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Public Policy
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February 03, 2025
Google Fights Uphill To Scrap Antitrust Verdict At 9th Circ.
A Ninth Circuit panel appeared skeptical on Monday of Google's bid to throw out Epic Games' antitrust trial win and injunction requiring Google to open its Play Store to rivals following Epic Games' partial antitrust loss against Apple, with each judge doubting that the Apple ruling is necessarily preclusive.
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February 03, 2025
Maryland Kids' Privacy Law Latest To Face Legal Challenge
Tech industry group NetChoice on Monday added to its growing list of lawsuits contesting the constitutionality of kids' online safety laws around the country, filing an action against a recently enacted Maryland law that it claims would force online platforms to act as "a digital speech police."
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February 03, 2025
DOJ Creates Multiagency Task Force Targeting Antisemitism
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that it is putting together a multi-agency task force to investigate and prosecute antisemitic crimes, including harassment in schools and on college grounds, in response an executive order issued last week by President Donald Trump.
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February 03, 2025
Texas' Bid To Launch Stock Exchange Moves Forward
As the owner of the new Texas Stock Exchange LLC gears up to begin trading by next year, capital markets attorneys are closely watching how the company plans to penetrate a market long dominated by two New York-based juggernauts.
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February 03, 2025
Ruling Boosts Claims In Ill. Tribal Casino Row, 7th Circ. Told
A proposed tribal casino in the Illinois city of Waukegan has told the Seventh Circuit that a recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling in a related case shows the city is responsible for a constitutional injury against the casino as it presses a case claiming intentional discrimination.
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February 03, 2025
Canada, Mexico Would Likely Get 'Symbolic' Wins On Tariffs
Canada and Mexico inked deals with the Trump administration on Monday to win a 30-day reprieve on a blanket 25% tariff slated to be imposed on nearly all of their U.S.-bound exports. But if the tariffs are eventually enacted and the United States' North American neighbors seek out relief from international tribunals, experts say Washington would probably lose — but that result probably wouldn't change much.
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February 03, 2025
4th Circ. Won't Block SC Mixed-Use Housing Project
The Fourth Circuit refused to temporarily block the development of a nearly 4,000-acre mixed-use Charleston, South Carolina, development project, ruling that the conservationists challenging the project failed to show that the federal government violated federal law after issuing a Clean Water Act permit for the project.
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February 03, 2025
DOJ's LA Fitness ADA Suit May Be 'Inadequate,' Judge Says
A California federal judge expressed doubts Monday about the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit alleging that LA Fitness failed to accommodate patrons with disabilities and said the court so far finds the pleadings to be "inadequate" in arguing there is a "pattern and practice" of discrimination.
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February 03, 2025
DOJ Poised To Prosecute Threat-Makers Against DOGE
A federal prosecutor appointed by President Donald Trump offered Elon Musk his office's support to "protect" the work of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency headed by the billionaire businessman, including "legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people."
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February 03, 2025
11th Circ. Weighs Future Of SEC's Market Surveillance Tool
The Eleventh Circuit on Monday questioned whether brokerage firms were being unfairly burdened with the cost of building up a U.S. Securities and Exchange surveillance tool known as the consolidated audit trail while appearing unmoved by arguments that the surveillance tool should never have been built.
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February 03, 2025
Texas Can Help Feds With Noncitizen Arrests, Judge Says
A Texas federal judge has modified an injunction blocking a controversial Texas immigration law to clarify that law enforcement in the Lone Star State can help federal agencies with initiatives to arrest and detain unauthorized immigrants.
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February 03, 2025
CFPB Small Biz Rules Outstrip Authority, 5th Circ. Hears
The Texas Bankers Association asked a Fifth Circuit panel on Monday to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new small business minority data rule during oral arguments, while the panel questioned what to do with the case given the agency's leadership change.
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February 03, 2025
11th Circ. Bias Fight Could Set Bar For Trans Benefits Suits
The full Eleventh Circuit will hear arguments Tuesday from a Georgia county looking to overturn a trial court's ruling that found its health plan's denial of gender-affirming surgery violated federal anti-discrimination law, in a case that could help clarify how a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision impacts employee benefits.
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February 03, 2025
Clinic Says Abortion 'Reversal' Ban Targets Religious Groups
A Catholic health clinic challenging a Colorado law that bans the use of medication to "reverse" the abortion pill has told a federal judge that the lack of state regulation of other off-label use of hormones, like for gender-affirming care, shows the law unconstitutionally targets its religious exercise.
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February 03, 2025
Red States Back Trump On Birthright Citizenship Limits
Iowa and 17 other Republican-led states backed the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday in urging federal judges on both coasts to allow enforcement of President Donald Trump's order limiting birthright citizenship, contending the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause has been misconstrued to spur "illegal immigration."
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February 03, 2025
Conn. City Wants Cannabis Facility Zoning Challenge Axed
The city of Stamford, Connecticut, on Monday asked a state trial court judge to dismiss a citizen lawsuit challenging its zoning board's approval of a cannabis dispensary on the city's eastern municipal line, arguing the group and its members lack standing to sue for four reasons.
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February 03, 2025
Michigan Senate Hits House With A Lawsuit Over Stalled Bills
Michigan's Democrat-led Senate filed a new lawsuit Monday against the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, alleging it illegally blocked nine bills passed by both chambers from the previous legislative session from being presented to the governor for signing.
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February 03, 2025
QBE Insurance, Walmart Cite Pending Opioid Appeal In Ark.
Walmart Corp. and a fleet of insurers notified Delaware's Supreme Court Monday that they are awaiting an Arkansas Court of Appeals hearing on challenges to a lower court's finding that Walmart is entitled to excess coverage for state and local government insurance suits arising from the opioid epidemic.
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February 03, 2025
Schumer Warns Of 'Hostile Takeover' From DOGE
Top Senate Democrats on Monday railed against access granted to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency that allowed the outfit's employees to tap into the U.S. Department of Treasury's federal payment system over the weekend.
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February 03, 2025
NC Justices Urged To Reject Appeal Over Rate Hike Approvals
North Carolina's insurance commissioner urged the state's highest court to reject a policyholder's appeal challenging a series of insurer rate hike approvals in court, saying an appeals panel correctly found that the policyholder failed to support his claims that intervening in the preceding approval process was impossible.
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February 03, 2025
Pro-Palestine Protesters Say UMich Bans Trample Rights
The University of Michigan violated pro-Palestine protesters' rights when it banned them from setting foot on the university's campus, according to a new complaint filed Monday in Michigan federal court.
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February 03, 2025
SEC's Former Acting Enforcement Director Joins Weil In NY
A former acting enforcement director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission who led some of the agency's biggest cases over the past two decades has joined Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP as a partner in the firm's New York office.
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February 03, 2025
OpenAI, Microsoft Aim To Ax Musk's For-Profit Change Suit
OpenAI and Microsoft have urged a California federal court in separate motions to dismiss Elon Musk's antitrust and breach of contract lawsuit claiming OpenAI lied by telling investors it would always be a nonprofit artificial intelligence research organization, calling the allegations "conclusory" and lacking factual backing.
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February 03, 2025
Attys Hope Ballot Case Clarifies Pennsylvania Constitution Clause
A Pennsylvania Supreme Court case questioning the constitutionality of a rule requiring undated or misdated mail-in ballots to be discarded is likely the last, and best, chance to settle one of the few open issues over voting in Pennsylvania, experts told Law360.
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February 03, 2025
DOJ Seeks Toss Of Atty's FOIA Suit Over DEA Comms
The federal government has renewed its bid to dismiss a Texas attorney's lawsuit seeking the production of communications between Drug Enforcement Administration personnel and anti-legalization activists regarding a proposal to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana.
Expert Analysis
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Despite Political Divide, FEC Found Common Ground In '24
The Federal Election Commission, although evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, reached consensus in consequential advisory opinions, enforcement actions and regulations last year, offering welcome clarity on some key questions facing campaigns, PACs and parties, say attorneys at Covington.
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How FTC Sent A $5.6M Warning Against Jumping The Gun
The Federal Trade Commission's recent record $5.6 million "gun jumping" action against Verdun Oil, for allegedly exerting control over EP Energy before the mandatory waiting period under U.S. antitrust law expired, warns companies that they must continue to operate independently during review, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.
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How Deregulation Could Undermine Trump's Anti-DEI Agenda
While rolling back federal agency power benefited conservative policies during the Biden administration, it will likely undermine President Donald Trump's ability to wield agencies like the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives beyond the federal workforce and into the private sector, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.
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Managing Litigation Side-Switching During 2nd Trump Admin
Now that the new presidential administration is in place, the government will likely switch positions in a number of pending cases, and stakeholders should employ strategies to protect their interests, say attorneys at Covington.
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A Look At Sweepstakes Casinos' Legal Issues In Fla., Beyond
Scheduled for trial in Florida federal court this fall, the VGW sweepstakes case underscores the growing urgency for gambling states to clarify and enforce their laws in response to emerging online gaming models, as the expansion of sweepstakes casinos challenges traditional interpretations of gambling regulations, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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3 Noteworthy Effects Of The 2025 NDAA
The 2025 defense budget includes further restrictions on semiconductor sales to Huawei, requiring companies to rethink customer-base oversight, but other provisions are likely to broaden procurement contract opportunities, say attorneys at Miles & Stockbridge.
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The Blueprint For A National Bitcoin Reserve
The new administration has the opportunity to pave the way for a U.S.-backed crypto reserve, which could conceptually function as a strategic asset akin to traditional reserves like gold markets, hedge against economic instability, and influence global crypto adoption, say attorneys at Duane Morris.
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Student Loan Entities In Hot Seat After CFPB Goes To College
While the direction of student loan servicer oversight in the new presidential administration is unclear, recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau actions still signal heightened regulatory scrutiny at both the federal and state levels of college institutional loan programs, along with their service providers, says attorney Jonathan Joshua.
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Rethinking Litigation Risk And What It Really Means To Win
Attorneys have a tendency to overestimate litigation risk before summary judgment and underestimate risk after it, but an eight-stage litigation framework can clarify risk at different points and help litigators reassess what true success looks like in any particular case, says Joshua Libling at Arcadia Finance.
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Nixing NRC Oversight Of Small Reactors Could Cut Both Ways
A lawsuit in a Texas federal court aims to abolish the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's authority over small modular reactors, which the plaintiffs contend will unleash new and innovative technology — but the resulting patchwork of state regulations could increase costs for the nuclear industry, say attorneys at King & Spalding.
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Anticipating How GAO Pleading Standards May Shift
The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act's mandate to create an enhanced pleading standard at the U.S. Government Accountability Office may change the calculus for where to file when challenging a U.S. Department of Defense procurement, say attorneys at Rogers Joseph.
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Issues To Watch In 2025's ERISA Litigation Landscape
Whether 2024’s uptick in new Employee Retirement Income Security Act cases will continue this year will likely depend on federal courts’ resolution of several issues, including those related to excessive fees, defined contribution plan forfeitures, and pleading standards for ERISA-prohibited transaction claims, say attorneys at Groom Law.
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Roundup
Banking Brief: State Law Recaps From Each Quarter Of 2024
In this Expert Analysis series, throughout 2024 attorneys provided quarterly recaps discussing the biggest developments in banking regulation, litigation and policymaking in various states, including New York, California and Illinois.
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How DOGE's Bite Can Live Up To Its Bark
All signs suggest that the Department of Government Efficiency will be an important part of the new Trump administration, with ample tools at its disposal to effectuate change, particularly with an attentive Republican-controlled Congress, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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2024 Was A Significant Year For HIPAA Compliance
The Office of Civil Rights' high level of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act activity in 2024 and press releases about its specific focus on certain cybersecurity issues make it abundantly clear that the OCR is not going to tolerate widespread compliance complacency, says Nathan Kottkamp at Williams Mullen.