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Public Policy
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June 05, 2024
3rd Circ. Debates Length Of Breaks In $7M Wage Case
A Third Circuit panel tried on Wednesday to pin down when the U.S. Department of Labor and an in-home care agency believed that employees were off-duty or just traveling between jobs, and whether the company's lack of travel-time records left it open to a $7 million judgment based on government estimates.
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June 05, 2024
FTC Can't Pause Novant's $320M Bid To Buy NC Hospitals
The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday lost its bid to block Novant Health from buying two local hospitals in North Carolina for $320 million while it conducts an in-house review, with a federal judge reasoning that competition would actually fare better if the merger advanced.
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June 05, 2024
Public Input On EEOC/NLRB Memo A Must, US Rep. Says
A coming joint memorandum from the nation's federal discrimination and labor law watchdogs addressing when workplace speech qualifies as unlawful harassment should be opened to public comment before being published, the Republican chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee said.
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June 05, 2024
NY Gov. Denies Cop-Shoving Judge New Term
A Buffalo judge censured for brawling with neighbors, shoving a police officer and bragging about his ties to power was denied a second term by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took the unusual step of rejecting the judge's request for reappointment.
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June 05, 2024
5th Circ. Private Funds Ruling Could Rewrite SEC Agenda
The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday vacated U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations that would have required private fund advisers to provide detailed disclosures to investors, in a sweeping decision that could upend the regulator's approach to promised rules on climate, artificial intelligence and crypto assets.
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June 04, 2024
Judiciary Panel Clears 1st MDL Rule, Eyes 'Mouthpiece' Amici
Top rulemaking gatekeepers for the federal judiciary Tuesday capped off seven years of strife in the defense and plaintiffs bars by backing a milestone measure aimed at optimizing multidistrict litigation, and then promptly greenlighted an entirely different war of words over new efforts to ferret out amicus briefs from "paid mouthpieces" masquerading as independent experts.
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June 04, 2024
Mitch McConnell Slams 7th Circ. Nom's 'Sheer Incompetence'
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tore into Seventh Circuit nominee U.S. District Judge Nancy L. Maldonado on the Senate floor Tuesday, criticizing her case backlog and saying that she has distinguished herself "with sheer incompetence."
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June 04, 2024
Trump Wants Gag Orders Terminated In Wake Of Guilty Verdict
Donald Trump asked a New York County judge to terminate gag orders restricting the former president from making out-of-court statements during his criminal trial, arguing that the "restrictions" on his First Amendment rights are no longer warranted now that the trial has come to an end.
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June 04, 2024
Monsanto Tries To Flip $1B PCB Losses As Plaintiffs Press On
Monsanto is moving to capitalize on a Washington state appellate victory it claims casts doubt on more than $1.1 billion in PCB poisoning verdicts, while plaintiffs are staking out positions to defend — and even build on — their blockbuster wins.
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June 04, 2024
GOP Spending Bill Aims To Cut SEC Budget, Nix Climate Rule
The Republican-led House Appropriations Committee released a spending bill Tuesday that threatens to cut funding for financial service agencies and prevent the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from funding its controversial climate disclosure rules and bar Consumer Financial Protection Bureau spending on a contentious rule, as well.
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June 04, 2024
House DHS Budget Bill Takes Aim At Biden Priorities
The House Appropriations Committee released a $64.8 billion funding bill for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for next fiscal year, with a bevy of priorities and policy riders aimed at countering or undoing Biden administration immigration priorities.
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June 04, 2024
CFPB Seeks Traffic Cop For Parallel Small-Biz Data Rule Suits
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday asked a Kentucky federal judge to stay an industry lawsuit challenging the agency's small-business lender reporting requirements, saying a largely identical challenge filed earlier in Texas should take precedence.
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June 04, 2024
Rep. Gaetz Backs FTC's Noncompete Ban In Court
Rep. Matt Gaetz threw his support behind the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday in a court battle over the agency's new rule banning employee noncompete clauses, arguing that Congress has repeatedly affirmed the commission's authority to make competition rules.
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June 04, 2024
9th Circ. Backs Agency Denial Of Partnership's Crop Policy
The Federal Crop Insurance Corp. reasonably interpreted a policy that was canceled by an insurer after a farming partnership filed a claim seeking the full $1.9 million limit, the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday, affirming a decision backing the FCIC's conclusion that the operation didn't qualify for coverage.
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June 04, 2024
FDA Advisers Rebuff Bid To Treat PTSD With MDMA
A panel of public health experts on Tuesday dealt a blow to a historic effort to regulate MDMA therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, saying although the positive effects shown in clinical trials are promising, the proposal was hindered by too many confounding factors.
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June 04, 2024
Recreational Marijuana To Be On SD Ballot For 3rd Time
Recreational marijuana advocates have successfully put a measure on South Dakota's November ballot, giving state voters a third shot at legalizing the drug just two years after they declined to do so.
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June 04, 2024
Shrimp Group Tries To Revive Commerce's Abandoned Duties
A shrimp producers' trade group advocated at the Federal Circuit on Tuesday for anti-dumping duty rates that the U.S. Department of Commerce has abandoned, after the agency recalculated and lowered the rates following an order from the U.S. Court of International Trade.
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June 04, 2024
Judge Skeptical School Mask Opponent Can Duck Sanctions
A Washington state appellate judge appeared doubtful Monday that $30,000 in sanctions for a man and his attorneys were unwarranted, after a trial court judge found his school board recall petitions were meant to bully board members into flouting a state COVID-19 mask mandate.
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June 04, 2024
Bill Would Give Tribes Stronger Say In Forest Protection
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has introduced legislation that would correct oversights and expand the language of the Tribal Forest Protection Act, arguing that the law has proved too restrictive for Indigenous communities and prevented Alaskan Native corporations from participating in its programs entirely.
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June 04, 2024
Airbus' Satcom Unit Fined $44K For Anti-Boycott Violations
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced a penalty of $44,750 against Airbus DS Government Solutions Inc. on Tuesday after the company self-reported three violations of federal regulations prohibiting U.S. companies from supporting boycotts against Israel.
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June 04, 2024
Justices Raise Doubt Hospital System Must Face Wage Claims
The California Supreme Court appeared open Tuesday to undoing a finding that a hospital system is not a public entity and must face workers' meal- and rest-break claims, with one justice noting that state law repeatedly calls the system a public entity and saying, "So what do we make of that?"
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June 04, 2024
'Ghost Gun' Makers Ask 2nd Circ. To Weigh In On NY AG Case
A group of companies being sued by the New York attorney general over their distribution of so-called ghost gun kits is asking the Second Circuit to weigh in on the case and decide whether the parts kits can be considered "firearms" and if they are entitled to immunity under federal firearms law.
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June 04, 2024
Chief Justice's Leadership Is Falling Short, Schumer Says
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday criticized U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for what he sees as lackluster efforts to address ethical impropriety among high court members.
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June 04, 2024
Ga. County Wants 11th Circ. To Rethink Trans Care Ban Ruling
A Georgia county that lost a legal challenge to a provision of its health plan that bars coverage for gender-affirming surgery has asked the full Eleventh Circuit to revisit the decision, arguing that an opinion last month wrongly found the policy discriminates against transgender people, rather than being isolated to a single procedure.
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June 04, 2024
2nd Circ. Says ERISA Blocks Cigna Bill Backpedaling Suit
The Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a podiatric medicine provider's suit alleging Cigna illegally backtracked on covering a patient's $200,000 bill, ruling that a lower court was right to find that federal benefits law blocks the healthcare provider's breach of contract claims.
Expert Analysis
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Mitigating Incarceration's Impacts On Foreign Nationals
Sentencing arguments that highlighted the disparate impact incarceration would have on a British national recently sentenced for insider training by a New York district court, when compared to similarly situated U.S. citizens, provide an example of the advocacy needed to avoid or mitigate problems unique to noncitizen defendants, say attorneys at Lankler Siffert.
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How HHS Discrimination Rule Affects Gender-Affirming Care
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new final rule, which reinterprets the Affordable Care Act's anti-discrimination provision, greatly clarifies protections for gender-affirming care and will require compliance considerations from sponsors and administrators of most group health plans, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Geothermal Energy Has Growing Potential In The US
Bipartisan support for the geothermal industry shows that geothermal energy can be an elegant solution toward global decarbonization efforts because of its small footprint, low supply chain risk, and potential to draw on the skills of existing highly specialized oil and gas workers and renewable specialists, say attorneys at Weil.
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Tiny Tweaks To Bank Merger Forms May Have Big Impact
The impact of proposed changes to the Federal Reserve Board's and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s bank merger review forms would be significant, resulting in hundreds of additional burden hours for bank merger applicants and signaling a further shift by the prudential bank regulators toward more rigorous scrutiny of mergers, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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Legal Issues To Watch As Deepfake Voices Proliferate
With increasingly sophisticated and accessible voice-cloning technology raising social, ethical and legal questions, particularly in the entertainment industry and politics, further legislative intervention and court proceedings seem very likely, say Shruti Chopra and Paul Joseph at Linklaters.
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How CFPB Credit Card Rules Slot Into Broader Considerations
Swirling legal challenges against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent rulemaking concerning credit card late fees raise questions about how regulated entities should respond to the bureau's rules — and how quickly they should act, say Caitlin Mandel and Elizabeth Ireland at Winston & Strawn.
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4 Takeaways From Biden's Crypto Mining Divestment Order
A May 13 executive order prohibiting the acquisition of real estate by a foreign investor on national security grounds — an enforcement first — shows the importance of understanding how the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States might profile cross-border transactions, even those that are non-notified, say attorneys at Kirkland.
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Perspectives
Public Interest Attorneys Are Key To Preserving Voting Rights
Fourteen states passed laws restricting or limiting voting access last year, highlighting the need to support public interest lawyers who serve as bulwarks against such antidemocratic actions — especially in an election year, says Verna Williams at Equal Justice Works.
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Car Apps, Abuse Survivor Safety And The FCC: Key Questions
A recent request for comment from the Federal Communications Commission, concerning how to protect the privacy of domestic violence survivors who use connected car services, raises key questions, including whether the FCC has the legal authority to limit access to a vehicle's connected features to survivors only, say attorneys at Davis Wright.
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Novel Applications May Fizzle After Fed Master Account Wins
Two recent federal court rulings that upheld decisions denying master account applications from two fintech-focused banks are noteworthy for depository institutions with novel charters that wish to have direct access to the Federal Reserve's payment channels and settle transactions in central bank money, say attorneys at Davis Polk.
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Exploring An Alternative Model Of Litigation Finance
A new model of litigation finance, most aptly described as insurance-backed litigation funding, differs from traditional funding in two key ways, and the process of securing it involves three primary steps, say Bob Koneck, Christopher Le Neve Foster and Richard Butters at Atlantic Global Risk LLC.
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Salvaging The Investor-State Arbitration System's Legitimacy
Recent developments in Europe and Ecuador highlight the vulnerability of the investor-state arbitration framework, but arbitrators can avert a crisis by relying on a poorly understood doctrine of fairness and equity, rather than law, to resolve the disputes before them, says Phillip Euell at Diaz Reus.
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NY's Vision For Grid Of The Future: Flexible, Open, Affordable
Acknowledging that New York state's progress toward its climate goals is stalling, the New York Public Service Commission's recent "Grid of the Future" order signals a move toward more flexible, cost-effective solutions — and suggests potential opportunities for nonutility participation, say Daniel Spitzer and William McLaughlin at Hodgson Russ.
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FTC Noncompete Rule's Impact On Healthcare Nonprofits
Healthcare entities that are nonprofit or tax-exempt and thus outside of the pending Federal Trade Commission noncompete rule's reach should evaluate a number of potential risk factors and impacts, starting by assessing their own status, say Ben Shook and Tania Archer at Moore & Van Allen.
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Businesses Should Take Their AI Contracts Off Auto-Renew
When subscribing to artificial intelligence tools — or to any technology in a highly competitive and legally thorny market — companies should push back on automatic renewal contract clauses for reasons including litigation and regulatory risk, and competition, says Chris Wlach at Huge Inc.