Throughout the country, large municipalities are laboratories of democracy. New and innovative policies introduced in one market are often exported to others, and ultimately replicated at the state and federal level. This...more
The Illinois Appellate Court recently issued a new decision regarding the FOIA. In Kraft v. Chicago Police Department, the Court ruled in favor of the police department, finding it properly exempted records as unduly...more
Takeaways From Unprecedented Public Records Ruling in Getz v. County of El Dorado - The Third District Court of Appeal recently ruled in favor of a requester who was seeking public records from the County of El Dorado,...more
Report on Medicare Compliance 29, no. 13 (April 6, 2020) - During the coronavirus pandemic, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) is “trying to minimize the burdens on providers,” said Christi Grimm, principal deputy...more
On February 13, 2020, the first major amendment to Act No. 90/2012 Coll., on companies and cooperatives, as amended (the "Corporations Act"), was published in the Collection of Laws. It seeks to reduce the regulatory burden...more
The White House recently announced two initiatives aimed at addressing perceived discrimination in education against students and institutions based on religion. We address the first of those initiatives, relating to prayer...more
On December 2, 2019, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that in response to a digital services tax law passed in France, it would be retaliating with stringent tariffs on luxury products coming from France. The...more
CFPB Director Kraninger has rejected the argument made by Equitable Acceptance Corp (EAC) that because the Bureau’s structure is unconstitutional, the civil investigative demand it received from the Bureau should be set aside...more
Provisional Measure # 905 (“PM”), published on November 12, 2019, establishes a new type of labor relationship in Brazil. The PM aims to reduce the alarmingly high unemployment rate affecting younger workers in the country,...more
On January 1, 2020, California’s new independent contractor statute, known as AB 5, went into effect. The law codifies the use of an “ABC” test to determine if an individual may be classified as an independent contractor....more
The National Labor Relations Board, in its December 17th decision in Apogee Retail LLC d/b/a Unique Thrift Store, has reversed its prior rule and held that employer requirements that employees treat workplace investigations...more
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indicated that the long-anticipated proposed rule modernizing the Quality System Regulation (QSR) is now targeted for release in April 2020. This is the second delay in the agency's...more
As the 50th Anniversary of the National Environmental Policy Act approaches, we may be on the verge of one of the most significant regulatory revisions in the statute’s history. NEPA advocates—and all those who believe it is...more
On September 30, 2019, the District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued its long-awaited opinion in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, _ F. Supp. 3d. _, 2019 WL 4786210,...more
As promised, we return now to provide an overview of the CFPB’s petition activity for the year to-date. In addition to the Bank of America (BofA) petition denial we discussed last month, the CFPB has issued a series of...more
In a much anticipated decision, Judge Allison Burroughs of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts held this week that Harvard College’s admission’s policy, which considers race among many factors, is lawful....more
As recently as last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has continued on its campaign of federal consumer protection and enforcement decisions. Namely, we have been sharing with our readers and constituents the...more
The EEOC announced yesterday, September 12, 2019, that it “is not seeking to renew Component 2 of the EEO-1” in a notice published on the Federal Register....more
Among the many provisions in the FY 2020 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) proposed rule is one that would alter the supervision standards applicable to hospital outpatient therapeutic services. See 84 Fed. Reg....more
When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sought input on ways to address the undue burdens of the Stark law through a Request for Information (RFI) in June 2018, its anticipated focus was care coordination,...more
CMS Regulation - District Court Strikes Down Rule Mandating Price Disclosure in DTC Pharmaceutical Advertisements - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), together with the Centers for Medicare &...more
The European Commission's increasing reliance on internal documents in EU merger control proceedings places an excessive burden on the notifying parties, but it seems debatable if the practice results in higher-quality...more
In 2018, the CFPB issued multiple rules, and Congress passed legislation, to clarify, revise and update the regulatory framework applicable to the home mortgage origination and servicing market....more
Can an en banc decision of a federal appellate court be controversial even when every single active judge of that court agrees with the outcome? The answer is emphatically yes, as confirmed by the Ninth Circuit’s January 31,...more
In May 2018, President Donald Trump signed into law the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act. Sometimes called the Crapo bill after its sponsor Sen. Michael Crapo, R.-Idaho, the act eliminated or...more