Public Policy

  • May 15, 2024

    Mass. Senate Aide Alleges Retaliation After Bias Complaint

    A constituent services aide to a Massachusetts state senator is alleging that the lawmaker and his former chief of staff stonewalled his requests for accommodation after a leg injury left him unable to climb stairs, then iced him out after he filed a complaint with the state's anti-discrimination agency.

  • May 15, 2024

    Anti-Trans Groups Fail To Block Wash. Youth Shelter Law

    A federal judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit filed by two anti-transgender groups challenging a Washington state law intended to ensure shelter for teens seeking gender-affirming care or reproductive health services, ruling that speculating on possible injury was not enough to clear a standing hurdle.

  • May 15, 2024

    Feds, Pesticide Cos. Seek More Time To Find Mediator

    The Federal Trade Commission and agricultural chemical companies Syngenta and Corteva are seeking extra time to select a mediator as they litigate claims that the manufacturers leverage loyalty programs to suppress competition from cheaper generic pesticides.

  • May 15, 2024

    House Panel Weighs Baltimore Bridge Rebuilding Costs

    Rebuilding Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge may cost up to $1.9 billion and take at least four years, as accident investigators continue to examine how a cargo ship slammed into the bridge in March and knocked it down, officials told a House panel Wednesday.

  • May 15, 2024

    Lawmakers Move To Kill DOL's ERISA Fiduciary Regs

    A group of 16 mostly Republican senators introduced a resolution Wednesday to overturn the U.S. Department of Labor's new rule broadening who qualifies as a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, saying the regulations threaten Americans' ability to save for retirement.

  • May 15, 2024

    FTC Chair Khan Defends Request For 25% Budget Increase

    Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan defended a 25% budget increase request during a House appropriations hearing Wednesday, calling it "healthy" that aggressive Biden administration merger enforcement has made antitrust considerations top of mind for companies mulling transactions.

  • May 15, 2024

    Amid Controversy, Gov. Names Tribal Police Chief As Liaison

    South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has appointed the former Pine Ridge Reservation chief of police as her administration's new tribal liaison, saying that after he "bravely testified" before a U.S. Senate committee about the cartel presence on tribal lands, he found himself without a job.

  • May 15, 2024

    House Dems Launch Task Force To Address High Court 'Crisis'

    A group of House Democrats on Wednesday launched a task force seeking to bring more transparency and accountability to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • May 15, 2024

    Ga. Says Plaintiffs Firing Blanks At Controversial Voting Law

    In a slew of filings Monday, the state of Georgia renewed its urging that a federal judge grant the state a win in one of the most wide-ranging challenges to its 2021 election voting overhaul bill, arguing that the plaintiffs can't marshal "any competent evidence" to support their suit.

  • May 15, 2024

    House Panel Advances Tax-Exempt Org Oversight Bills

    The House Ways and Means Committee approved a package of bills Wednesday that would increase scrutiny of foreign donations to tax-exempt organizations, including legislation that would require those organizations to publicly report the donations.

  • May 15, 2024

    Wage Damages Update Isn't Retroactive, NJ Justices Say

    The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held an amendment to the state's wage laws adding liquidated damages and extending the statute of limitations should only be applied to conduct that occurred after its effective date, backing the dismissal of some claims brought by laborers alleging unpaid pre- and post-shift work.

  • May 15, 2024

    Rio Grande Is A 'Creek,' Texas Tells 5th Circ. In Barrier Rehearing

    The state of Texas told the full Fifth Circuit on Wednesday that the Rio Grande is "little more than a creek with an excellent publicist" as it pushed the court to vacate an order that would require it to remove a floating barrier intended to keep migrants out of the country.

  • May 15, 2024

    Michigan Can't Shake Lawsuit Over Prison's Scabies Outbreak

    The director of the Michigan Department of Corrections and other high-ranking officials must face claims that they allowed an outbreak of scabies in a women's prison to go untreated for years, a federal judge has ruled.

  • May 15, 2024

    Data On Harm Intrigues Pa. Justices In Hospital Closure Spat

    While tasked with considering how much deference appellate panels must give trial courts in matters involving preliminary injunctions, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday was equally curious about whether one such injunction needed to be supported by data showing that a hospital's closure would irrevocably hurt a Delaware County community.

  • May 15, 2024

    Split High Court Allows La. To Use Revised Election Map

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Louisiana can use its revised congressional map during the 2024 election cycle, pausing a federal judicial panel's ruling that lawmakers likely violated the U.S. Constitution when they redrew the state's map to address voter dilution claims and created a second majority-Black voting district.

  • May 15, 2024

    FCC Could Require ISP Reports On Internet Routing Security

    The Federal Communications Commission will vote on a plan next month to require the largest broadband providers to file confidential reports on security of the internet's main routing technology, the Border Gateway Protocol.

  • May 15, 2024

    Minn. Tax Court OKs Trim To Restaurant Property's Value

    A Minnesota restaurant property should have its valuation lowered after the property owner provided a more reliable appraisal report, the state Tax Court ruled. 

  • May 15, 2024

    Hemp Co. Settles Sales Dispute With Fla. Regulators

    The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has inked a deal with a hemp-product maker that accused the agency of overstepping its bounds and using stop-sale orders to block it from selling its hemp products outside the state.

  • May 15, 2024

    House Judiciary Chair Seeks Docs On IRS Backdating Probe

    The House Judiciary Committee's Republican chairman asked an IRS watchdog to reveal findings from investigations into allegations of IRS employee misconduct, including in a high-profile $38 million conservation easement deduction case in which the agency admitted to backdating evidence.

  • May 15, 2024

    EPA Urges La. Court Not To Broadly Block Civil Rights Regs

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has told a Louisiana federal judge that the state's bid to block EPA regulations that involve disparate impact components would inappropriately impact the EPA's authority beyond the state's own agencies.

  • May 15, 2024

    Colo. Will Extend Property Tax Assessment Rate Cuts

    Colorado will extend its current temporary property tax rate reductions into 2024 and will lower tax rates for future years under a bill signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis. 

  • May 15, 2024

    NY Magistrate Judge, SD Law Partner OK'd For District Courts

    The Senate voted 51-42 on Wednesday to confirm Magistrate Judge Sanket Jayshukh Bulsara to the Eastern District of New York and 61-33 to confirm Eric C. Schulte, partner at Davenport Evans Hurwitz & Smith LLP, to the District of South Dakota.

  • May 15, 2024

    South African Tax Official Says Data Swaps Too Limited

    South Africa's requests to exchange information on taxpayers with authorities around the world are often denied for criminal investigations of tax crimes, while automatic exchanges sometimes lack the full identifying information of taxpayers, the commissioner of the country's tax agency said Wednesday.

  • May 15, 2024

    Colo. Says Lending Law Challenge Aims To Strip Federal Right

    The state of Colorado has urged a federal judge to dismiss a suit seeking to block a new state law to rein in high-cost online lending by out-of-state banks, saying federal law "expressly permits" states to opt out of the relevant statute, so their interest rate laws will not be preempted by state-chartered banks.

  • May 15, 2024

    House-Passed FAA Reauthorization Bill Now Heads To Biden

    The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved multiyear legislation reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration's safety and airport improvement programs, sending to President Joe Biden a package that would hire more air traffic controllers and enhance passenger protections amid high-profile aviation industry mishaps.

Expert Analysis

  • Compliance Steps After ABA White Collar Crime Conference

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    Senior law enforcement officials’ statements this month at the American Bar Association's white collar crime conference suggest government enforcement efforts this year will increasingly focus on whistleblower incentives, artificial intelligence and data protection, and companies will need to update their compliance programs accordingly, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Opinion

    Justices' Trump Ballot Ruling May Spark Constitutional Crisis

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that former President Donald Trump must be reinstated to Colorado’s primary ballot endorses an unnecessarily broad legal theory of disqualification from federal office, raising constitutional questions that will only become more urgent as the next presidential election nears, says Devon Ombres at the Center for American Progress.

  • Investment Advisers Should Prep For Money Laundering Regs

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    Investment advisers should prepare for a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed rule that would significantly expand anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism obligations by assessing illicit financing risks, and expect examiners to scrutinize unregistered advisers and those with certain foreign clients, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

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    Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.

  • EU Inquiry Offers First Insight Into Foreign Subsidy Law

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    The European Commission's first in-depth investigation under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation into a public procurement process, and subsequent brief on regulatory trends, sheds light on the commission's approach to such cases, as well as jurisdictional, procedural and substantive issues under the regulation, says Matthew Hall at McGuireWoods.

  • What The NIL Negotiation Rules Injunction Means For NCAA

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    A Tennessee federal court's recent preliminary injunction reverses several prominent and well-established NCAA rules on negotiations with student-athletes over name, image and likeness compensation and shows that collegiate athletics is a profoundly unsettled legal environment, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Md. May See Vigorous Resale Price Maintenance Enforcement

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    In Maryland, indications of a new focus on resale price maintenance agreements are significant because state prosecution in this area has been rare, particularly outside California, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • What 2 Years Of Ukraine-Russia Conflict Can Teach Cos.

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    A few key legal lessons for the global business community since Russia's invasion of Ukraine could help protect global commerce in times of future conflict, including how to respond to disparate trade restrictions and sanctions, navigate war-related contract disputes, and protect against heightened cybersecurity risks, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Takeaways From EPA's New Methane Emission Rules

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    Attorneys at V&E examine two new Clean Air Act rules for the oil and gas industry, explaining how they expand methane and volatile organic compound emission reduction requirements and amplify U.S. Environmental Protection Agency enforcement risks.

  • Uncertainty Surrounds Patent Eligibility Restoration Bill

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    A recent U.S. Senate hearing regarding the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, a bill that aims to overhaul patent eligibility law and establish clearer statutory exclusions, marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing patent eligibility debate, but the law’s fate remains uncertain as discussions continue, say attorneys at Marshall Gerstein.

  • CSA Case Could Shift Intrastate Commercial Cannabis

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    In Canna Provisions v. Merrick Garland, cannabis companies argue that the Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to intrastate commercial cannabis activity; the Massachusetts federal court's eventual decision will be important to the cannabis industry for several reasons, including that the threat of federal enforcement would disappear overnight, says Hilary Bricken at Husch Blackwell.

  • How AI May Be Used In Fintech Fraud — And Fraud Detection

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    Recent enforcement actions in the fintech and finance industries show that the government is increasingly pursuing fraud enabled by artificial intelligence — at the same time it’s using AI innovations to enforce regulations and investigate fraud, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Antitrust Enforcers' Views On Info Exchanges Are Evolving

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    As antitrust enforcers' views on information exchanges between competing companies have matured in response to technological advances, companies would do well to reconsider whether the exchanges in which they participate meet the most recent compliance benchmarks, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • Takeaways From Groundbreaking Data Transfer Order

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    A recent first-of-its-kind executive order and related proposed rulemaking lay the groundwork for important outbound U.S. data protections, but they may have unintended consequences related to the types of data and the subjects within their scope, say attorneys at Kirkland.

  • Takeaways From NLRB Advice On 'Outside' Employment

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    Rebecca Leaf at Miles & Stockbridge examines a recent memo from the National Labor Relations Board’s Division of Advice that said it’s unlawful for employers to restrict secondary or outside employment, and explains what companies should know about the use of certain restrictive covenants going forward.

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