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Public Policy
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June 20, 2024
Cannabis-Infused Drink Cos. Sue Iowa Over New Potency Law
Makers of canned drinks infused with hemp-derived THC are urging a federal judge to block an impending state statute that aims to regulate the Iowa cannabinoid market, saying it would swiftly outlaw "approximately 80%" of their current inventory.
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June 20, 2024
Competition Raids Don't Need Warrant For Emails, ECJ Told
European Union law doesn't bar member states from permitting competition authorities to search emails without a warrant amid a so-called dawn raid, according to an advisory opinion submitted to the bloc's top appeals court Thursday.
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June 20, 2024
Crypto Co. Says SEC Won't Bring Case Over Ethereum
Ethereum-focused software firm Consensys won't face an action over its dealings with the cryptocurrency ether, according to a notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but its preemptive lawsuit against the regulator is set to continue as the agency doesn't appear to have dropped concerns over Consensys products that deal in other assets.
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June 20, 2024
Fla. Panel Rules Riot Law Doesn't Apply To Peaceful Protest
Florida's Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a state riot law passed by the Legislature in response to the George Floyd demonstrations doesn't apply to nonviolent protests.
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June 20, 2024
FCC Allows Top-4 Exception So Gray Can Sell Station
The Federal Communications Commission has granted an exception to its rule prohibiting ownership of stations carrying more than one top-four network in a local market, allowing Gray Television to sell a Cheyenne, Wyoming, station as part of a larger deal.
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June 20, 2024
No Atty, No Case: Judge Tosses Attack On Psychedelics Ban
A federal judge in Washington state threw out a challenge to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's efforts to ban two psychedelic substances in an order Thursday that chided a psychedelic research company for doing "an end run" around requirements that corporations be represented by an attorney.
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June 20, 2024
HHS Drug Pricing Program Flouts Constitution, Boehringer Says
An "unprecedented" new Medicare price negotiation program deprives drugmakers of their constitutional rights and forces them to make declarations on issues of public concern that reflect poorly on them, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. argued Thursday in Connecticut federal court as it echoed the industry chorus seeking to strike the initiative.
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June 20, 2024
Vegas Papers Can't Pause Suit Amid Trim Appeal, Judge Says
Rival Las Vegas newspapers won't see their acrimonious antitrust dispute placed on ice while the Ninth Circuit contemplates reversal of a partial dismissal order in the matter with no trial dates in place yet, a Nevada federal judge has determined.
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June 20, 2024
Texas Says DACA Challenge Withstands Mifepristone Ruling
Texas has fired back against the Biden administration's claim that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent blockbuster abortion-drug mifepristone ruling undermines the Lone Star State's standing to challenge the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, telling the Fifth Circuit that the appellate court "has held — repeatedly — that Texas has standing in this context."
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June 20, 2024
Carbon Capture Struggles Doom EPA Rule, DC Circ. Told
Challengers of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's new greenhouse gas emissions standards for power plants reiterated to the D.C. Circuit that the impossibility of rapidly installing carbon capture and sequestration at power plants is reason enough to block the rule's implementation.
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June 20, 2024
China Denies Tax Crackdown As 2 Cos. Report $80M In Bills
China's tax authority denied a nationwide crackdown on companies' old tax returns Thursday, less than a week after a chemical firm facing 500 million yuan ($69 million) in additional liabilities halted production and a beverage maker reported owing 85 million yuan.
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June 20, 2024
Assa Abloy Says Deal Monitor Going Too Far
Assa Abloy has told a D.C. federal court that a monitoring trustee installed after the company settled a government merger challenge is taking things too far by trying to conduct a five-year, industry-wide study that's on pace to cost the company $20 million.
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June 20, 2024
Ore. Water Treatment Plant Not On Farmland, Tax Court Says
Portions of farmland used for a wastewater treatment facility were correctly denied a special farm-use assessment rate, the Oregon Tax Court said, allowing the special rate for other contested areas of the property.
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June 20, 2024
Attys Accused Of Judge Shopping Rebut Fraud Allegations
An Alabama federal judge is conducting an in-camera review of a long-awaited "Q&A document" believed to have circulated among attorneys accused of judge shopping their efforts to fight a 2022 state law preventing transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care, with the lawyers handing over the document but denying allegations of misconduct.
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June 20, 2024
Pa. Justices Rule 'Client Exception' Can't Save Med Mal Case
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a law firm violated state discovery rules by simultaneously representing a physician and a nondefendant witness, saying a law firm representing a defendant treating physician cannot obtain information from a non-party treating physician without written consent or through discovery.
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June 20, 2024
NLRB Attys, Calif. Tribe Settle Casino Subpoena Dispute
A California federal court dismissed on Thursday National Labor Relations Board prosecutors' bids to enforce subpoenas requesting a list of casino employees who could be in a proposed bargaining unit from a tribe and a gambling company, with agency attorneys saying the parties settled the dispute.
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June 20, 2024
New Navajo Law Expected To Double Infrastructure Funds
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed into law legislation that will create a new mechanism allowing the federally recognized tribe to transfer $522 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding into a revenue reserve that's expected to nearly double the tribe's infrastructure financing.
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June 20, 2024
DOL Benefits Head Plans To Attend House Oversight Hearing
The head of the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm is planning to testify at a House oversight hearing called by a legislator critical of that office's regulations, a DOL spokesperson said Thursday.
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June 20, 2024
EPA Water Rule Withstands Landowner's Attempt To Block It
A North Carolina federal judge declined to block the federal government's rule defining the scope of the Clean Water Act in a lawsuit filed by a landowner seeking to develop property in wetlands areas.
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June 20, 2024
Trump Says Willis Can't Erase DQ Appeal In Election Case
Former president Donald Trump urged the Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday to keep alive his appeal of a trial court's decision that blocked Trump's bid to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from the election interference case against him and co-defendants, arguing that his appeal involves issues of law.
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June 20, 2024
Fla. Calls Abortion Drug Case Irrelevant To Migrant Parole Suit
Florida has rebuffed the Biden administration's efforts to use a high court ruling maintaining access to the abortion drug mifepristone to nix challenges to its migrant parole policies, telling the Eleventh Circuit that the healthcare case is unrelated to the immigration one.
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June 20, 2024
Federal Agencies Release Updated Climate Adaptation Plans
More than 20 federal agencies on Thursday published updated climate adaptation plans that are intended to serve as guides for facing problems like extreme heat and precipitation, sea level rise, flooding and wildfire that could put facilities, supply chains and employees at risk.
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June 20, 2024
House Dems Ask Chief Justice To Say How He'll Review Ethics
Two top Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee asked Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday how he's working to address the "glaring episodes" of ethical improprieties on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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June 20, 2024
GOP Sens. Get Tough On 6th Circ. Nominee's History
Republican senators hammered Sixth Circuit nominee Karla M. Campbell, of counsel at Stranch Jennings & Garvey PLLC, during a hearing on Thursday about her political donations, past advisory roles and the process by which she was nominated.
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June 20, 2024
Hemp Co. Illegally Sold Cannabis, Colo. AG Alleges
The Colorado attorney general is suing a hemp company in state court, alleging that despite claiming that its products were "100% compliant" with federal law, they in fact contained between two and 35 times the amount of THC allowed in hemp, making them illegal cannabis products.
Expert Analysis
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High Court's BofA Ruling Leaves State Preemption Questions
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Cantero v. Bank of America sheds light on whether certain state banking regulations apply to federally chartered banks, but a circuit split could still force the Supreme Court to take a more direct position, says Brett Garver at Moritt Hock.
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What 4 Cyber Protection Actions Mean For Marine Transport
Several recent steps by the Biden administration are necessary to address the cyber threats that increasingly disrupt the maritime sector, but also impose new legal risks, liabilities and operating costs on the owners and operators of U.S.-flagged vessels and facilities, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Next Steps After 5th Circ. Nixes Private Fund Adviser Rules
The Fifth Circuit's recent toss of key U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules regarding private fund advisers represents a setback for the regulator, but open questions, including the possibility of an SEC petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, mean it's still too early to consider the matter closed, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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'Energy Communities' Update May Clarify Tax Credit Eligibility
A recent IRS notice that includes updated lists of locations where clean energy projects can qualify for additional tax credits — based 2023 unemployment data and placed-in-service dates — should help provide clarity regarding project eligibility that sponsors and developers need, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Inside Antitrust Agencies' Rollup And Serial Acquisition Moves
The recent request for public comments on serial acquisitions and rollup strategies from the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Justice Department mark the antitrust agencies' continued focus on actions that fall below premerger reporting thresholds, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Always Be Closing
When a lawyer presents their case with the right propulsive structure throughout trial, there is little need for further argument after the close of evidence — and in fact, rehashing it all may test jurors’ patience — so attorneys should consider other strategies for closing arguments, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Expected Developments From Upcoming Basel Capital Rules
With U.S. federal banking regulators preparing to finalize the Basel IV regulatory framework as early as this fall, banks and private investment funds are expected to look to uncommitted facilities as one method to address key changes, including tighter capital requirements, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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Takeaways From Nat'l Security Division's Historic Declination
The Justice Department National Security Division's recent decision not to prosecute a biochemical company for an employee's export control violation marks its first declination under a new corporate enforcement policy, sending a clear message to companies that self-disclosure of misconduct may confer material benefits, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.
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Deciphering SEC Disgorgement 4 Years After Liu
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Liu v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to preserve SEC disgorgement with limits, courts have continued to rule largely in the agency’s favor, but a recent circuit split over the National Defense Authorization Act's import may create hurdles for the SEC, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
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Opinion
California Has A Duty To Curtail Frivolous CIPA Suits
As plaintiffs increasingly file class actions against companies for their use of website tracking cookies and pixels, the Legislature should consider four options to amend the California Invasion of Privacy Act and restore the balance between consumer privacy and business operational interests, say Steven Stransky and Jennifer Adler at Thompson Hine and Glenn Lammi at the Washington Legal Foundation.
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Updates To CFTC Large Trader Report Rules Leave Questions
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's updated large trader position reporting rules for futures and options is a much-needed change that modernizes a rule that had gone largely untouched since the 1980s, but the updates leave important questions unanswered, say Katherine Cooper and Maggie DePoy at BCLP.
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Series
Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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State Procurement Could Be Key For Calif. Offshore Wind
A recent ruling from the California Public Utilities Commission highlights how the state's centralized electricity procurement mechanism could play a critical role in the development of long lead-time resources — in particular, offshore wind — by providing market assurance to developers and reducing utilities' procurement risks, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.
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Key FCC Enforcement Issues In AT&T Location Data Appeal
AT&T’s decision to challenge a $57 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission for its alleged treatment of customer location information highlights interesting and fundamental issues about the constitutionality of FCC enforcement, say Patrick O’Donnell and Jason Neal at HWG.
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Calif. Budget Will Likely Have Unexpected Tax Consequences
A temporary suspension of net operating loss deductions and business incentive tax credits, likely to be approved on June 15 as part of California’s next budget, may create unanticipated tax liabilities for businesses that modeled recently completed transactions on current law, says Myra Sutanto Shen at Wilson Sonsini.