Public Policy

  • May 14, 2024

    9th Circ. Denies Tribes, Enviro Groups' Power Line Stay Bid

    The Ninth Circuit has denied an emergency request by two Native American tribes and a couple of conservation groups to stay an Arizona federal judge's order that allows work to continue on a $10 billion power line.

  • May 14, 2024

    TV Execs Say Draft FCC Foreign Airtime Lease Regs 'Mutated'

    Television station executives are asking the Federal Communications Commission not to include political advertisements in a proposed rule that would require disclosure of foreign-sponsored airtime leases, arguing that doing so would be a "distortion" of the industry's previous request for clarification from the commission on previous identification rules.

  • May 14, 2024

    5th Circ. Expresses Doubt On Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules

    Lawyers for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Nasdaq Stock Market LLC faced a barrage of questions from the full Fifth Circuit on Tuesday, with judges wondering whether rules requiring corporations to disclose board diversity information would open the door to investor questions on religious practices, political beliefs or Taylor Swift fandom.

  • May 14, 2024

    RFK Jr. Fights Uphill To Get Vax Censorship Block At 9th Circ.

    A Ninth Circuit panel appeared skeptical Tuesday of granting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. an injunction in his case alleging Google violated his First Amendment rights by removing certain YouTube videos doubting the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, with two judges saying his arguments lack evidence.

  • May 14, 2024

    NC State Fights Cancer Patient's Presuit Building Access

    North Carolina State University is pressing the state appeals court to find it is insulated from an "unusual" order allowing a former graduate student worker diagnosed with cancer to inspect a campus building that tested high for levels of carcinogens.

  • May 14, 2024

    Hospitals Liable For Failing To Admit Killer, Pa. Justices Told

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court was reminded Tuesday, during oral arguments over whether someone can be officially treated at a hospital without filling out an application, that the case before them concerned a man who killed his girlfriend after he was turned away despite claiming homicidal and suicidal impulses.

  • May 14, 2024

    Mich. Biz Attys Back State's Securities Fraud Enforcement Bid

    Members of Michigan's state bar association have urged the state's highest court to adopt a U.S. Supreme Court test for determining whether promissory notes are securities, in support of an effort by the state securities regulator to bring an enforcement action against a condominium developer accused of failing to pay back investors. 

  • May 14, 2024

    Ship Had Blackouts Day Before Baltimore Bridge Crash, NTSB Says

    A container carrier that slammed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and caused its collapse in March experienced two electrical outages during maintenance the day before it even left port, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report Tuesday.

  • May 14, 2024

    Calif. City Sues Dow, Shell Over TCP-Tainted Water

    Dow Chemical and Shell USA are facing a negligence suit in California federal court by the city of Pomona, alleging the companies are responsible for manufacturing commercial products containing the toxic 1,2,3-trichloropropane that has migrated into the city's water supply and seeking to recoup costs over response efforts.

  • May 14, 2024

    RealPage, Landlords Look To Trim Ariz. Price-Fixing Case

    Rental algorithm company RealPage and several landlords have urged an Arizona state court to trim fraud claims from the attorney general's case accusing them of using software to illegally raise rents for hundreds of thousands of renters, and they also asked to limit the time frame for enforcers' antitrust claims.

  • May 14, 2024

    5th Circ. Judge Says 'Race Science' Not For Courts To Decide

    A Fifth Circuit judge wondered Tuesday whether Galveston County was asking the courts to engage in "race science" as the en banc court weighs whether multiracial or multiethnic voters facing redistricting are protected under the Voting Rights Act.

  • May 14, 2024

    Trump Attys Trying To Delay Paying Sanctions, Mich. Says

    Michigan officials and the city of Detroit say former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and other attorneys should be penalized with another round of sanctions for apparently attempting to put off paying a hefty sanctions award imposed in a lawsuit challenging the state's 2020 presidential election results.

  • May 14, 2024

    Telecoms Settle FCC Probe Into Undersea Cables For $2M

    Two telecoms will pay $1 million each to resolve a Federal Communications Commission probe into an undersea cable system that connected the U.S. with Colombia and Costa Rica without FCC approval.

  • May 14, 2024

    Colo. Org Lacks Standing In Access Law Row, Judge Says

    The Colorado Livestock Association doesn't have standing to challenge a state law that requires agricultural employers to give workers access to service providers, a state judge ruled, finding individual members of the group must take part in the proceeding.

  • May 14, 2024

    Wash. Biz Groups Say EPA Water Regs Impossible To Follow

    Washington state industry groups are urging a D.C. federal judge to strike down the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's water quality standards for the state, claiming the federal agency based its calculations on historic tribal fish consumption rates and landed on pollution limits "so stringent that compliance cannot even be measured, much less achieved."

  • May 14, 2024

    Chamber Cautions FCC Against Making Anti-Arbitration Rules

    Business leaders told the Federal Communications Commission that it cannot bar wireless providers from requiring arbitration clauses with customers to resolve disputes arising from cellphone SIM card and port-out fraud.

  • May 14, 2024

    Texas Think Tank Tells 5th Circ. It's Owed Climate Pledge Info

    The Texas Public Policy Foundation told the Fifth Circuit that it should be allowed access to the names of federal officials involved in creating the Biden administration's climate pledge, arguing the federal government cannot rely on a disclosure exemption designed to protect personal privacy to withhold such information.

  • May 14, 2024

    Cos. Ask NY Court To Invalidate 100s Of Pot Licenses

    New York state's beleaguered cannabis oversight agency has been hit with another lawsuit, this one seeking to invalidate hundreds of retail licenses that regulators issued to those most directly affected by the enforcement of marijuana prohibition laws.

  • May 14, 2024

    Trial Averted In Boston Health Agency Harassment Case

    A former Boston health department employee on Tuesday reported that she had settled her claims against the city and a former boss who she says sexually harassed her, scuttling a trial that would have featured several high-profile witnesses, including a federal judge.

  • May 14, 2024

    Insurer Says Miami Retaliation Scheme Not Covered

    An insurer for the City of Miami is seeking reimbursement of $5 million for expenses incurred in defending the city and one of its commissioners against underlying lawsuits alleging political retaliation, telling a Florida federal court that the allegations fall outside the scope of its policies.

  • May 14, 2024

    FTC Cleared To Sue Texas Anesthesia Co., But Not PE Firm

    A Texas federal judge highlighted the limits of the Federal Trade Commission's ability to go after private equity firms accused of anti-competitive "roll-up" strategies, tossing antitrust claims against a private equity firm while preserving monopolization allegations against the anesthesia group the firm created.

  • May 14, 2024

    NIST Finalizes Revised Security Guidelines For Sensitive Info

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology on Tuesday released a final version of revised guidelines for contractors and other entities who handle sensitive unclassified federal information, intended to clarify and streamline those requirements.

  • May 14, 2024

    States Accuse EEOC Of 'Smuggling' Abortion Into PWFA Rule

    Louisiana and Mississippi have sued the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission seeking to invalidate regulations implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, claiming the agency's stance that employers must provide workers accommodations if they get an abortion flouts U.S. Supreme Court precedent and the PWFA itself.

  • May 14, 2024

    'Come On, Counsel!': 11th Circ. Scoffs At Ga. District's Appeal

    The Eleventh Circuit appeared dubious Tuesday that an Atlanta-area school district had standing to appeal a district court's order demanding the Georgia Legislature redraw a map found to be racially gerrymandered, with at least one judge casting aspersions on the school district's motives for pressing the appeal.

  • May 14, 2024

    A Fifth Of Big Cos. Use Tax Transparency Standard, Org. Says

    About a fifth of the largest 1,000 public companies worldwide have voluntarily used a public country-by-country reporting standard created by an international independent standards organization, the nonprofit said Tuesday.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • A Look At Subchapter V As Debt Limit Expiration Looms

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    If proposed legislation to extend Subchapter V’s debt eligibility ceiling sunset date in June is passed, bankruptcy professionals can seek ways to work with their local jurisdictions to advocate for code changes and guidance that bring more efficiencies and clarity to the process, say Matthew Brash at Newpoint Advisors and Melinda Bennett at Stretto.

  • Opinion

    SEC Should Be Allowed To Equip Investors With Climate Info

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rule to require more climate-related disclosures will provide investors with much-needed clarity, despite opponents' attempts to challenge the rule with misused legal arguments, say Sarah Goetz at Democracy Forward and Cynthia Hanawalt at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change.

  • 8 Fla. Statutes That Construction Cos. Should Prepare For

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    In this article, Jason Lambert at Hill Ward discusses a number of recent bills out of the Florida Legislature targeting construction companies in the Sunshine State that have been sent to the governor for signature, at least some of which will have broad impacts that affected companies should prepare for ahead of the July 1 effective date.

  • Game-Changing Decisions Call For New Rules At The NCAA

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    From a newly formed college players union to coaches transferring at the drop of a hat, the National College Athletic Association needs an overhaul, including federal supervision, says Frank Darras at DarrasLaw.

  • End Of Acquitted Conduct Sentencing Can Spark More Reform

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    The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recent end to factoring acquitted conduct into federal sentences could signal the start of a more constitutionally sound advisory scheme, but Congress and the Supreme Court must first authorize the commission to resolve two constitutional errors baked into its guidelines, say Mark Allenbaugh at SentencingStats.com and Alan Ellis at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.

  • Manufacturers Should Pay Attention To 'Right-To-Repair' Laws

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    Oregon’s recently passed "right-to-repair" statute highlights that the R2R movement is not going away, and that manufacturers of all kinds need to be paying attention to the evolving list of R2R statutes in various states and consider participating in the process, says Courtney Sarnow at Culhane.

  • Opinion

    Viral Deepfakes Of Taylor Swift Highlight Need For Regulation

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    As the nation grapples with addressing risk from artificial intelligence use, the recent circulation of AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift on the social platform X highlights the need for federal legislation to protect nonconsenting subjects of deepfake pornography, say Nicole Brenner and Susie Ruiz-Lichter at Squire Patton.

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