Public Policy

  • March 27, 2024

    Feds Says Waivers To Fee Hikes Should Sink Legal Orgs' Suit

    The Biden administration defended Trump-era increases to immigration court fees, telling a D.C. federal court that the availability of waivers should ease legal service providers' concerns that the higher fees would hinder their ability to help noncitizens fight deportation.

  • March 27, 2024

    FCC To Block Provider's Traffic Over Robocall Concerns

    The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday it will block call traffic from a voice service provider because the company failed to show that it was tracing the source of unwanted robocalls.

  • March 27, 2024

    Vietnamese Producer Faces Brunt Of Shrimp Subsidy Probe

    A Vietnamese shrimp farm may face a nearly 200% countervailing duty rate based on preliminary findings in the U.S. Department of Commerce's probe into whether shrimp imports from four countries are hurting the U.S. market through unfair government subsidies.

  • March 27, 2024

    Pittsburgh Aims To Ax $14M Of Nonprofits' Tax Waivers

    Officials with the city of Pittsburgh announced Wednesday that they will file challenges to tax exemptions for more than 100 properties within the city, claiming that they are no longer owned by nonprofits or serving a charitable function and should put up to $14 million back on local tax rolls.

  • March 27, 2024

    Disney, Florida District Reach Agreement On Land Use Suit

    The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District on Wednesday approved a settlement with Disney in its lawsuit over two land use agreements the company signed with a predecessor district for property surrounding the Walt Disney World theme park.

  • March 27, 2024

    NY County Seeks To Bar NYC Congestion Prices As Illegal Tax

    A New York county with limited access to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's service system jumped into the litigation fray against New York City's congestion pricing plan, arguing that the proposed charges for driving into portions of Manhattan are illegal taxes.

  • March 27, 2024

    Ex-Mich. AG Hopeful Can't Show Bias In Criminal Election Case

    A Michigan attorney who advanced baseless 2020 election conspiracy claims must face charges he tampered with voting machines, after a judge said Wednesday that the lawyer's previous failed suit against the state demanding an election audit did not make prosecutors biased.

  • March 27, 2024

    City Leaders Nix Plan To Move Wizards, Caps To Virginia Site

    Plans for the NBA's Washington Wizards and NHL's Washington Capitals to move from the nation's capital to a $2 billion sports and entertainment complex in northern Virginia came to an abrupt halt Wednesday afternoon, when the city of Alexandria, Virginia announced that its negotiations with Monumental Sports & Entertainment and owner Ted Leonsis "will not move forward.''

  • March 27, 2024

    Detroit Claims Feds' Headcount Skewed By Demolitions

    The federal government is underestimating Detroit's population as it penalizes the city for demolishing abandoned homes and ignores the rehabilitation of vacant homes, causing the city to lose out on federal funds tied to population, Detroit said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

  • March 27, 2024

    CoreLogic Sued For Violating NJ Judicial Protections Law

    A proposed class action removed to New Jersey federal court on Tuesday accuses property data company CoreLogic of failing to comply with a state law requiring it to delete records of certain public officials, including judges and law enforcement officials.

  • March 27, 2024

    House Subpoenas PBGC Over $127M Teamsters Overpayment

    A House committee subpoenaed the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. as part of its probe into a $127 million overpayment to Teamsters pensioners who had already died, distributed as part of a multibillion-dollar bailout of multiemployer funds Congress approved during the pandemic.

  • March 27, 2024

    NJ AG Says Teachers On Maternity Leave Faced Possible Bias

    The New Jersey attorney general's office said Wednesday that its Division on Civil Rights preliminarily concluded that a public school district may have violated discrimination laws by preventing women on parental leave from coaching extracurricular activities.

  • March 27, 2024

    Divided 5th Circ. Blocks Texas Migrant Arrest Law

    A divided Fifth Circuit blocked a Texas law that would have allowed the state to arrest and deport migrants suspected of having crossed the border unlawfully, ruling in a decision released just after midnight Wednesday that federal immigration authority likely trumps state powers.

  • March 26, 2024

    EPA Pressed On Cost, Strength Of Slaughterhouse Water Rule

    Meat and poultry industry groups and environmentalists are clashing over how strict the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's water quality regulations for slaughtering, processing and rendering facilities should be, while local regulators urged a focus on feasibility.

  • March 26, 2024

    Banks Bristle At CFPB's 'Preventive' Ban On Some NSF Fees

    Banking trade groups are lobbying the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to scrap a proposed rule that would ban fees on instantly declined transactions, arguing the measure is at best a solution in search of a problem and at worst a Trojan horse for expanding the agency's anti-abusiveness authority.

  • March 26, 2024

    Jackson Paints Abortion Clash As Microcosm Of Bigger Brawl

    A war of words Tuesday at the U.S. Supreme Court over access to abortion medication marked a climactic moment after a lengthy legal slugfest. But probing questions from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson illustrated that the main event for reproductive rights was also simply a single round in a much larger fight over the government's regulatory powers.

  • March 26, 2024

    Distillers Group Wants Injunction To Make Liquor At Home

    The Hobby Distillers Association renewed its call Tuesday for a Texas federal judge to give early permission for its members to distill spirits at home, telling the court that it has authority to declare the federal laws banning home distilling unconstitutional.

  • March 26, 2024

    8th Circ. Urged To Freeze SEC Climate Rules Once More

    An energy company suing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its recently finalized climate disclosure rules urged the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday to stay the implementation of the rules, after a stay granted by the Fifth Circuit was recently lifted following the consolidation of various related lawsuits.

  • March 26, 2024

    FCC Urged To Require Unlocked Phones In T-Mobile-Mint Deal

    A collection of public interest groups is asking the Federal Communications Commission to attach new strings to T-Mobile's proposed $1.3 billion purchase of prepaid phone sellers Mint Mobile and Ultra Mobile, including a requirement that the carrier more quickly "unlock" its phones so they can be transferred between service providers.

  • March 26, 2024

    9th Circ. Frees College From Off-Campus Rape Suit

    The Ninth Circuit says a Washington university does not need to face claims by a woman who was raped at an off-campus party during her freshman year, as it was expected to do following a state supreme court ruling in the school's favor. 

  • March 26, 2024

    Don't Give ISPs Penalty-Free Buildout 'Amnesty,' FCC Told

    Broadband providers that default on their agreements to use federal funds to deploy service in rural areas shouldn't get a penalty-free pass on those commitments, even though it's critical to still provide those communities with funding, a rural cooperative has said.

  • March 26, 2024

    USPTO Proposes New Trademark Fees For Next Year

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a proposal to add surcharges on trademark applications in cases where there isn't sufficient information, among other circumstances.

  • March 26, 2024

    WTO Calls On Australia To Amend Steel Duties On China

    A World Trade Organization panel on Tuesday ruled that Australia flouted certain measures of the intergovernmental organization's so-called Anti-Dumping Agreement when calculating duties on wind towers, stainless steel sinks and railway wheels from China.

  • March 26, 2024

    'Landmark' Trans Women Prison Housing Deal Gets Final OK

    A Colorado state judge on Tuesday approved a consent decree between the state and a class of transgender women who sued over dangerous housing conditions in state prisons and now hope the plan to accommodate their needs will spread to other states.

  • March 26, 2024

    Trailblazing SEC Commissioner Roberta Karmel Dies At 86

    Roberta Karmel, a well-regarded legal scholar who pushed back against early-career sexism to become the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's first female commissioner, died over the weekend at the age of 86, according to the law school where she taught for decades.

Expert Analysis

  • Uncertainty Surrounds Patent Eligibility Restoration Bill

    Author Photo

    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.

  • CSA Case Could Shift Intrastate Commercial Cannabis

    Author Photo

    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.

  • How AI May Be Used In Fintech Fraud — And Fraud Detection

    Author Photo

    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.

  • Antitrust Enforcers' Views On Info Exchanges Are Evolving

    Author Photo

    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.

  • Takeaways From Groundbreaking Data Transfer Order

    Author Photo

    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.

  • Takeaways From NLRB Advice On 'Outside' Employment

    Author Photo

    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.

  • FARA Enforcement May Soon Be In The Halls Of Higher Ed

    Author Photo

    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.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

    Author Photo

    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.

  • How FinCEN Proposal Expands RE Transaction Obligations

    Author Photo

    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.

  • How The FAA Is Embracing Simplified Flight Controls

    Author Photo

    The Federal Aviation Administration's openness to approving simplified flight controls as part of its forthcoming refresh of regulations governing light-sport aircraft and sport pilot certificates is valuable and welcome — and the same approach can be brought to general aviation aircraft, says Paul Alp at Adams and Reese.

  • Banks Should Continue To Prep For CFPB Data Rule Rollout

    Author Photo

    Consumer Financial Protection Bureau-supervised banks should not expect industry pressure to delay the rollout of proposed Section 1033 open banking rules, which regulate how consumer financial information flows between financial institutions, and prepare their required data access portals and compliance procedures now, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • FERC's Updated Settlement Policy Comes With Risks For Cos.

    Author Photo

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's newly streamlined enforcement settlement policy may increase investigation subjects' regulatory risk, so they should consider measures to protect themselves, such as periodically assessing compliance programs and mitigating any weaknesses, say attorneys at Willkie.

  • Tips For CCOs Submitting Annual Compliance Reports

    Author Photo

    Recent settlement actions by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, coupled with statements made by both CFTC and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission leadership, demonstrate why this year's chief compliance officer annual report filing is no ordinary exercise, and highlight the increasing importance of the report and its usage, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • Legal Considerations For Circular Economy Strategies

    Author Photo

    As circular economy goals — generating revenue at multiple points in a product's life cycle — become nearly ubiquitous in corporate sustainability practices, companies should reassess existing strategies by focusing on government incentives, regulations, and reporting and disclosure requirements, say Rachel Saltzman and Erin Grisby at Hunton.

  • Decline In Same-Industry M&A Tells A Nuanced Policy Story

    Author Photo

    In light of newly available Hart-Scott-Rodino Act data suggesting that intraindustry mergers are down overall and pharmaceutical and hospital intraindustry transactions tend to face greater antitrust scrutiny than in the past, attorneys at Morgan Lewis explore whether Biden administration enforcement policies may be curbing pro-competitive strategic M&A.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Public Policy archive.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!