Administrative Procedure Act

U.S. District Court Holds U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service's Decision To Delay Revisions To Critical Habitat Is Not Judicially...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) prevailed on March 19th in a suit brought by the Sierra Club challenging a decision by the Service to delay revision of the critical habitat designation for the leatherback sea...more

CalPERS To Consider External Investment Resource Disclosure Rule

Last August the Investment Committee of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) approved revisions to its External Investment Resource Conflict of Interest Policy. A week later, I asked the Office of...more

Seventh Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Former Bank Executive's APA and FIRREA Claims

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently affirmed an Illinois district court’s dismissal of claims brought by the former chairman and controlling stockholder of an Illinois-state chartered bank against the...more

Washington State District Court Holds Claims Brought Under Citizen Suit Provision Of The Endangered Species Act Are Not Limited To...

In Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11955, *1 (Jan. 28, 2013), the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington held that...more

Could The Product Of Two Debts Really Be A Fortune?

In 628 in the Gurjar capital city of Bhillamala (now, Bhinmal, India), the mathemetician Brahmagupta set out to explain how zero and negatives numbers work. In his book, Brahmasphutasiddhanta, he set forth the rule that the...more

Dodd-Frank News: January 2013: Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act Monthly Update

In This Issue: - RECENT CASES . Dodd-Frank Challenges Under the Administrative Procedure Act and Commodity Exchange Act . Preemption . Whistleblower Protection Under the Dodd-Frank Act . Arbitration...more

Summary of FERC Meeting Agenda - January 2013

In This Issue: - Administrative Items - Electric Items - Gas Item - Hydro Items - Certificate Item Excerpt from Hydro Items: H-1 Annual Charges for Use of Government Lands (Docket No. RM11-6-000)...more

D.C. Circuit Reinstates Challenge To HUD Reverse Mortgage Regulations

On January 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held that two widowed spouses have standing to pursue allegations that a HUD regulation defining conditions under which it would insure a reverse mortgage...more

Legal Alert: The 2012 Tax Litigation Year in Review: Important Events

The year 2012 was quite an interesting one for tax controversy. Whereas 2011 brought a win for the Treasury on deference issues in Mayo Foundation for Medical Ed. v. United States, 131 S. Ct. 704 (2011), 2012 was the year...more

Lawsuit Filed Challenging Controversial Settlement

On December 17, 2012, the National Association of Home Builders, the Olympia Master Builders, the Home Builder Association of Greater Austin, and the Texas Salamander Coalition, Inc., filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and...more

Court of Federal Claims Upholds 40% Small Business Subcontracting Goal

In a recent decision, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims denied a pre-award protest challenging a solicitation's small business subcontracting goal of 40% of the total contract value, holding that this goal was within the high...more

New Law Lets A Thousand Rules Bloom, But Only Quarterly

Under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Office of Administrative Law is responsible for the review of regulations promulgated by over 200 state agencies. In 2011, reportedly 103 different agencies proposed 467 new rules....more

Gaming Legal News - December 20, 2012 • Volume 5, Number 28

In This Issue: - Indian Gaming Issues To Watch In 2013 - Will The Ex Parte Young Doctrine Swallow Tribal Sovereign Immunity Whole? - Detroit Casinos’ November Revenues Decrease From Save Month Last Year: Michigan...more

Court Dismisses Chamber of Commerce and ICI Lawsuit Over Amendments to CFTC Rule 4.5

On Wednesday, December 12, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a joint U.S. Chamber of Commerce (the Chamber) and Investment Company Institute (ICI) lawsuit against the Commodity Futures...more

Patent Watch: Pregis Corp. v. Kappos

[A] third party cannot sue the PTO under the APA to challenge a PTO decision to issue a patent. On December 6, 2012, in Pregis Corp. v. Kappos, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Prost, Clevenger,...more

DOC Warns Financial Services Licensees And Can A Theory Be A Tautology?

Last April, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued this Bulletin cautioning supervised banks and certain non-depository financial services companies that they must have “an effective process for managing the risks of...more

Independent Natural Gas Producers Challenge EPA Air Rules

On October 15, 2012, Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC filed suit in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (“IPAA”) and six other state-level oil and gas associations (PA,...more

Court Holds That Same Attorney May Advocate Before The ALJ and Agency Head

The Department of Corporations, like many state and federal agencies, does not observe a strict separation of powers. Indeed, the Department performs quasi-legislative functions in the form of rule making, prosecutorial...more

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Federal Ban on Trafficking of Certain “Culturally Significant Articles”

On October 22, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed a Federal District Court decision that a federal ban on the trafficking of certain culturally significant articles was proper and did not...more

U.S. Supreme Court Asked to Review Federal Funding of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

On October 10, 2012, two pro-life groups petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Court’s decision allowing the continued federal funding of...more

Judge Dismisses Attorney General’s “Fracking” Suit Over the Delaware River Basin

U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis recently dismissed a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman against the Delaware River Basin Commission (“DRBC”), EPA, and other federal agencies seeking to...more

Ninth Circuit Dismisses Challenge to Injunction in Delta Smelt Case

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted a motion by appellees to dismiss an appeal pursued by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations from an interim order enjoining one...more

Kappos v. Hyatt (2012)

That rarest of rara aves issued from the Supreme Court yesterday, an affirmance of a Federal Circuit opinion in Kappos v. Hyatt. Perhaps it is because, as in Stanford v. Roche one of the parties was the government (here,...more

Kappos v Hyatt

Kappos v Hyatt

There are no limitations on a patent applicant’s ability to introduce new evidence in a §145 proceeding beyond those already presentin the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. If new evidence is...more

Navigating the Evolving Regulation and Commercialization of Stem Cell Research

Interested parties that can successfully navigate the evolving regulation of stem cell research stand to gain significant scientific and commercial advantage. Given that in the fall of 2011 the Court of Justice of the...more