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Public Policy
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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.
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February 03, 2025
Nebraska Medical Pot Campaign Warns Against GOP Bill
The campaigners behind a pair of voter-approved initiatives to legalize and regulate medical marijuana in Nebraska sounded the alarm on Monday about a new Republican-backed bill they say would "strip away what the people enacted."
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February 03, 2025
Ill. Bill Seeks Tax Break For Megaproject Building Materials
Illinois would provide an exemption from any state or local use tax or retailers occupation tax for building materials incorporated into real estate at what are known as megaproject sites as part of a bill filed in the state House of Representatives.
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February 03, 2025
Don't Give Tribes 'Veto Power' In Alaska Deployment, FCC Told
A group of Alaska rural carriers told the Federal Communications Commission on Monday it should not give Native American tribes "veto power" over federally funded broadband deployment projects, which they described as a "DEI approach" from the Biden era.
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February 03, 2025
Ill. House Floats Income Tax Deduction Bill For Union Dues
Illinois would create an income tax deduction for union dues for taxpayers who weren't allowed a deduction under federal law as part of a bill filed in the state House of Representatives.
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February 03, 2025
DC Wants Pot Enforcement Suits To Stay In Federal Court
The District of Columbia is arguing that a group of suits by cannabis-related businesses and associations belong in federal court, saying it is "paradoxical" for them to want the cases removed to state-level court when they clearly involve federal law and constitutional questions.
Expert Analysis
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NY Plastic Pollution Verdict May Not Bode Well For Other Suits
The dismissal of New York state's public nuisance complaint against PepsiCo over pollution of the Buffalo River with the company's single use plastic bottles may not augur well for similar lawsuits filed by Baltimore and Los Angeles County, although tort law varies from state to state, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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Key Ethical Issues For Gov't Attys Moving To Private Practice
Transitioning from government service to private practice presents complex ethical challenges for attorneys, including navigating conflicts of interest, confidential information rules and post-employment restrictions, say attorneys at HWG.
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Climate Disclosure Spotlight Shifts To 2 Calif. Laws
With Donald Trump's election spelling the all-but-certain demise of the proposed federal climate disclosure rules, new laws in California currently stand as the nation's only broadly applicable climate disclosure requirements — and their brevity is both a blessing and a curse, say attorneys at Davis Polk.
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A Deep Dive Into DOJ's Proposed FARA Shake-Up
The U.S. Department of Justice's recently published and long-awaited proposed amendments to the Foreign Agents Registration Act's implementing regulations, if adopted, would mark dramatic changes to the commercial exemption and new requirements for labeling informational materials, says Tessa Capeloto at Wiley.
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Preparing For Mexican Drug Cartels' Terrorist Designation
In the event President-elect Donald Trump designates Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, businesses will need to consider how their particular industry is affected and evaluate previously legitimate practices given the cartels' involvement so many sectors of the economy, say attorneys at King & Spalding.
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Final Hydrogen Tax Credit Regs Add Flexibility For Producers
The recently released final regulations implementing the Inflation Reduction Act's clean hydrogen production tax credit offer taxpayers greater flexibility, reducing risk and creating more certainty for investments in the industry, thus diminishing — but not eliminating — the risk of legal challenges to the regulations, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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Where Payments Law And Regulation Are Headed In 2025
The Trump administration will likely bring significant changes to payments regulations in 2025, but maintaining internal compliance efforts in the absence of robust federal oversight will remain key as state authorities and private plaintiffs step into the breach, say attorneys at Stinson.
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What To Expect From Federal Cybersecurity Policy In 2025
There are 12 cyber policy questions to keep an eye on as the new administration and Republican control of Congress present an opportunity to advance less regulatory approaches and revisit some choices from the prior administration, say attorneys at Wiley.
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Republican Trifecta Amplifies Risks For Cos. In 3 Key Areas
Expected coordination between a Republican Congress and presidential administration may expose companies to simultaneous criminal, civil and congressional investigations, particularly with regard to supply chain risks in certain industries, government contracting and cross-border investment, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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2 Cases May Signal Where FTC Is Headed On Labor Issues
Two recent Federal Trade Commission challenges to no-hire clauses in agreements between building service firms and their customers include comments by future FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson that may offer insight into the direction the FTC is headed on labor issues, says Michael Wise at Squire Patton.
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How Decline Of Deference Will Affect Trump Policymaking
An administrative law regime without Chevron deference may limit the Trump administration’s ability to implement new policies in the short term, but ultimately help it in the long term, and all parties with an interest in regulatory changes will have to take a fresh approach to litigation, say attorneys at Covington.
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5 Evolving Concerns For Family Offices In 2025
Complex regulatory changes and emerging operational risks will force family offices to stay on their toes in 2025, with timely action particularly necessary to address several tax and reporting developments that may affect their investments and business operations, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Updated HIPAA Rule Is A Necessary Step For Data Protection
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' updated rules addressing cybersecurity threats in healthcare will necessitate significant investment in technology, training and compliance infrastructure, but are an essential evolution in safeguarding data in an increasingly digital world, say attorneys at Clark Hill.
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Anticipating The Maritime Sector's Future Under Trump 2.0
With the Republicans taking control of a governance trifecta, the maritime sector should brace for both familiar leadership and new change that could significantly shift shipping and defense priorities, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Penn State Brand Case Leaves Ornamentality Unresolved
While the recent jury verdict in Penn State University v. Vintage Brand was a win for the college and brands, legal practitioners should expect plenty of litigation around unaddressed ornamentality issues of whether marks that are not yet incontestable can be canceled for being used solely in decorative, non-source-identifying ways, say attorneys at Debevoise.