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The Ninth Circuit recently reinvigorated a 2011 tip-pooling rule, allowing the regulations of employers who use the practice despite steering clear of the FLSA’s “tip credit” provisions. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is one of the most complex and little understood federal laws governing the various aspects of labor in this country. One of the provisions nestled in the language of the Act (added in 1974) allows employers to fulfill their hourly minimum wage obligations by using an employee’s tips....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 case involving whether Illinois law provides a sufficiently speedy opportunity for an individual, whose car or cash police have seized without a warrant, to contest the lawfulness of the seizure, a circuit court’s ruling reversing dismissal of the action is vacated and the case is remanded where the action was moot because all of the actual property disputes between the parties had been resolved....

Last year, a federal district court prevented the Biden administration from requiring federal agencies to use the “social cost of carbon” (SCC) when conducting cost-benefit analyses during the rulemaking process. In simplest terms, the social cost of carbon is a dollar estimate of the economic damages that result from one additional ton of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. This cost is measured by the negative impact of the gases on health, infrastructure, agriculture, and other factors....

Contingency fee lawyers know that pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered, and it has nothing to do with raising animals. It has to do with being excessively greedy. Even if that’s redundant, it makes some sense when it comes to settling a contingency case. Two BigLaw firms are fighting over fees in such a case. No one is saying who’s the pig and who’s the hog. Just saying… BigLaw v....

Sharp Grossmont Hospital in El Cajon, California claims it was investigating employee theft of anesthesia drugs. So it installed motion-activated cameras on drug carts in three operating rooms at the facility. The only problem? Those three rooms were part of the women’s health center, and the secret cameras recorded some 1,800 patients in various stages of undress, undergoing Cesarean births, hysterectomies, and sterilization and miscarriage procedures. “At times, Defendants’ patients had their most sensitive genital areas visible,” according to a lawsuit filed against the hospital, “patients’ faces were recorded, and the patients were identifiable....

Nobody likes automated, spam phone calls. And for years, the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission have taken numerous measures to allow people to opt out or block so-called robocalls, primarily because of the personal privacy implications involved. But could blocking robocalls backfire and actually jeopardize your privacy? If you’re using a spam-blocking app, it’s possible. “Even products specifically designed to prevent spam invade user privacy,” according to Fast Company’s Dan Hastings....

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has made it harder for donors seeking to help create political advertising to remain anonymous, holding that all donations over $200 to organizations that spend over $250 on political advertising not associated with a particular candidate (known as independent expenditures) must be disclosed to the Federal Elections Commission. What Are Independent Expenditures? Independent expenditures (IEs) account for billions in spending on political advertising. Once a minor factor in politics, Citizens United v....

In Villagarcia v. Warden, Noble Corr. Inst., No. 07-3619, the Sixth Circuit addressed the district court’s grant of habeas relief to a defendant’s challenge to his sentence for child endagerment and felonious assault convictions. In concluding that defendant’s sentence violates Blakely and Apprendi and that the defendant has established that the state court’s decision involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law and satisfied the AEDPA standard, the court also concluded that the constitutional error was no harmless....

US v. Rappe, 09-2478, concerned a challenge to a conviction of defendant for conspiring to commit an offense against the United States, obstructing justice, destroying property to prevent its seizure, and failing to register as a sex offender. In vacating defendant’s conviction under section 2250, the court remanded for resentencing as section 2250 does not apply to sex offenders whose interstate travel occurred prior to Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act’s (SORNA) effective date, and here, defendant’s most recent interstate trip occurred one day before SORNA was made applicable to defendant through an interim regulation issued by the Attorney General....

With just days to spare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Monday that it is extending its pandemic-related nationwide moratorium on evictions until June 30. The moratorium was due to expire on March 31. The extension means that people who are falling behind on rent due to job losses will have a little bit of breathing room. There are many ways that landlords can get around this moratorium, however....

The fight over net neutrality is not over. Even as states individually tackle the issue of equal access to broadband, the Federal Communications Commission again voted to reject the Obama-era regulation mandating internet service providers (ISPs) provide equal access to bandwidth. The FCC ended net neutrality in 2017, reaffirming its commitment to this on October 27, just days before the election. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the repeal in 2019 but sent a remand order to the FCC to resolve several issues:...

Florence v. Bd. of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington, 09-3603, involved a plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit challenging the strip search of plaintiff upon his admission to the general population following his arrest on a bench warrant. In vacating the district court’s grant of summary judgment on plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment strip search claim, the court remanded the matter as, balancing the jail’s interests at the time of intake before arrestees enter the general population against the privacy interests of the inmates, the strip search procedures described by the district court at the county jail and the county correctional facility are reasonable....

In an action by the FTC to curtail Defendant’s sale of confidential information and require it to disgorge profits, summary judgment for Plaintiff is affirmed where a practice may be “unfair” under the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) even if it does not violate some law independent of the FTCA. Read FTC v. Accusearch Inc., No. 08-8003 Appellate Information Filed June 29, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Hartz Counsel For Appellants:...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a Michigan prisoner’s discrimination lawsuit on Thursday, finding that the prisoner had sufficiently alleged a plausible claim for sexual orientation discrimination against prison officials. Plaintiff Ricky Davis, who represented himself in the lawsuit, claimed that he was removed from his public-works employment because of his sexual orientation, in violation of his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Davis is an insulin-dependent diabetic, who was hired to participate in an off-site public-works program administered by the prison....

Medical providers often run into issues when submitting Medicare and Medicaid claims. While Medicare fraud is a very real issue that costs tens of billions to U.S. taxpayers per year, in some cases an overpayment can be attributed to error, rather than bad intent. And whether it involves alleged fraud or error, providers can appeal the determination of an overpayment. A Significant Backlog in Administrative Hearings While health care providers can contest the amount of overpayment, obtaining a hearing before an administrative law judge is a lengthy proposition....

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is sure to be spreading joy and cheer in this most wonderful time of the year. A three judge panel just ruled that Concord High School’s Christmas Spectacular is not unconstitutional. The high school’s performance had gone on for over four decades before anyone objected. Surprisingly, when an organization that advocates for the separation of church and state objected, the school actually changed the play....

Memorial Day has been celebrated for more than 100 years now, recognizing the losses felt during our nation’s wars. But how exactly did Memorial Day become an official federal holiday? Decoration Day and Beginnings On May 30, 1868, Memorial Day was observed by former Civil War officers and legislators at Arlington National Cemetery as a way to reflect on the losses incurred by the war. According to PBS, future President James A....

Petitions for review of an FERC decision holding that the transmission of electricity be priced on the basis of the cost to American Electric of transmitting one more unit of electricity is denied where there is no economic basis for American Electric reflecting sunk costs in its rates and shifting the costs to other members as it did not expect when it built the facilities that any part of their cost would be defrayed by anyone besides its customers....

Who Is Jen Shah? Jen Shah’s Legal Issues Shah had an agreement with at least one other person to operate her telemarketing scheme She deceived the victims for her own monetary gain She used telecommunication (phone, email, social media, etc.) to operate the scheme She or one of her coconspirators performed an overt act in furtherance of the scheme Will Jen Shah Do Time? Will Jen Shah Return to the ‘Real Housewives’?...

On June 17, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the arguments in the case of former state Senate Majority leader Joseph Bruno on the issue of is conviction on honest services mail fraud. According to the Times-Union, Bruno exploited his office as Senator and took $280,000 from Loudonville businessman Jared E. Abbruzzese between the years of 2004 and 2006. The payments were sham payments for services, the government said, including supposed payments for worthless items....