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Environmental
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May 06, 2025
Marshall Fire Suit Must Stay In Colo., Plaintiffs' Attys Say
Local governments and individuals accusing Xcel Energy Inc. in a lawsuit of failing to mitigate risks leading up to the devastating 2021 Marshall Fire in Colorado said the company must stand trial in the state, rebuffing the notion that the state's court had no jurisdiction.
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May 06, 2025
EPA Urges DC Circ. To Block Climate Change NGO Grants
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asked the D.C. Circuit to allow it to restart its effort to reclaim billions of dollars in congressionally approved funding for nonprofits the Biden administration picked to carry out climate change projects.
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May 06, 2025
Firms Beat Malpractice Suit Over Chicken Plant Pollution
Delaware's Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed a trial court's dismissal of a malpractice suit against Brockstedt Mandalas Federico LLC and Schochor Staton Goldberg & Cardea PA for their alleged mishandling of claims associated with a child's "catastrophic injuries" purportedly caused by contamination from a chicken plant.
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May 06, 2025
Nuclear Plant Renewal Rules Are Sound, Backers Tell DC Circ.
New U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license renewal rules adequately account for environmental risks from accidents, aging equipment and climate change, industry players told the D.C. Circuit, urging it to reject a challenge brought by anti-nuclear power groups.
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May 05, 2025
DC Circ. Judge Doubts Fla. Plan To Permit Clean Water
At least one D.C. Circuit judge came to the table Monday morning extremely skeptical about the government's argument to restore the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approval of Florida's plan to assume control of a Clean Water Act permitting program, and she wasn't pulling any punches.
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May 05, 2025
Judge Poised To Decide If Mich. Will Face Dam Collapse Trial
A state judge will decide next week whether thousands of flood victims can proceed to trial on their claims that the state of Michigan is to blame for a hydroelectric dam collapse that caused widespread flooding.
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May 05, 2025
5th Circ. Says Biden Climate Officials' Info Not Protected
The Fifth Circuit on Monday ordered the U.S. Department of State to give the names of Biden administration officials who helped set the nation's greenhouse gas emissions targets to a conservative Texas-based legal group that's seeking climate change policy information.
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May 05, 2025
California Sues Feds Over Koi Nation Land Trust Approval
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking a federal court to vacate a Department of the Interior decision to take 70 acres into trust for the construction of a proposed hotel and casino by the Koi Nation, arguing that without reversal, the state may forfeit any regulatory control over gaming on the site.
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May 05, 2025
Calif. Chamber Gets Acrylamide Cancer Warnings Deleted
A California federal judge has sided with the state's Chamber of Commerce in a suit challenging Proposition 65's requirement that companies warn buyers about dietary acrylamide in their products, finding that it violates the First Amendment's protections against compelled speech.
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May 05, 2025
Sunoco Expands Into Canada With $9.1B Parkland Acquisition
Sunoco LP on Monday said it has agreed to buy Canadian gas station and refinery operator Parkland Corp. in a cash and equity deal worth approximately $9.1 billion, including assumed debt, a deal that greatly expands Sunoco's North American fuel distribution business.
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May 05, 2025
Feds Say Splitting Clean Air Trial Would Harm Public
Splitting a potential trial over a Detroit-area steel input manufacturer's alleged Clean Air Act violations into two phases would only cause unnecessary delays, the U.S. government has told a Michigan federal judge.
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May 05, 2025
States Sue Trump Over Halt On Wind Energy Projects
A coalition of states led by New York on Monday challenged President Donald Trump's executive order indefinitely freezing the federal review and permitting of wind energy projects, saying the move has created "an existential threat to the wind industry."Â
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May 05, 2025
Enviro Groups Push Back On Bid To Toss CSX Rebuild Suit
Environmental groups American Whitewater and American Rivers are fighting bids by U.S. government agencies and CSX Transportation Inc. to throw out their claims that the agencies wrongly permitted CSX to rebuild chunks of its railroad destroyed by Hurricane Helene, saying the complaint is sufficient to allege the agencies acted arbitrarily and capriciously.
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May 05, 2025
Supreme Court Won't Review Mass. Wind Farm Permits
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the federal government's approval of a large offshore wind energy project in the waters off the Massachusetts coast, rejecting allegations that the go-ahead ignored the risks the project poses to the commercial fishing industry.
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May 02, 2025
DOJ's Climate Change Suits Test Feds' Powers In State Affairs
The Trump administration's new lawsuits challenging state-level efforts to combat climate change are an unprecedented approach, several environmental attorneys say, and will test the judiciary's view of federal interests in state matters.
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May 02, 2025
9th Circ. Says USFS Must Reassess Wash. Forest Fire Plan
A Ninth Circuit panel partly sided with a conservation group Friday in a challenge of a federal forest restoration project, finding the U.S. Forest Service should've considered the potential impacts of a nearby project that took shape after a 2021 wildfire before approving the proposal.
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May 02, 2025
DC Circ. To Decide If 14 Miles Of Trains Is Too Many
The D.C. Circuit is set to decide whether federal regulators used bad data to approve a $31 billion merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern that will see 14 miles of trains running through a set of Chicagoland communities each day.
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May 02, 2025
Feds Expand Hunting, Fishing Access In 16 Wildlife Refuges
The federal government is proposing to expand hunting and fishing access on more than 87,000 acres within the 11 states in national wildlife and fish hatchery systems, saying on Friday the move would more than triple the number of opportunities for outdoor recreation.
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May 02, 2025
Plaintiffs Seek Redo Over Sterilization Co.'s Trial Tactics
Four women who claimed a Colorado sterilization company caused their cancers asked a state court to order a new trial, arguing the business won a favorable verdict with prejudicial evidence about law firm ads and by suggesting the women are not "real victims but pawns in a scheme orchestrated by their lawyers."
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May 02, 2025
NY Officials Say Feds' Memo In Filing Mishap Is Fair Game
New York officials told a federal judge on Friday that a mistakenly filed memo from the federal government detailing its weak rationale for trying to cancel Manhattan's congestion pricing program is fair game and cannot be shielded after media outlets widely reported on it.
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May 02, 2025
Texas-Led AGs Defend BlackRock Coal Investments Suit
A coalition of Republican states led by Texas are arguing that BlackRock Inc.'s public commitments to reducing its carbon footprint are evidence that it and two other leading asset managers teamed up to suppress the production of coal in the United States, asking a federal judge not to dismiss their case against the firms.
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May 02, 2025
Trump Proposes Billions In Cuts To EPA State Grant Programs
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would lose more than half of its funding compared with 2025 under the 2026 budget request released Friday by the Trump administration, with proposed cuts to drinking water infrastructure grants for states amounting to $2.4 billion.Â
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May 02, 2025
Texas City Backs Exxon In Recycling Defamation Suit
The city of Beaumont, Texas, sided with Exxon in its defamation lawsuit against California's attorney general and a coalition of conservation groups, telling a court the company's advanced recycling program provided needed innovation for coastal communities.
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May 02, 2025
NJ Panel Affirms $2.6M Coverage Payout In Cleanup Case
A New Jersey appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court's decision finding that under Massachusetts law an insurer owed a BASF entity only $2.6 million in coverage for underlying environmental remediation costs after the lower court found a prior, larger coverage calculation it had adopted was "palpably incorrect."
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May 02, 2025
Debevoise Guides Ara Partners On $800M Low-Carbon Fund
Ara Partners has raised more than $800 million for its first infrastructure fund, aimed at cutting carbon emissions from the industrial economy, with legal guidance from Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
Attorneys Must Act Now To Protect Judicial Independence
Given the Trump administration's recent moves threatening the independence of the judiciary, including efforts to impeach judges who ruled against executive actions, lawyers must protect the rule of law and resist attempts to dilute the judicial branch’s authority, says attorney Bhavleen Sabharwal.
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The Math Of Cross-Examination: Less Is More, More Is Less
When conducting cross-examination at trial, attorneys should remember that “less is more, and more is less” — limiting both the scope of questioning and the length of each query in order to control the witness’s testimony and keep the factfinders’ attention, says Thomas Innes at the Defender Association of Philadelphia.
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Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises
“No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.
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Fund Names Rule FAQs Leave Some Interpretative Uncertainty
Although recently released FAQs clarify many specific points of the 2023 expansion to the Investment Company Act's fund names rule, important questions remain about how U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff will interpret other key terms when the end-of-year compliance date arrives, say attorneys at Dechert.
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How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work
Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.
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Tools For Witness Control That Go Beyond Leading Questions
Though leading questions can be efficient and effective for constraining a witness’s testimony, this strategy isn’t appropriate for every trial and pretrial scenario, so techniques like headlining and looping can be deployed during direct examination, depositions and even witness interviews, says Allison Rocker at Baker McKenzie.
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Opinion
US Steel-Nippon Merger Should Not Have Been Blocked
The Biden administration's block of the U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel merger on national security grounds was unconstitutional overreach and needs to be overturned, with the harms remedied in federal court, says attorney Chuck Meyer.Â
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10 Issues To Watch In Aerospace And Defense Contracting
This year, in addition to evergreen developments driven by national security priorities, disruptive new technologies and competition with rival powers, federal contractors will see significant disruptions driven by the new administration’s efforts to reduce government spending, regulation and the size of the federal workforce, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.
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Navigating The Trump Enviro Rollback And Its Consequences
The Trump administration's rapid push for environmental deregulation will lead to both opportunities and challenges, requiring companies to adopt strategic approaches to a complex, unpredictable legal environment in which federal rollbacks are countered by increased enforcement by states, and risks of citizen litigation may be heightened, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.
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Series
Competitive Weightlifting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
The parallels between the core principles required for competitive weightlifting and practicing law have helped me to excel in both endeavors, with each holding important lessons about discipline, dedication, drive and failure, says Damien Bielli at VF Law.
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8 Ways Cos. Can Prep For Termination Of Their Enviro Grants
The federal government appears to be reviewing energy- and infrastructure-related grants and potentially terminating grants inconsistent with the Trump administration's stated policy goals, and attorneys at DLA Piper provide eight steps that recipients of grants should consider taking in the interim.
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Opinion
Undoing An American Ideal Of Fairness
President Donald Trump’s orders attacking birthright citizenship, civil rights education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs threaten hard-won constitutional civil rights protections and decades of efforts to undo bias in the law — undermining what Chief Justice Earl Warren called "our American ideal of fairness," says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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How Trump EPA Could Fix Carbon Combustion Residuals Rule
The Trump administration is likely targeting the recently adopted carbon combustion residual rule, especially since it imposes very stringent, detailed and expedited requirements on coal power plants — but even if the rule is not vacated entirely, there are measures that could greatly reduce its regulatory burden, says Stephen Jones at Post & Schell.
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Nippon Order Tests Gov't Control Over Foreign Investments
The U.S. government is primarily interested in restraining foreign transactions involving countries of concern, but former President Joe Biden’s January order blocking the merger of Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel shows that all foreign direct investments are under the federal government’s microscope, say attorneys at Blank Rome.
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Opinion
Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice
A recent Third Circuit decision, contradicting a previous ruling about whether consumers of contaminated products have suffered an injury in fact, illustrates the deep confusion this U.S. Supreme Court standard creates among federal judges and practitioners, who deserve a simpler method of determining which cases have federal standing, says Eric Dwoskin at Dwoskin Wasdin.