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Public Policy
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May 16, 2024
DC Circ. Mulls Rolling Back Pipeline Safety Regs Over Cost
The industry group challenging a handful of pipeline safety standards told a D.C. Circuit panel on Thursday that there will be "no fight" between it and the government on one of the regulations if the court simply rules that two terms that the agency maintains have the same definition do mean the same thing.
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May 16, 2024
Thomas, Alito: Two Originalists, Two Takes On CFPB Case
U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — often birds of a feather — butted heads Thursday over the original meaning and purpose of the U.S. Constitution's appropriations clause in a decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's unique funding scheme, highlighting what experts describe as the pair's different approaches to originalism.
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May 16, 2024
FCC Told Rural Aid Can't Lean Too Much On Broadband Maps
Wireless providers are calling out flaws in the Federal Communications Commission's national broadband map, telling the agency to require more certification from providers to verify that they can actually serve areas they say they can before allocating broadband deployment funding.
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May 16, 2024
FTC Can't Make Albertsons, Kroger Produce Divestiture Docs
An administrative law judge on Thursday denied the Federal Trade Commission's "premature" bid to compel Kroger and Albertsons to fork over documents related to negotiations for the companies' expanded divestiture plan amid the commission's in-house challenge to the grocers' merger.
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May 16, 2024
Judge Questions Colo.'s Power Over Out-Of-State Banks
A Colorado federal judge on Thursday asked U.S. banking regulators why the state should be able to cap interest rates for loans made to residents by out-of-state financial institutions, questioning why it was "consistent with federalism" to let an individual state have that far of a reach.
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May 16, 2024
'That Is A Lie!' Trump Atty Assails Cohen In Fraud Trial Cross
Donald Trump's lawyer lashed out at central prosecution witness Michael Cohen on Thursday during a second day of cross-examination in New York state's criminal fraud case, attacking his credibility and key testimony linking Trump to crimes.
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May 16, 2024
Judge Irked By 'Smart' Attys And 'Silly' Doc Retention Policies
The chief judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade scolded Chinese tire companies on Thursday for complaining about having to provide information the federal government requested to reassess antidumping duties after the companies won an order for that reassessment.
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May 16, 2024
Investigate Pro-Gaza Reddit Post, GOP Pols Tell USPTO
An anonymous Reddit post purportedly from a patent examiner confessing "mixed feelings" about issuing a patent to an Israeli defense contractor, citing the country's ongoing bombardment of Gaza, has attracted the attention of Republicans in Congress and the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office herself.
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May 16, 2024
Judge OKs Plan For Those Hit By Rescinded Trump Travel Ban
Immigration advocates who sued the federal government said they were celebrating "a glimmer of hope" this week after a federal judge OK'd a plan that would require immigration officials to reconsider visa applications for people denied entry into the U.S. because of a Trump-era travel ban affecting individuals from Muslim-majority countries.
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May 16, 2024
Trump Says 1890 Ruling Can't Be 'Pigeonholed' By Ga. DA
Former President Donald Trump has renewed his bid to have two of his Georgia election interference charges dropped under an 1890 U.S. Supreme Court case, arguing prosecutors are trying to "improperly pigeonhole" the ruling as irrelevant to his criminal case.
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May 16, 2024
EPA Doctor Not A Whistleblower For Slamming Lead Plan
A former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pediatrician and epidemiologist who publicly criticized the EPA's plan to reduce lead in drinking water as inadequate is not protected by federal whistleblower law, the Federal Circuit said Thursday.
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May 16, 2024
Taliban Victim Says Asylum Priority Practice Needs To Go
A Pakistani asylum-seeker asked a New York federal court to rule that the federal government's practice of prioritizing the most recent asylum applications in a backlog is unlawful, saying in a lawsuit that the policy has caused indefinite uncertainty and hardships.
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May 16, 2024
Trade Court OKs Commerce's Cambodian Mattress Duties
The U.S. Court of International Trade on Thursday blessed the U.S. Department of Commerce's revised anti-dumping duty calculations for Cambodia-origin mattresses, saying Commerce provided better explanations a second time around including for why it used an Indian company's financial statements.
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May 16, 2024
Judge Calls Out 'Cancel Culture' In Prof's Suit Against Penn
A Pennsylvania federal judge said University of Pennsylvania leaders embraced "cancel culture" when they chastised an anthropology professor for handling remains from the 1985 MOVE house bombing in Philadelphia, allowing the professor's defamation case against the school to move forward.
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May 16, 2024
DC Judge Reluctantly Holds That Hyatt Forfeited Patents
A D.C. federal judge on Thursday found the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has sufficiently proven that inventor Gilbert Hyatt forfeited the right to receive certain patents based on decades of delay, but made clear that his finding was the result of a Federal Circuit mandate, not how he thought the case should be approached.
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May 16, 2024
Democrats Prod Justice Thomas on RV Loan, Tax Treatment
Two Senate Democrats have asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' attorney to respond to what they called a failure to answer their questions about the justice's $267,000 loan from a healthcare industry executive to finance a luxury recreational vehicle, saying the loan treatment could have violated federal tax laws.
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May 16, 2024
FCC To Pull Phone Co.'s Authorization To Operate In US
The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday it plans to revoke a telecom company's authorization to operate in the U.S. after the business failed to comply with an agreement with federal agencies stemming from a security review.
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May 16, 2024
La. Parties Split On How Voting Law Alters Consent Decree
A civil rights group told the Fifth Circuit on Thursday that a Louisiana state law enacted two weeks before the court reconsidered whether to dissolve a 30-year-old voting consent decree was enough to end its dispute, but disagreed with the state over the dissolution process for the consent decree determining how the state's high court justices are chosen.
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May 16, 2024
Senate Passes Bill To Block SEC Crypto Accounting Guidance
The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to send a bill overturning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's controversial crypto accounting guidance to the president's desk, though without the necessary votes to override the White House's planned veto.
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May 16, 2024
FDIC's Gruenberg Scolded By Senators Over Agency Culture
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg on Thursday faced a second round of congressional reprimand from both sides of the political aisle over his agency's workplace misconduct scandal, but Senate Democrats seemed ready to let Gruenberg clean up the mess himself and continue his tenure.
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May 16, 2024
African Tax Admins Promote Use Of Voluntary Disclosures
Voluntary disclosure programs have been very effective when countries launch them in anticipation of complying with an international standard on automatic exchanges of financial account information, the African Tax Administration Forum said Thursday in guidance on the programs.
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May 16, 2024
DOL Unveils Long-Delayed Abandoned Retirement Plan Rules
After being sidelined for more than a decade, a plan for expanding U.S. Department of Labor rules for terminating retirement plans abandoned by employers are moving forward again, the agency reported Thursday, along with a long-delayed role in the process for bankruptcy trustees.
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May 16, 2024
New BLM Plans Sunset Federal Coal Leasing In Wyo., Mont.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday unveiled court-ordered, revised resource management plans for coal-rich areas of Montana and Wyoming that end future coal leasing in the regions, a move blasted by congressional representatives of those states.
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May 16, 2024
Oil & Gas Groups Challenge DOI Overhaul Of Leasing Regs
A coalition of oil and gas groups has slapped the U.S. Department of the Interior with a lawsuit in Wyoming federal court seeking to unravel the agency's final rule boosting bonding requirements, royalty rates and minimum bids for its onshore federal oil and gas leasing program.
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May 16, 2024
Firm Seeks To Force IRS To Process Worker Retention Credits
A tax advisory firm helping businesses apply for the pandemic-era employee retention credit has asked an Arizona federal court to force the IRS to resume processing claims, saying the moratorium in place since September violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
Expert Analysis
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
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.
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EU Inquiry Offers First Insight Into Foreign Subsidy Law
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.
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What The NIL Negotiation Rules Injunction Means For NCAA
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.
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Md. May See Vigorous Resale Price Maintenance Enforcement
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.
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What 2 Years Of Ukraine-Russia Conflict Can Teach Cos.
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.
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Takeaways From EPA's New Methane Emission Rules
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.
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Uncertainty Surrounds Patent Eligibility Restoration Bill
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.
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CSA Case Could Shift Intrastate Commercial Cannabis
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.
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How AI May Be Used In Fintech Fraud — And Fraud Detection
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.
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Antitrust Enforcers' Views On Info Exchanges Are Evolving
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.
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Takeaways From Groundbreaking Data Transfer Order
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.
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Takeaways From NLRB Advice On 'Outside' Employment
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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FARA Enforcement May Soon Be In The Halls Of Higher Ed
Given Congress’ increased attention to rising foreign influence on U.S. college campuses, the U.S. Department of Justice may soon turn the Foreign Agents Registration Act spotlight on educational institutions and groups, which will need to review their possible obligations under the statute, says Tessa Capeloto at Wiley.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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How FinCEN Proposal Expands RE Transaction Obligations
Against a regulatory backdrop foreshadowing anti-money laundering efforts in the real estate sector, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's proposed rule significantly expands reporting requirements for certain nonfinanced residential real estate transfers and necessitates careful review, say attorneys at Fried Frank.