9th Circ. Won't Force New Factory Farm Water Regs On EPA

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday tossed green groups' lawsuit seeking to revive their petition for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to create new, stronger Clean Water Act regulations for large animal feeding facilities.

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Trump 'Resorted To Crimes' To Cling To Power, Feds Say

By Ali Sullivan

Donald Trump's alleged scheme to subvert the 2020 election results was "fundamentally a private one," special counsel Jack Smith told a D.C. federal judge in a newly unsealed brief that vies to prove that the former president is not immune from charges of election interference.

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DC Circ. Says Election Betting Contracts Can Go Live

By Aislinn Keely

The D.C. Circuit on Wednesday allowed betting on election outcomes to move forward after finding that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission hasn't shown that KalshiEx's listing of election-based event contracts would likely harm the public while the regulator challenges a ruling that gave the trading platform the green light to offer such services.

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EPA Settles Suit Over Washington Aquatic Cyanide Rules

By Ali Sullivan

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to evaluate Washington state's water quality standards for cyanide pollution, resolving a lawsuit that accused the agency of maintaining lax standards that threaten wildlife.

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2nd Circ. Prods NY Appeals Court To Weigh Foreclosure Law

By Nate Beck

The Second Circuit has urged a state appeals court to provide input on a ruling retroactively canceling U.S. Bank's attempt to foreclose on a Queens condo in 2016 by applying a six-year statute of limitations in the state's 2022 Foreclosure Abuse Prevention Act.

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Justice Roberts Names Judicial Conference Committee Chairs

By Ryan Boysen

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has reshuffled the leadership of the U.S. Judicial Conference, naming five new committee chairs and extending the terms of five current chairs by one year.

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Maine's First Female Federal Judge To Take Semiretired Status

By Courtney Bublé

U.S District Judge Nancy Torresen, the first woman to hold a federal judgeship in Maine, will take semiretired status next year.

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Progressive Group Staffs Up For Judicial Nominee Fights

By Courtney Bublé

With a little over a month until Election Day, a progressive organization announced a slate of new hires to prepare for judicial confirmation battles and fight for court reform on Wednesday.

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Calif. AI Election Law Blocked As 'Blunt Tool' Stifling Speech

By Lauren Berg

A California federal judge Wednesday blocked a recently enacted state law cracking down on election-related deepfakes, acknowledging the risks posed by artificial intelligence, but agreeing with a conservative content creator that the law is an overly broad "blunt tool that hinders humorous expression and unconstitutionally stifles" the free exchange of ideas.

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CFPB's $5M Student Loan Deal Gets OK Over PIMCO Objections

By Jon Hill

A Pennsylvania federal judge has finalized a proposed $5 million settlement of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau case that alleged pandemic-era servicing failures involving securitized student loans, overruling objections that money manager PIMCO raised on behalf of loan investors.

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SEC's Top Cop Departing After Record-Breaking Tenure

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Wednesday that enforcement director Gurbir Grewal will be leaving the agency next week following a three-year tenure, during which the agency brought in record penalties and frequently clashed with crypto industry participants objecting to a string of lawsuits brought under Grewal's leadership.

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Coinbase Seeks CFTC Docs To Defend SEC Enforcement Case

By Aislinn Keely

Coinbase has asked a Washington, D.C., federal court to direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to produce communications the regulator may have had with certain digital asset issuers as the cryptocurrency exchange prepares to defend registration claims from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in New York.

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Justices Asked To Short-Circuit Mass. Offshore Wind Project

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Massachusetts residents are telling the U.S. Supreme Court it's the last hope for endangered North Atlantic right whales that were overlooked when the federal government approved a large offshore wind energy project in the waters off of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

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DC Circ. Urged To Scrap EPA Mercury Rule For Coal Plants

By Tom Lotshaw

States and industry groups fighting a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule curbing mercury and other toxic metal emissions at some coal-fired power plants told the D.C. Circuit it would impose exorbitant and unjustifiable costs for no public health benefit, and is actually aimed at forcing plants to retire to advance climate goals.

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Enviro Groups Seek To Defend EPA's Veto Of Pebble Mine

By Madeline Lyskawa

A slew of environmental groups have called on an Alaska federal judge to let them defend the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision to block a plan to build the controversial Pebble Mine, saying they want to protect the Bristol Bay headwaters from the mine's "devastating and unavoidable adverse impacts."

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Brief

Georgia Moves To Block, Appeal Ruling Against Abortion Ban

By Chart Riggall

The Georgia attorney general's office, as promised earlier this week, moved swiftly Tuesday to halt and appeal a Fulton County judge's decision that struck down for the second time the state's so-called heartbeat abortion ban, which prohibits most abortions after six weeks.

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NC Judge Ends NIL Ban For State's Public School Athletes

By David Steele

North Carolina public school athletes can now be compensated for their name, image and likeness, thanks to a preliminary injunction granted by a state judge that overturned a ban by the state board of education.

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Watchdog Appeals After Court Grants X Access To Donor Lists

By Spencer Brewer

The nonprofit group Media Matters for America appealed to the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday after a Texas federal judge ordered it to turn over its donor lists to social media platform X Corp., saying that it still had a First Amendment privilege to keep the names of its donors private.

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14 States, DC Urge 11th Circ. To Uphold Train Crew Size Rule

By Madeline Lyskawa

A coalition of 14 states and the District of Columbia urged the Eleventh Circuit to reject the railroad industry's attempt to vacate the U.S. Department of Transportation's final rule requiring all trains to be operated with at least two people, saying doing so would make rail operations less safe nationally.

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Colony Ridge Seeks Quick Appeal In 'Reverse Redlining' Suit

By Katryna Perera

A Texas real estate developer that recently lost a bid to exit a lending discrimination suit brought by the U.S. government and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has moved to begin a Fifth Circuit appeal, arguing the "novelty" of the case's reverse redlining theory warrants immediate appellate review.

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Penn State Must Pay Trustee's Atty Fees During Internal Probe

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Penn State University must pay one of its trustees' legal fees stemming from an internal investigation, a Pennsylvania county judge has ruled, rejecting the school's argument that it was not obligated to advance him the expenses before the probe concluded.

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MSU Halted Paying Legal Bills After Critical Report, Firm Says

By Danielle Ferguson

Michigan State University stopped paying outside counsel to defend its board of trustees chair after an investigative report appeared to support claims the chair bullied colleagues, the counsel said, filing a state complaint seeking two months' worth of fees.

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Kroger Partner Denies At Trial It Will Flip Acquired Stores

By Thy Vo and Greg Lamm

The grocery wholesaler set to take on hundreds of stores if Kroger's $25 billion merger with Albertsons goes through defended its ability to meet the challenge Wednesday, with its CEO and a potential executive testifying in parallel proceedings in Colorado and Washington state.

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DOJ Says Info Sharing Alone Can Violate Law In Pork Case

By Matthew Perlman

The U.S. Department of Justice told the court overseeing a case accusing major pork producers of colluding to raise prices the exchange of competitively sensitive information, even in aggregated form, can violate the antitrust laws.

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Colo. Judge Sees No Injuries In Health Data Breach Class Suit

By Daniel Ducassi

A Colorado federal judge has dismissed a proposed class action alleging a software company waited nearly three months to tell data breach victims about hackers accessing personal and medical information for more than 250,000 people, concluding the plaintiffs' allegations weren't enough to give them standing.

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NC's Med Mal Damages Cap Is Constitutional, Panel Told

By Hayley Fowler

North Carolina's cap on compensatory damages in medical negligence suits does not impede a citizen's right to a jury trial and is in line with the state's constitution, according to an attorney appointed to defend the law against a woman seeking to collect her full $7.5 million jury verdict stemming from the loss of her unborn baby.

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Pa. County Accused Of Failing To Thwart Alleged Harasser

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Delaware County, Pennsylvania, has been hit with a lawsuit claiming its officials ignored its emergency services director's sexual harassment of a female employee, in keeping with the county's alleged history of failing to protect women from the director's inappropriate behavior.

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Brief

3rd Firearms Co. Settles Conn. AG's 'Ghost Gun' Suit

By Ryan Harroff

Another firearm firm has settled with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong to resolve his claims it was selling "ghost gun" components unlawfully in a deal that involves the company dissolving itself, handing over its web domain and deleting all of its social media, Tong announced Wednesday.

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Gov't Tells Justices That E-Rate Program Is Covered By FCA

By Jared Foretek

The federal government is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to declare that E-Rate reimbursement fraud is covered by the False Claims Act because the government provides the program's funding.

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USCIS Updates Guidance Evidence Standards For EB-1 Visas

By Britain Eakin

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Wednesday issued new guidance to clarify the types of evidence the agency will weigh in considering applications for EB-1 extraordinary ability visas for individuals at the top of certain fields.

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NYC Mayor Adams May Face More Charges, Feds Say

By Frank G. Runyeon

Prosecutors told a Manhattan federal judge Wednesday it was "possible" they would charge New York City Mayor Eric Adams with additional crimes in his corruption case, indicating they have evidence he told witnesses to lie to the FBI.

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Madigan Can't Duck Bribery Claims After High Court Ruling

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge on Wednesday declined to dismiss bribery charges against former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling limiting the reach of a bribery statute that once criminalized gratuities, while also refusing to sever his case from his co-defendant's.

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Former C-Quest Capital CEO Indicted For Carbon Credit Fraud

By Rae Ann Varona

Federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday announced criminal charges against Kenneth Newcombe, the former chief executive officer of carbon project developer C-Quest Capital, accusing him of scheming to submit altered data relating to cookstove projects abroad to obtain millions of dollars worth of carbon credits.

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Fla. Court Says Superintendent Must Face Perjury Charge

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida appeals court Wednesday reinstated an indictment accusing a school superintendent of lying to a statewide grand jury convened in response to the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

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Tribal Members Ask Montana Court For Satellite Voting Offices

By Crystal Owens

Six members of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribes are asking a Montana state court for an order that would require two counties to set up satellite voting offices on their reservation lands, arguing that without those offices, it will be nearly impossible for Native Americans to cast ballots.

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Feds Can Back ND Tribes In 8th Circ. Legislative Privilege Row

By Crystal Owens

The federal government can participate in arguments later this month before an Eighth Circuit panel in support of two North Dakota tribes in a discovery dispute over legislative privilege in an already-decided Voting Rights Act case, the appellate court says.

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Analysis

Top 3 Groups Lobbying The FCC

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission heard from advocates more than 100 times in September on the FCC's effort to clamp down on scam robocalls, rules to spur broadband deployment, revamping the 4.9 gigahertz airwaves, satellite spectrum and more.

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Wi-Fi Has All The Spectrum It Needs, Mobile Group Says

By Jared Foretek

Wi-Fi performance gains won't come from more unlicensed spectrum use, a new report commissioned by telecommunications trade group CTIA said Wednesday.

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Ranking House Dems Urge Swift DEA Action On Pot Reform

By Sam Reisman

A pair of House Democratic committee ranking members have urged the Drug Enforcement Administration to act quickly to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana and suggested that federal agencies should consider descheduling the drug altogether.

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Cozen O'Connor Lobbying Shop Adds De Blasio Vet In NY

By Christine DeRosa

Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies, the international law firm's public affairs and lobbying arm, has grown with the addition of a veteran lobbyist who previously worked in New York City government, including with Mayor Bill de Blasio's office.

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The Trade And Tax Issues Behind US-Canada Digital Tax Clash

The new Canadian digital services tax recently went into effect despite objections from the U.S., a controversy that represents an unusual mix of trade and tax policy, and many companies have been pondering how it will affect their e-commerce businesses, says Damon Pike at BDO.

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Plan Sponsors Must Prep For New Mental Health, Drug Rules

To comply with newly published health insurance rules requiring parity between access to mental health and substance use services compared to medical and surgical services, employers with self-insured plans will need to update third-party administrator agreements and collect data, among other compliance steps, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.

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Opinion

Bill Is Key To Protecting US Economy From Patent Piracy

It is critical that Congress pass a recently introduced bill that would protect U.S. investors from intellectual property theft by restoring court-ordered injunctions as the default remedy in patent infringement cases to ensure inventors get the justice they deserve, says Andrei Iancu at Sullivan & Cromwell.

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Aviation Watch: Boeing Plea Agreement May Not Serve Public

The proposed plea agreement between the U.S. Department of Justice and Boeing — the latest outgrowth of the company's 737 Max travails — is opposed by crash victims' families, faces an uncertain fate in court, and may ultimately serve no beneficial purpose, even if approved, says Alan Hoffman, a retired attorney and aviation expert.

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These Are The Legal Chiefs Who Command Top Dollar

By Michele Gorman

With the increasingly dynamic role of the top corporate lawyer playing out across sectors — as well as stock awards that far outpace the amounts they see in their salaries and bonuses — the pay packages for most general counsel and chief legal officers continue to stay strong.

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The 2024 Compensation Report: General Counsel

Law360 Pulse looks at the pay of the best-compensated legal chiefs at S&P 500 companies. Find out who’s making the most and which law firms and schools have the most alumni in these high-profile posts.

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Bullying In Law Is Pervasive, Drives Turnover, Ill. Attys Say

By Aebra Coe

Nearly a quarter of those who responded to a recent large-scale survey of Illinois lawyers said they had been bullied at work within the last year, with those numbers spiking among women and other traditionally underrepresented attorneys in the profession, a report released Tuesday found.

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Ex-Federal Judge's Sex Misconduct Spurs New Criminal Trial

By Ryan Boysen

The sexual misconduct scandal that toppled a federal judge in Alaska has now caused a criminal conviction to be overturned, despite prosecutors' insistence that the judge's "out-of-court judicial misconduct" had no effect on the trial.

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Cahill Adds House Oversight Atty Who Handled Biden Probe

By Rachel Scharf

Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP announced Wednesday it hired the former head lawyer for the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, whose work includes guiding an impeachment probe into President Joe Biden.

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Kirkland Accuses Ex-IP Atty Of Delaying Bias Suit Discovery

By Dorothy Atkins

Kirkland & Ellis LLP told a California federal magistrate judge Wednesday that a former Kirkland intellectual property associate has delayed discovery production in her discrimination lawsuit against the firm, arguing that her discovery responses cite an erroneous legal standard, are non-committal and are "not even close to being proper."

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Q&A

Fried Frank's M&A Co-Head Views Rate Cuts, AI With Caution

By Al Barbarino

While it might be tempting to jump with joy about the Federal Reserve's recent rate cut, Philip Richter, co-head of Fried Frank's mergers and acquisitions practice, takes a more measured view. Here, Law360 talks to Richter about the rate cut, the upcoming presidential election, artificial intelligence and more.

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Tenn. Atty Sues Federal Court, Judges Over Gag Order Rule

By Jack Karp

A rule of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee barring attorneys from making "any extrajudicial statements" about cases pending in the district violates the First Amendment and should be blocked, according to a Nashville civil rights lawyer.

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