Public Policy

  • May 13, 2024

    Kroger Says Wash. AG's Merger Suit Ignores Costco's Impact

    The Washington state attorney general's challenge to Kroger's proposed $24.6 billion acquisition of rival grocery giant Albertsons ignores key economic realities, the companies argued in recent state court filings, including fierce competition from Costco and other big-box retailers.

  • May 13, 2024

    House Bill Seeks More Commerce Dept. Control Of AI Exports

    Technology companies may soon be required to implement security checks before collaborating with Chinese artificial intelligence labs with military ties, under a bipartisan bill introduced last week in the U.S. House of Representatives.

  • May 13, 2024

    New FCC Rules Preempt NY Broadband Price Cap, Prof Says

    A Second Circuit ruling that revived New York's low-price broadband law in April should be reversed because the Federal Communications Commission's recent decision not to regulate rates for internet services preempts the Empire State's price cap, a law professor said Friday.

  • May 13, 2024

    Nancy Pelosi's Would-Be Kidnapper Merits 40 Years, Feds Say

    Federal prosecutors are urging a California federal judge to impose a 40-year prison sentence on the man convicted of attempting to kidnap then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and of assaulting her husband, while the would-be kidnapper is asking for 14 years.

  • May 13, 2024

    SEC Says Biotech Co., Atty Should Pay $14M For Investor Lies

    Federal securities regulators have said a Colorado biotech startup and two of its founders should pay more than $14 million in ill-gotten profits, including interest, for lying to investors about the company's financial position, arguing that the founders showed a "total disregard" for investors.

  • May 13, 2024

    Schumer Urges FTC To Block Hess-Chevron Deal, Jabs Trump

    U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was "sounding the alarm" against Chevron Corp.'s planned $53 billion acquisition of Hess Corp. in a post on social media platform X, urging the Federal Trade Commission to halt the deal while criticizing former President Donald Trump for a reported meeting with oil executives.

  • May 13, 2024

    Alaska House Passes Bill To Levy 7% Marijuana Retail Tax

    Alaska would update its marijuana tax regime by levying a 7% tax on sales and phasing out the current $50 per ounce excise tax as part of a bill passed by the state House of Representatives.

  • May 13, 2024

    Airlines Ask 5th Circ. To Void DOT 'Junk Fees' Disclosure Rule

    A lead lobbying group for major U.S. airlines has asked the Fifth Circuit to vacate a recent final rule from the U.S. Department of Transportation requiring airlines to clearly disclose add-on fees upfront, saying the agency overstepped with a needless rule that will only confuse consumers.

  • May 13, 2024

    Mich. Played 'Word Games' With Mail Ballot Rules, Judge Says

    A Michigan claims court judge on Monday seemed to be leaning toward striking mail-in ballot guidance issued to the state's election clerks, suggesting there wasn't support in the state's constitution or election laws for presuming voters' signatures are valid.

  • May 13, 2024

    FCC Defends 'Lead Generator' Robocall Rule To GOP Sens.

    The head of the Federal Communications Commission is defending the agency's new "single seller" rule meant to limit robocalls and texts from comparison shopping sites, telling lawmakers that it will protect consumers from unwanted marketing.

  • May 13, 2024

    EPA Wrongly Approved New Chevron Chemicals, Group Says

    A Mississippi community group has asked the D.C. Circuit to revoke the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's authorization for Chevron Corp. to produce 18 new chemicals derived from plastic waste "despite their extreme health risks."

  • May 13, 2024

    Mass. Tax Board Rejects Plea To Cut Home Valuation

    A Massachusetts homeowner's argument that his property was overvalued because its assessment increased by a higher percentage than those of neighboring properties was rejected by the state's tax appeals board in a decision released Monday.

  • May 13, 2024

    Vietnamese Fish Exporter Sues Over 'Vague' Duty Instructions

    A Vietnamese frozen fish fillet producer filed suit at the U.S. Court of International Trade, claiming the U.S. Department of Commerce erroneously calculated an anti-dumping duty rate for its products and then issued instructions subjecting it to a higher rate.

  • May 13, 2024

    11th Circ. Says Ga. County's Trans Health Ban Violates Title VII

    A split Eleventh Circuit panel upheld a win Monday for a transgender sheriff's deputy who challenged a Georgia county health plan's refusal to pay for gender-affirmation surgery, ruling the coverage exclusion violated federal anti-discrimination law.

  • May 13, 2024

    FERC Powers Up Major Rewrite Of Grid Planning Policy

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday finalized a long-awaited overhaul of how major electric transmission projects are planned and paid for, with the agency's Republican commissioner claiming his Democratic colleagues are unlawfully favoring clean energy at the expense of state electricity authority.

  • May 13, 2024

    Pa. Supreme Court Snapshot: Kleinbard Bill Battle Starts May

    The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania will weigh the spending powers of district attorneys in a Kleinbard LLC bill battle and whether an appeals court overstepped by greenlighting a hospital closure when the May argument lineup begins Tuesday.

  • May 13, 2024

    FEMA Wrongly Denied Atlanta $1.2M In Funds, City Says

    Atlanta has slapped the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a complaint in Georgia federal court accusing the agency of wrongly denying the city's challenge of its rejected request for more than $1.2 million in public assistance to repair damage to a wastewater treatment plant.

  • May 13, 2024

    Former HUD Secretary Fudge To Chair Taft Public Policy Team

    Marcia L. Fudge, the second Black woman in U.S. history to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, has joined Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP as a partner and as firm wide chair of public policy, the firm announced Monday.

  • May 13, 2024

    Texas, Mo. Say Border Contractors Lack Interests To Defend

    Texas and Missouri have slammed contractors' attempts to defend the Biden administration's plans to use border wall construction funds to remediate existing barriers, telling a Texas federal court that the group lacks a direct interest in the case's outcome.

  • May 13, 2024

    Uber, Lyft Put Driver Work Fight In Reverse As Trial Begins

    A high-stakes battle over the employment status of drivers for Uber and Lyft kicked off in Massachusetts on Monday, as the companies sought to flip the government allegations by arguing that the ride-hailing giants work for their drivers, not the other way around.

  • May 13, 2024

    'Gamesmanship' Lecture Launches Menendez Bribery Trial

    The corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez started Monday with a stern admonition from U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein after the government and defense lawyers squabbled over pretrial disclosures, and a message that the jury may be in for a long haul. 

  • May 13, 2024

    Rail Worker Wage Case Won't Get High Court Review

    The U.S. Supreme Court won't intervene in a pending Massachusetts lawsuit against the operator of a freight rail line over whether its employees are covered by the state's Prevailing Wage Act, declining Monday to review the case.

  • May 13, 2024

    Cohen Says Trump Knew Hush Money Records Were False

    Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen took the witness stand Monday in the ex-president's New York criminal case, testifying that his longtime "boss" directed him to make hush money payments to alleged paramours and that Trump later agreed to the "legal services" label for a six-figure reimbursement despite seeing paperwork that showed otherwise.

  • May 13, 2024

    Justices Reject COVID App Makers' Last-Ditch Apple Appeal

    The U.S. Supreme Court dealt the latest blow Monday to app developers who've struck out at every turn on antitrust allegations over Apple's rejection of COVID-19-tracking and bitcoin apps, refusing to look at a Ninth Circuit's refusal to revive the lawsuit.

  • May 13, 2024

    Coverage Recap: Day 12 Of Trump's NY Hush Money Trial

    Law360 reporters are providing live updates from the Manhattan criminal courthouse as Donald Trump goes on trial for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election. Here's a recap from Monday, day 12 of the trial.

Expert Analysis

  • The Legal Issues Raised In Minn. Rate Exportation Opt-Out Bill

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    A recent Minnesota House bill would amend state law by opting out of the federal interest rate preemption and introduce several legal gray areas if passed, including issues regarding loan location, rates on credit card loans and values of state charters, says Karen Grandstrand at Fredrikson & Byron.

  • Rebuttal

    Time For Congress To Let Qualified Older Pilots Keep Flying

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    While a previous Law360 guest article affirmed the current law requiring airline pilots to retire at age 65, the facts suggest that the pilots, their unions, the airlines and the flying public will all benefit if Congress allows experienced, medically qualified aviators to stay in the cockpit, say Allen Baker and Bo Ellis at Let Experienced Pilots Fly.

  • Does Expert Testimony Aid Preliminary IPR Responses?

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    Dechert attorneys analyze six years of patent owners' preliminary responses to inter partes review petitions to determine whether the elimination of the presumption favoring the petitioner as to preinstitution testimonial evidence affected the usefulness of expert testimony in responses.

  • Fostering Employee Retention Amid Shaky DEI Landscape

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    Ongoing challenges to the legality of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs are complicating efforts to use DEI as an employee retention tool, but with the right strategic approach employers can continue to recruit and retain diverse talent — even after the FTC’s ban on noncompetes, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.

  • Are Concessions In FDA's Lab-Developed Tests Rule Enough?

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    Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new policy for laboratory-developed tests included major strategic concessions to help balance patient safety, access and diagnostic innovation, the new rule may well face significant legal challenges in court, say Dominick DiSabatino and Audrey Mercer at Sheppard Mullin.

  • 5 Climate Change Regulatory Issues Insurers Should Follow

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    The climate change landscape for insurers has changed dramatically recently — and not just because of the controversy over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related risk disclosure rules, says Thomas Dawson at McDermott.

  • How New Rule Would Change CFIUS Enforcement Powers

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    Before the May 15 comment deadline, companies may want to weigh in on proposed regulatory changes to enforcement and mitigation tools at the disposal of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, including broadened subpoena powers, difficult new mitigation timelines and higher maximum penalties, say attorneys at Venable.

  • What's Extraordinary About Challenges To SEC Climate Rule

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    A set of ideologically diverse legal challenges to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate disclosure rule have been consolidated in the Eighth Circuit via a seldom-used lottery system, and the unpredictability of this process may drive agencies toward a more cautious future approach to rulemaking, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • 8 Questions To Ask Before Final CISA Breach Reporting Rule

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    The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s recently proposed cyber incident reporting requirements for critical infrastructure entities represent the overall approach CISA will take in its final rule, so companies should be asking key compliance questions now and preparing for a more complicated reporting regime, say Arianna Evers and Shannon Mercer at WilmerHale.

  • Series

    Swimming Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Years of participation in swimming events, especially in the open water, have proven to be ideal preparation for appellate arguments in court — just as you must put your trust in the ocean when competing in a swim event, you must do the same with the judicial process, says John Kulewicz at Vorys.

  • Key Priorities In FDIC Report On Resolving Big Bank Failures

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s report last month on the resolvability of large financial institutions contains little new information, but it does reiterate key policy priorities, including the agency's desire to enhance loss-absorbing capacity through long-term debt requirements and preference for single-point-of-entry resolution strategies, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • Best Practices For Space Security In Our Connected World

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    NASA's recently published space security guide is another indication that cyber-resilience has become a global theme for the space and satellite sector, as well as a useful reference for companies and organizations reviewing their cybersecurity frameworks or looking to partner with the U.S. agency, says Hayley Blyth at Bird & Bird.

  • Opinion

    SEC Doesn't Have Legal Authority For Climate Disclosure Rule

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    Instead of making the required legal argument to establish its authority, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate-related disclosure rule hides behind more than 1,000 references to materiality to give the appearance that its rule is legally defensible, says Bernard Sharfman at RealClearFoundation.

  • What 100 Federal Cases Suggest About Changes To Chevron

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    With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to overturn or narrow its 40-year-old doctrine of Chevron deference, a review of 100 recent federal district court decisions confirm that changes to the Chevron framework will have broad ramifications — but the magnitude of the impact will depend on the details of the high court's ruling, say Kali Schellenberg and Jon Cochran at LeVan Stapleton.

  • FTC Noncompete Rule May Still Face Historical Hurdles

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    The Federal Trade Commission's final rule banning noncompetes might face challenges that could have been avoided with more cautious consideration of the commission's long history of failed lawsuits that went beyond the agency's statutory authority, as well as the mountain of judicial precedent justifying noncompete agreements in employment contracts, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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