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Public Policy
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April 23, 2024
Ex-Auditor, County Prosecutor Win Pennsylvania AG Primary
The race for Pennsylvania's next attorney general will pit an academic who was the state's fiscal watchdog against a Navy veteran serving as a county's top prosecutor, early primary election results showed Tuesday evening.
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April 23, 2024
Monsanto Judge Slashes $857M PCB Jury Verdict
A Washington state judge slashed a nearly $860 million PCB poisoning verdict against Monsanto by roughly half on Tuesday, while the company sought to avoid future losses by moving to sever an upcoming 14-plaintiff trial in another toxic tort stemming from the same Evergreen State school site.
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April 23, 2024
AGs Urged To Probe Anti-Abortion Centers' Privacy Claims
A watchdog group on Tuesday pressed the attorneys general from Idaho, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington to investigate certain "crisis pregnancy centers" that are allegedly misrepresenting their compliance with federal health privacy law, arguing that the organizations are exploiting consumers' misconception that the statute broadly protects their medical data.
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April 23, 2024
Maine Gov. Signs Bill Expanding Tribal Courts' Rights
Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Monday signed into law a bill that, so far, imposes the most significant change to the state's controversial Indian Claims Settlement Act since its passage more than two decades ago.
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April 23, 2024
New Ga. Law Restricts Social Media Use For Youth Under 16
A bill signed into law Tuesday by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp imposes new restrictions on minors' internet usage, including requiring social media companies to verify that users are 16 or older unless they receive approval from an individual's parents to use the service.
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April 23, 2024
TikTok Divestment Bill Heads To Biden's Desk
The Senate voted 79-18 on Tuesday night to pass a bill requiring ByteDance Ltd. to divest the popular social media app TikTok or face a ban in the U.S., which now goes to the president's desk.
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April 23, 2024
HHS Formalizes Flores Protections For Immigrating Minors
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will increase oversight of the treatment of children in immigration custody and fund the minors' legal costs, according to a final regulation released Tuesday that adopts congressional recommendations and the bedrock Flores agreement.
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April 23, 2024
Globetrotters Say SBA's 'Bureaucratic Hell' Cost COVID Grant
The Harlem Globetrotters on Monday renewed their yearslong fight with the U.S. Small Business Administration over a $10 million COVID-19 relief grant, filing a new suit in D.C. federal court accusing the SBA of leaving the team in "bureaucratic hell" rather than forking over the money it's entitled to.
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April 23, 2024
SEC Critics Preview Future Challenges To Agency Action
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may face new challenges to its enforcement authority from the way it imposes industry bars to the burden of proof needed to bring its civil cases, two frequent legal opponents of the agency said Tuesday.
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April 23, 2024
CFTC Formalizes Policy On Uncleared Swaps Recordkeeping
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission adopted a rule Tuesday that codifies its longstanding practice of not requiring swap execution facilities to maintain written copies of every uncleared swap agreement, a move some commissioners argued was long overdue.
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April 23, 2024
Small Providers Can't Meet 'Vague' Title II Rules, FCC Hears
Small broadband providers will need at least a six-month buffer before they have to start complying with certain net neutrality mandates, should the Federal Communications Commission vote to restore open internet rules on Thursday, according to a communications industry trade group.
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April 23, 2024
ACLU Backs States' Power To Preempt Feds' Net Neutrality
The ACLU is a supporter of the Federal Communications Commission's plans to usher in a new era of net neutrality later this month, but the civil rights organization is also pressing the agency to make sure that states are free to enact stricter open internet protections if they see fit.
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April 23, 2024
Security Concerns May Hamper AUKUS Partnership
The U.S. Department of State is facing pressure from Congress to ease export controls to support the fledgling AUKUS defense partnership, but concerns over Australia and the U.K.'s readiness to protect U.S. weapons technology may be causing it to stall.
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April 23, 2024
Sharper Sustainability Rule May Strengthen Bid Protests
A new regulation for more environmentally friendly government purchases puts teeth into a long-standing requirement for sustainable procurement, and is likely to strengthen businesses' arguments in bid protests as agencies wrestle with the full scope of the rule.
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April 23, 2024
Sierra Club Sues EPA Over NY Aluminum Plant's Air Pollution
The Sierra Club slapped U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan with a complaint in D.C. federal court Tuesday accusing the agency of failing to require the state of New York to cut sulfur dioxide emissions from a 112-year-old aluminum smelting plant.
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April 23, 2024
Grain Co.'s $18B Deal Raises Competition Flags For Canada
Canada's competition enforcer said Tuesday it has concerns over grain and seed supplier Bunge Ltd.'s plan to buy global grain trader Viterra Ltd. in an $18 billion deal, saying the acquisition could result in lower prices paid to farmers and higher prices for refined canola oil.
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April 23, 2024
Mich. Judge Threatens Contempt After Atty's 'Star Snitch' Post
A lawyer defending a Republican elector against criminal charges called a government witness a "star snitch" in a February Facebook post, prompting a Michigan state judge Tuesday to warn the entire courtroom that similar behavior going forward could lead to witness tampering charges.
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April 23, 2024
US Gun Cos. Tell Justices Mexico Is Circumventing Law With Suit
A group of American firearm makers is asking the Supreme Court to throw out a suit from the government of Mexico alleging they have aided and abetted cartels, saying the First Circuit broke with the high court's precedent by allowing the case to proceed.
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April 23, 2024
Florida Loses Bid To Stay Ruling Nixing Its CWA Permit Power
A D.C. federal judge on Tuesday declined Florida's request to pause his ruling that stripped the state's federally delegated authority over a Clean Water Act permitting program, finding that the Sunshine State had not shown it was likely to succeed in its appeal of the ruling.
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April 23, 2024
4 Things Attys Should Know About NJ's $56B Spending Plan
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has crafted a spending plan that furthers his vision of the state as an innovator in offshore wind and artificial intelligence, while drawing pushback for a proposed corporate transit fee and warehouse tax.
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April 23, 2024
Nexstar Calls FCC's Floated $1.2M Fine Over WPIX 'Unlawful'
Broadcast giant Nexstar slammed the Federal Communications Commission's proposed $1.2 million penalty over its "de facto control" of New York station WPIX, saying the fine is unconstitutional and that the agency is running afoul of both the Communications Act and procedural law.
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April 23, 2024
Texas Justices Freeze Harris County Income Program
The Texas Supreme Court entered an order Tuesday blocking Harris County from issuing payments under a guaranteed income program a day after the pilot was greenlit by a lower appellate panel and a day before the first of 18 monthly payments was set for distribution.
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April 23, 2024
EPA Tells 5th Circ. To Sink Texas' Ozone Plan Challenge
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urged the Fifth Circuit to reject Texas' attempt to challenge the agency's denial of its revised plan to control ozone in the Dallas and Houston metropolitan areas, saying the Lone Star State's arguments "do not withstand scrutiny."
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April 23, 2024
Wash. Urges Federal Court To Set Bad Faith Test For IP Cases
A Washington federal judge should apply a standard analyzing patterns of harassment when determining whether the owner of a data processing network patent acted in bad faith by issuing nearly 2,000 uniform demand letters alleging infringement, the state attorney general's office has argued.
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April 23, 2024
Crypto Industry Groups Sue SEC Over Dealer Definition
Two crypto industry groups on Tuesday jointly sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to overturn the regulator's expanded dealer definition, claiming the regulator sidestepped a fair rulemaking process when it declined to address the myriad issues industry participants pointed out during the shortened comment process.
Expert Analysis
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Practical Steps For Navigating New Sanctions On Russia
After the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Russia – the largest to date since the Ukraine war began – companies will need to continue to strengthen due diligence and compliance measures to navigate the related complexities, say James Min and Chelsea Ellis at Rimon.
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Justices' Trump Ballot Ruling: Purposivism In Textualist Garb
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump v. Anderson decision earlier this week, allowing former President Donald Trump to remain on state primary ballots, alleviates uncertainty and minimizes the potential for abuse in future cases, but is difficult to square with the court’s own account of its textualist interpretive methods, says Will Havemann at Hogan Lovells.
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Assessing CDC's Revised Guideline On Opioid Prescriptions
Kenneth Weinstein, Nicholas Van Niel and Kate Uthe at Analysis Group look at newly available data to evaluate the impact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's revised opioid monitoring guideline have had on prescription trends in recent years, highlighting both specific and overall decreases.
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Opinion
UK Whistleblowers Flock To The US For Good Reason
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office director recently brought renewed attention to the differences between the U.K. and U.S. whistleblower regimes — differences that may make reporting to U.S. agencies a better and safer option for U.K. whistleblowers, and show why U.K. whistleblower laws need to be improved, say Benjamin Calitri and Kate Reeves at Kohn Kohn.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Opinion
There Is No NCAA Supremacy Clause, Especially For NIL
A recent Tennessee federal court ruling illustrates the NCAA's problematic position that its member schools should violate state law rather than its rules — and the organization's legal history with the dormant commerce clause raises a fundamental constitutional issue that will have to be resolved before attorneys can navigate NIL with confidence, says Patrick O’Donnell at HWG.
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Zero-Point Offender Eligibility May Hinge On Meaning Of 'And'
Some white collar defendants’ eligibility for the new zero-point offender sentencing adjustment comes down to whether the word “and” really means “and” — a question the U.S. Supreme Court is set to resolve in its upcoming Pulsifer v. U.S. decision, which could affect thousands of incarcerated people, say Brandon McCarthy and Nikita Yogeshwarun at Katten.
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The Corporate Transparency Act Isn't Dead Yet
After an Alabama federal court's ruling last week rendering the Corporate Transparency Act unconstitutional, changes to the law may ultimately be required, but ongoing compliance is still the best course of action for most, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.
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A Former Bankruptcy Judge Talks 'Undue Hardship'
Former U.S. bankruptcy judge Robert Gordon reflects on his journey from student borrower to judicial observer, highlighting the challenges faced by modern students burdened with student loan debt and advocating for reform in bankruptcy laws, particularly regarding the "undue hardship" element of discharge.
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Employers, Prep For Shorter Stock Awards Settlement Cycle
Companies that provide equity compensation in the form of publicly traded stock will soon have one less day to complete such transactions under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Nasdaq rules — so employers should implement expedited equity compensation stock settlement and payroll tax deposit procedures now, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Complying With Enforcers' Ephemeral Messaging Guidance
Given federal antitrust enforcers’ recently issued guidance on ephemeral messaging applications, organizations must take a proactive approach to preserving short-lived communications — or risk criminal obstruction charges and civil discovery sanctions, say attorneys at Manatt.
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New FinCEN Guide Provides Useful BOI Context For Banks
Financial institutions should review a new Financial Crimes Enforcement Network compliance guide for helpful details about how the agency's beneficial ownership information database should be used, though questions remain about the access rule and whether it will truly streamline bank borrowers' Corporate Transparency Act due diligence, says George Singer at Holland & Hart.
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Demystifying IRS' Claims Of $851B Return On Investment
The IRS' recently released analysis, estimating a $851 billion return on the government’s $80 billion investment in the agency, represents a huge increase over its 2022 estimate and that of the Congressional Budget Office and may be best viewed as a best-case scenario, says Joyce Beebe at the Baker Institute.
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Conn. Data Privacy Enforcement Takeaways For Cos.
In light of the Connecticut attorney general's recently released report on its enforcement of the Connecticut Data Privacy Act, which focuses on companies' privacy policies, protections of sensitive data and more, businesses can expect increased enforcement scrutiny — especially in areas that are the subject of consumer complaints, say Paul Pittman and Abdul Hafiz at White & Case.
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.