case law dating back 200 years ahead of oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday in Cantero v. Bank of America, the outcome of which will determine whether state laws governing mortgage escrow accounts can be enforced against national banks.

  • DC's Housing Tax Break Proposal: What's In It, What's Missing

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    Proposed Washington, D.C., rules implementing the Housing in Downtown Tax Abatement program — for commercial property owners who convert properties into residential housing — thoroughly explain the process for submitting an application, but do not provide sufficient detail regarding the actual dollar value of the abatements, says Daniel Miktus at Akerman.

  • What To Know About OCC Proposals For Bank Merger Review

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    The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's proposed changes to the agency's bank merger review process could exacerbate industry concerns with long and unpredictable processing periods because the proposal is ambiguous with respect to how the OCC will view certain transactions, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • 6 Pointers For Attys To Build Trust, Credibility On Social Media

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    In an era of information overload, attorneys can use social media strategically — from making infographics to leveraging targeted advertising — to cut through the noise and establish a reputation among current and potential clients, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.

  • Cos. Must Know How NY, Federal LLC Disclosure Laws Differ

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    Though New York state's new LLC Transparency Act and the federal Corporate Transparency Act impose similar beneficial owner reporting obligations on limited liability companies, New York LLCs should study the important differences between the laws to ensure they are prepared to comply with both, say Abram Ellis, Olenka Burghardt and Jane Jho at Simpson Thacher.

  • Opinion

    Biden Admin's March-In Plan Would Hurt Medical Innovation

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    The Biden administration's proposal to reinterpret the Bayh-Dole Act and allow the government to claw back patents when it determines that a commercialized product's price is too high would discourage private investment in important research and development, says Ken Thorpe at the Rollins School of Public Health.

  • More Than Drugs At Stake In High Court's 'Blind Mule' Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's eventual decision in Diaz v. U.S., evaluating whether expert witnesses may testify that most defendants caught with drugs at the border know they are transporting drugs, could have implications for prosecuting everything from complex financial crimes to gun and drug cases, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

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