Public Policy

  • April 29, 2024

    Ohio, Ky. Reps. Again Try To Abolish PTAB

    U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., have introduced a pair of bills aiming to overrule much of current patent law, including abolishing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board and making injunctions more common.

  • April 29, 2024

    9th Circ. Scraps Trans Law Opinion After High Court Ruling

    The Ninth Circuit on Monday scrapped its 2023 opinion blocking an Idaho law that would have banned transgender women from competing in sports following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision allowing enforcement of another Idaho law permitting a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, explaining that a revised opinion is needed.

  • April 29, 2024

    High Court Uncertainty Stalls SEC Case Against Marcum CPA

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to stay an in-house proceeding against a partner at accounting firm Marcum LLP accused of failing to properly oversee public company audits, saying that an impending U.S. Supreme Court ruling could call into doubt the agency's ability to fine the accountant.

  • April 29, 2024

    TikTok Law Likely To Withstand Appeal, FCC Member Says

    A federal law banning TikTok unless it's divested from its Chinese parent company is likely to survive upcoming judicial challenges because it differs in key ways from a recently blocked Montana law affecting TikTok, a member of the Federal Communications Commission said.

  • April 29, 2024

    Texas Judge Says X Can Access Watchdog's Internal Docs

    A Texas federal judge has ruled that X Corp. can access the internal communications and donor lists of a media watchdog the tech company accused of spurring advertisers to ditch the social media platform, saying the watchdog hadn't shown a good enough reason to pause discovery.

  • April 29, 2024

    Biz Groups Fight Conn. Ban On 'Captive Audience' Meetings

    A Connecticut law that lets workers skip employers' meetings to discuss unionization violates employers' right to free speech, a coalition of business groups argued in Connecticut federal court, seeking a pretrial win on allegations that the law violates the U.S. Constitution and federal labor law.

  • April 29, 2024

    5th Circ. Ponders If There Were Claims In 'Patient Mistake' Suit

    If an insurer says there's no claim, might a claim still have been made, a skeptical Fifth Circuit panel pondered at oral arguments Monday, considering whether a healthcare company's settlement paid for mistakenly approving out-of-state treatment of a Florida Medicaid patient was covered by insurance.

  • April 29, 2024

    Apple Says Nothing's Changed To Revive COVID App Suit

    Apple urged a California federal judge not to reopen a tossed antitrust lawsuit over the company's refusal to distribute a COVID-19-tracking app on the App Store, arguing that neither new European Union law nor Epic Games' jury win over Google change the dynamics of a case that has favored the iPhone maker at every turn.

  • April 29, 2024

    Don't Put Cable 'Junk Fee' Rules On Biz Services, FCC Told

    Cable providers are asking the Federal Communications Commission to leave business services out of the commission's plans to end cable "junk fees," saying that doing otherwise would jeopardize lower rates negotiated by the businesses.

  • April 29, 2024

    Trans Patients In NC, W.Va. Prevail In 4th Circ. Health Fight

    The Fourth Circuit on Monday affirmed two lower court decisions ordering North Carolina and West Virginia to end discriminatory exclusions for coverage of gender-affirming medical care for transgender people in both states, finding the lower courts properly struck down the policies as "textbook sex discrimination."

  • April 29, 2024

    USPTO Seeks Input On How AI Use Should Affect Patentability

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office wants public input on how the proliferation of artificial intelligence should affect the office's evaluation of patentability, such as in the consideration of what qualifies as prior art and in assessments of a "person having ordinary skill in the art." 

  • April 29, 2024

    GSA Guides Agencies On Responsible Generative AI Buying

    The U.S. General Services Administration on Monday issued guidance to federal agencies for buying generative artificial intelligence services and related hardware, intended to ensure that emerging technology is used "responsibly and effectively."

  • April 29, 2024

    Ex-COO Of Mo. Charity Gets 3 Years For Bribing Officials

    The former chief operating officer of a Missouri-based healthcare charity was sentenced to three years in prison Monday after admitting she and her husband, the charity's ex-chief financial officer, conspired to bribe elected officials in Arkansas, according to Missouri federal court documents.

  • April 29, 2024

    Court Can Make Widow Pull $2.5M From Swiss Bank, US Says

    A Colorado federal court can force a widow to send $2.5 million from a Swiss bank to the U.S. to repay her late husband's penalties and interest for failing to report his foreign accounts, the U.S. told the court.

  • April 29, 2024

    US, Tribes Defend Water Rule Against States', Biz Groups' Suit

    The federal government and several Native American tribes on Friday asked a North Dakota federal judge to toss a lawsuit by two dozen states challenging a rule defining the reach of the Clean Water Act's jurisdiction.

  • April 29, 2024

    Texas AG Says Title IX Gender Rule Creates 'No-Win Situation'

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hit the Biden administration with a lawsuit over its Title IX expansion, writing in a federal court complaint that inclusion of gender identity and sexual orientation in the definition of sex discrimination puts Lone Star State schools "in a no-win situation."

  • April 29, 2024

    OECD Nations Steer UN Tax Talks Toward Decision-Making

    The terms of reference for a United Nations global tax convention should guide the decision-making of a committee that will negotiate substantive provisions later even though some governments prefer to defer debate on the decision-making procedures to the General Assembly, several OECD government representatives said Monday.

  • April 29, 2024

    HHS Delays Menthol Cigarette Ban Indefinitely

    U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said Friday that a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes has been put on hold for now, citing the need to process considerable feedback from civil rights groups and the criminal justice movement.

  • April 29, 2024

    Amid Backlash, FDA Extends Control For Lab-Developed Tests

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration inked a final rule Monday that gives the agency broad authority over lab-developed tests by classifying them as medical devices, a move that has drawn ire from congressional leadership and those in the healthcare and life sciences industries.

  • April 29, 2024

    FCC Fines Wireless Carriers $195M For Selling Location Data

    The country's top wireless carriers face fines totaling almost $200 million from the Federal Communications Commission after a yearslong probe into the companies' sales of user location data to third parties.

  • April 29, 2024

    Biden Admin's Border Wall Plan Must Be Vacated, Court Told

    Texas and Missouri again urged a federal judge Monday to vacate the Biden administration's plan to redirect congressional funding for a southern U.S. border wall as the White House pushed back, saying it would be an overreach to eliminate its directive.

  • April 29, 2024

    Trade Court Presses Commerce Dept. On Korean Electricity

    The question of whether South Korean authorities subsidize the country's steel producers is again before the trade court as of Monday, with the U.S. Department of Commerce heading into a third remand over a 2018 duty review.

  • April 29, 2024

    Colo. Judge Moves Toward Eastman DQ Over Calif. Discipline

    A Colorado federal judge has ordered former Donald Trump lawyer John C. Eastman to explain why he shouldn't be disqualified from representing plaintiffs in a civil suit after a California disciplinary judge suspended his law license and recommended disbarment in March.

  • April 29, 2024

    Border Sheriffs Want Control Of 4.9-GHz Band To Stay Local

    Two border sheriff organizations are lending their voices to the growing chorus of public safety interests telling the Federal Communications Commission that turning the revamped 4.9-gigahertz public safety band over to an AT&T-affiliated entity to manage is a bad idea.

  • April 29, 2024

    Pa. County Counters Sanctions Bid In Dominion Suit

    Local officials in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, have urged a federal judge to punish Dominion Voting Systems Inc. for its motion filed last month calling for sanctions against two county commissioners for filing an amended complaint in a breach of contract suit.

Expert Analysis

  • Under The Hood Of The SEC Securitization Conflict Rule

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    Elanit Snow and Julia Vitter of Proskauer consider the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently finalized rule that prohibits conflicts of interest in certain securitization transactions, uncovering what the new regulation does and doesn’t entail, why it was adopted, and how commenters' remarks affected the process.

  • Series

    Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.

  • Can A DAO Be Sued? SDNY Case May Hold The Answer

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    A case pending in the Southern District of New York will examine whether decentralized crypto co-op MakerDAO is a partnership with the capacity to be sued in federal court, and the decision could shape how legal frameworks will adapt to accommodate blockchain technologies moving forward, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • The Road Ahead For Florida's Drug Importation Program

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    Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Florida's drug importation program in January, a series of hurdles — including requisite buy-in from Canada — and potential legal challenges must be addressed before importation can begin, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Tips For Counsel Seeking Balance In The ESG Political Divide

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    Corporate counsel tasked with navigating environmental, social and governance factors in the current polarized political environment should not lose sight of best practices, including sticking to what the law requires and always telling the truth, say Jennifer Rubin at Mintz and Mike Rider at ResMed.

  • High Court Social Media Speech Ruling Could Implicate AI

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    In Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether certain state laws can restrict content moderation by social media platforms, but the eventual decision could also provide insight into whether the first amendment protects artificial intelligence speech, say Joseph Meadows and Quyen Dang at GRSM50.

  • Practical Steps For Navigating New Sanctions On Russia

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    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.

  • Justices' Trump Ballot Ruling: Purposivism In Textualist Garb

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    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.

  • Assessing CDC's Revised Guideline On Opioid Prescriptions

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    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.

  • Opinion

    UK Whistleblowers Flock To The US For Good Reason

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    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.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC

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    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.

  • Opinion

    There Is No NCAA Supremacy Clause, Especially For NIL

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    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.

  • Zero-Point Offender Eligibility May Hinge On Meaning Of 'And'

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    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.

  • The Corporate Transparency Act Isn't Dead Yet

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    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.

  • A Former Bankruptcy Judge Talks 'Undue Hardship'

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    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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