Try our Advanced Search for more refined results
Public Policy
-
June 13, 2024
NJ Justices Create New Liability Rule For Property Owners
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday voted 4-3 to craft a new rule stating that owners of commercial vacant lots have a duty to maintain the public sidewalks abutting the lots, and reinstated a woman's trip-and-fall injury suit.
-
June 13, 2024
Mich. Judge Calls 'Foul' On Mail-In Ballot Signature Guidance
A Michigan judge on Wednesday struck down guidance issued to election clerks to presume signatures on mail-in ballots are valid, siding with Republican groups who argued that the guidance was incompatible with state law.
-
June 13, 2024
Bill Banning College Athletes As Workers Gets Committee Nod
A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Thursday moved new legislation that would prohibit classifying student-athletes as employees of any institution, conference or association to the floor for a vote, as the bill's sponsor pushed back at what he described as the influence of big labor.
-
June 13, 2024
Senate Finance Panel OKs 3 Tax Court Judges, Treasury IG
The Senate Finance Committee overwhelmingly approved Thursday the nominations of three judges for the U.S. Tax Court and a new inspector general for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, a post that has lacked a Senate-confirmed nominee for five years.
-
June 13, 2024
Chamber Asks DC Circ. To Reject EPA's PFAS Designation
Three business groups, spearheaded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have gone to the D.C. Circuit to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent decision to declare two "forever chemicals" to be hazardous materials under federal law.
-
June 13, 2024
Bill To Expand DC Sports Betting Survives Council Challenge
Washington, D.C., moved a step closer to opening its sports betting market to more operators Wednesday when the city council passed a fiscal-year budget that included a bill to increase the number of license holders, while rejecting an amendment that would take the bill out of the budget altogether.
-
June 13, 2024
New Hampshire Bill To Legalize Marijuana Dies In State House
An effort to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use in the state of New Hampshire is effectively dead after the state House of Representatives on Thursday voted narrowly to table the bill for the remainder of the session.
-
June 13, 2024
Hemp Co. Sues SD Gov. Over New Cannabinoid Law
A South Dakota hemp company on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit against the state's governor and attorney general over a new law due to take effect next month that would ban the processing of hemp derivatives into intoxicating products.
-
June 13, 2024
Republican Sens. Want To Block DOL OT Exemption Rule
Republican senators unveiled a Congressional Review Act resolution Thursday aiming to roll back the U.S. Department of Labor's new rule increasing the salary thresholds for overtime exemptions for administrative, executive and professional employees, saying the final rule will raise prices and cut jobs.
-
June 13, 2024
Michigan Supreme Court Curbs Voter Interference Law
The Michigan Supreme Court narrowed the reach of a law criminalizing voter intimidation Thursday due to fears it could be used to chill political speech, sending prosecutions for robocalls that aimed to suppress Black voter turnout back to an appellate panel for more review.
-
June 13, 2024
Cannabis Cos. Make Deal Ahead Of Expected DEA Downgrade
An attorney and cannabis entrepreneur is betting that the federal government will reschedule marijuana before winter, announcing his equipment manufacturing firm will ally with a Native American-owned cannabis oil processing company to build out a pharmaceutical cannabis extraction facility.
-
June 13, 2024
DOE Can't Limit Water Usage In Dishwashers, Shoppers Say
Two men sued the U.S. Department of Energy in Texas federal court over the agency's new rules that govern how efficiently household appliances need to manage water usage, saying in a Thursday complaint that the agency surpassed its statutory authority and flouted a previous Fifth Circuit decision.
-
June 13, 2024
FAA Chief Vows Diligent Boeing Oversight In Senate Hearing
The Federal Aviation Administration's chief told a Senate panel Thursday that the regulator has diligently stepped up oversight of Boeing's manufacturing since January's harrowing midair door plug blowout on a 737 Max 9 jet, an incident that prompted multiple probes into Boeing's safety culture and quality control.
-
June 13, 2024
North Carolina Lawmakers Mull Outlawing 'Gas Station Heroin'
A bill to make the drug tianeptine a scheduled substance in the Tar Heel state that passed in the North Carolina House of Representatives this week has been kicked over to the state Senate for consideration.
-
June 13, 2024
SEC's Gensler Rethinking AI Advising, Crypto Custody Regs
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler told senators Thursday that the agency could rewrite a pair of proposals governing broker-dealers' use of artificial intelligence and the handling of customers' cryptocurrency assets in the wake of "robust" feedback from both supporters and naysayers.
-
June 13, 2024
GOP Lawmakers Want China Patent Data Amid Tech Pact Talks
Republican lawmakers are urging the U.S. Commerce Department to provide a full accounting of whether the U.S. government has funded research that resulted in Chinese patents, arguing they need the data to assess potential national security risks as the Biden administration negotiates a new science and technology agreement with China.
-
June 13, 2024
Tribes Fight BC's Consultation Policy On Aboriginal Rights
Indigenous nations along British Columbia's U.S. border want a say in projects they claim will threaten the environment and their quality of life after the Canadian province announced plans earlier this year to develop a policy to clarify how tribes located outside the country are consulted on such endeavors.
-
June 13, 2024
Turkish Jet Co. To Pay $285K For Russia Charter Flights
A Turkish aviation company will pay the U.S. Department of Commerce $285,000 to resolve export violations stemming from two private charter flights the company made to Russia in a U.S.-made Gulfstream plane, the agency announced Thursday.
-
June 13, 2024
Green Groups Challenge EPA Approval Of La. Well Authority
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to give Louisiana authority over some underground injection wells, which can be used for carbon capture and sequestration, violated the Safe Drinking Water Act, green groups said in a new lawsuit.
-
June 13, 2024
Ford Asks To Defend EPA's Heavy-Duty Truck Emissions Rule
Ford Motor Co. has urged the D.C. Circuit to let it intervene in defense of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's final rule establishing greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles such as delivery trucks, dump trucks, public utility trucks and buses.
-
June 13, 2024
Pennsylvania Gov. Sued For More Public Defense Funding
Defendants facing charges in Pennsylvania sued Gov. Josh Shapiro and the state Legislature Thursday over their alleged failure to ensure that people who can't afford an attorney in their criminal cases receive effective and free representation.
-
June 13, 2024
Red Roof Had 'Revolving Door' For Trafficking, Ga. Jurors Told
A former Red Roof Inn Inc. employee and the leader of a nonprofit testified Thursday about sex trafficking they saw take place at two metro Atlanta Red Roof Inn locations as part of a landmark civil trial in which 11 women allege the company knew trafficking was taking place at the locations and did nothing to stop it.
-
June 13, 2024
Verizon Opposes AT&T's FirstNet As 4.9 GHz Band Manager
Verizon is done letting proxies speak for it in the war of words over a plan to make AT&T's FirstNet the national manager of the 4.9 gigahertz public safety band, telling the Federal Communications Commission in a new filing that the idea would disrupt the public safety spectrum marketplace.
-
June 13, 2024
Georgia DA Willis Moves To Ax Trump Appeal In DQ Fight
A prosecutor from Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis' office wants a Georgia appellate court to nix an appeal that seeks to disqualify Willis from her election interference case against former President Donald Trump, claiming the appeal rests on flimsy evidence.
-
June 13, 2024
Contentious Del. Corporate Law Changes Sail Through Senate
After triggering rare public dissent, a multipart Delaware General Corporation Law amendment that would let boards cede some governance rights to big stockholders whisked through the state's Senate on Thursday without debate or an opposing vote, with a House vote expected as early as next week.
Expert Analysis
-
Opinion
SEC Should Be Allowed To Equip Investors With Climate Info
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule to require more climate-related disclosures will provide investors with much-needed clarity, despite opponents' attempts to challenge the rule with misused legal arguments, say Sarah Goetz at Democracy Forward and Cynthia Hanawalt at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change.
-
8 Fla. Statutes That Construction Cos. Should Prepare For
In this article, Jason Lambert at Hill Ward discusses a number of recent bills out of the Florida Legislature targeting construction companies in the Sunshine State that have been sent to the governor for signature, at least some of which will have broad impacts that affected companies should prepare for ahead of the July 1 effective date.
-
Game-Changing Decisions Call For New Rules At The NCAA
From a newly formed college players union to coaches transferring at the drop of a hat, the National College Athletic Association needs an overhaul, including federal supervision, says Frank Darras at DarrasLaw.
-
End Of Acquitted Conduct Sentencing Can Spark More Reform
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recent end to factoring acquitted conduct into federal sentences could signal the start of a more constitutionally sound advisory scheme, but Congress and the Supreme Court must first authorize the commission to resolve two constitutional errors baked into its guidelines, say Mark Allenbaugh at SentencingStats.com and Alan Ellis at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.
-
Manufacturers Should Pay Attention To 'Right-To-Repair' Laws
Oregon’s recently passed "right-to-repair" statute highlights that the R2R movement is not going away, and that manufacturers of all kinds need to be paying attention to the evolving list of R2R statutes in various states and consider participating in the process, says Courtney Sarnow at Culhane.
-
Opinion
Viral Deepfakes Of Taylor Swift Highlight Need For Regulation
As the nation grapples with addressing risk from artificial intelligence use, the recent circulation of AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift on the social platform X highlights the need for federal legislation to protect nonconsenting subjects of deepfake pornography, say Nicole Brenner and Susie Ruiz-Lichter at Squire Patton.
-
Opinion
Time To Fix NYC's Broken Property Assessment System
A New York appellate court's decision to revive Tax Equity Now New York v. City of New York may force the city to revamp its outdated and unfair real estate tax assessment system, which could be fixed with a couple of simple changes, says Seth Feldman at Romer Debbas.
-
New Federal Bill Would Drastically Alter Privacy Landscape
While the recently introduced American Privacy Rights Act would eliminate the burdensome patchwork of state regulations, the proposed federal privacy law would also significantly expand compliance obligations and liability exposure for companies, especially those that rely on artificial intelligence or biometric technologies, says David Oberly at Baker Donelson.
-
How Cos. Can Comply With New PFAS Superfund Rule
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new rule designating two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances as "hazardous substances" under the Superfund law will likely trigger additional enforcement and litigation at sites across the country — so companies should evaluate any associated reporting obligations and liability risks, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
-
How EB-5 Regional Centers Can Prepare For USCIS Audits
In response to the recently announced U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidelines that require EB-5 regional center audits every five years to verify their compliance with immigration and securities laws, regional centers should take steps to facilitate a seamless audit process, say Jennifer Hermansky and Miriam Thompson at Greenberg Traurig.
-
Social Media Free Speech Issues Are Trending At High Court
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision examining what constitutes state action on social media can be viewed in conjunction with oral arguments in two other cases to indicate that the court sees a need for more clarity regarding how social media usage implicates the First Amendment, say attorneys at Kean Miller.
-
Opinion
CFPB Could, And Should, Revise Open Banking Rulemaking
In light of continued global developments in open banking, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should evaluate whether it actually should use its proposed rule on Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act to amplify personal financial data rights in the U.S., says Brian Fritzsche at the Consumer Bankers Association.
-
How Cos. Can Protect IP In Light Of FTC Noncompete Rule
While several groups are challenging the Federal Trade Commission’s recently approved rule banning noncompetition agreements, employers should begin planning other ways to protect their valuable trade secrets, confidential information and other intellectual property, says Thomas Duston at Marshall Gerstein.
-
Understanding The IRC's Excessive Refund Claim Penalty
Taxpayers considering protective refund claims pending resolution of major questions in tax cases like Moore v. U.S., which is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, should understand how doing so may also leave them vulnerable to an excessive refund claim penalty under Internal Revenue Code Section 6676, say attorneys at McDermott.
-
Why RWI Insurers Should Consider Excluding PFAS
As regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances escalates, carriers providing representations and warranties insurance should reconsider providing PFAS coverage on a case-by-case basis, say Dave Bartoletti and Ina Avalon at Taft Stettinius.