Legal Updates Archive

The U.S. Department of Education has released its long-awaited Title IX regulations addressing sexual discrimination and sexual harassment, which also include coverage of sexual orientation, gender identity and pregnancy.

In March 2024, the SEC adopted new climate disclosure rules requiring publicly traded companies to provide comprehensive information about their climate-related risks and impacts. These rules mandate narrative disclosures covering governance, risks, strategy, targets, goals, and—for larger filers—emissions and attestations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, on April 10, 2024, issued a final rule establishing National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals. The new regulations establish the agency’s first drinking water standards addressing PFAS chemicals, a group of several thousand synthetic chemicals that persist in the environment and have adverse impacts upon human health and the environment.

The Department of State’s Visa Bulletin for April 2024 notes that little to no additional forward movement in final action dates for visa categories is expected in the coming months.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on March 12, 2024, that it has begun implementing a streamlined process to provide Employment Authorization Documents more efficiently to eligible refugees after they are admitted into the United States.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on March 21, 2024, that it has updated guidance in its USCIS Policy Manual, effective immediately.

The Department of Homeland Security is extending and redesignating Burma (Myanmar) for Temporary Protected Status.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a new rule that would eliminate its current procedures for National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) compliance and instead follow the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation’s NHPA regulations (36 C.F.R. part 800). The comment deadline on the proposed rule—April 9, 2024—is approaching.

On March 8, 2024, when President Biden signed into law a $459 billion legislation package to fund portions of the government for the next six months, most media attention focused on the last-minute aversion of a partial government shutdown. However, buried in the legislation are provisions that demonstrate increasing concern about the foreign acquisition of U.S. agricultural land and a move to increase coordination between the CFIUS and the USDA.

H.F. 3680 was introduced in the Minnesota House of Representatives on February 13, 2024, and would amend Minnesota law by opting out of the federal interest rate preemption established under the federal Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980.

On February 9, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released end-of-fiscal-year 2023 data. Included are selected highlights of the data and USCIS's plans for FY 2024.

On February 14, 2024, President Biden directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to grant Deferred Enforced Departure to Palestinians in the United States for 18 months, with some exceptions. 

E-Verify announced on February 22, 2024, that it will launch its "next generation" service, E-Verify+, as a pilot in spring 2024. E-Verify said the "plus" in E-Verify+ represents benefits the new service will provide to employers and employees, including "added efficiency" for employers and "more control over their personal information" for employees.

The Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers reminded its clients that fees for Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing, increased on February 26, 2024. 

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reminded employers that the initial registration period for the FY  2025 H-1B cap season will open at noon ET on March 6, 2024, and run through noon ET on March 22, 2024. A USCIS online account is required to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $10 registration fee.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a reminder that under the new fee final rule effective April 1, 2024, the new 04/01/24 editions of several forms will be required.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on February 27, 2024, that eligible Ukrainian citizens and their immediate family members who are physically present in the United States can now be considered for re-parole to continue to temporarily remain in the United States.

The Department of State's Visa Bulletin for April 2024 notes that little to no additional forward movement in final action dates for visa categories is expected in the coming months because the final action dates for many categories advanced for April 2024, in many cases by several months to a year.

A recent federal court decision sheds light on what may be required for disclosure of document preservation efforts. In Doe LS 340 v. Uber Technologies, Inc., --- F. Supp. 3d ----, 2024 WL 107929 (N.D. Cal. Jan. 29, 2024), the court looked to Rule 26 and local practice for the initial disclosure of information regarding efforts to preserve documents and ESI sources.

In a case of first impression, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that, despite the language of a declaration of covenants and restrictions to the contrary, a homeowners’ association (HOA) lien for unpaid assessments does not have super priority over a later recorded mortgage.

On March 7, 2024, USCIS received enough petitions to meet the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the second half of FY 2024.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has begun announcing start dates for spring load restrictions across the state.

Questions concerning cash management programs are some of the most frequent to cross my desk these days. Some are spurred by outdated agreements, some by fraud incidents, and many by new or changing products and services. As both technology and customer expectations evolve, it naturally follows that cash management programs and agreements will need to evolve too. So, what are the most common themes of these questions and updates?

The Community Reinvestment Act final rule is almost 1,500 pages and undoubtedly challenging to digest. As of the drafting of this article, the final rule has not been published in the Federal Register, and this article is based on the version published on the federal banking agencies’ websites on October 24, 2023.

In response to President Biden’s Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence, the USPTO has issued guidance for how AI-assisted inventions, or inventions where artificial intelligence contributed to the conception of the invention, will be examined. 

On February 13, 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) released an update that affects H-2A and H-2B employers.

USCIS will be increasing the filing fees for H-2 petitions filed on or after February 26, 2024.

USPTO issued inventorship guidance for AI-assisted inventions. The guidance explained that “while AI-assisted inventions are not categorically unpatentable, the inventorship analysis should focus on human contributions, as patents function to incentivize and reward human ingenuity.”

This article highlights some of the key issues courts are facing with AI in intellectual property litigation.

There are many known and unknown risks associated with using generative AI in the legal industry such as not fact checking the output of generative AI tools, confidentiality and security, bias and copyright issues. Attorneys who use generative AI need to determine if they are required to provide notice to the court.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services published a final rule, effective April 1, 2024, to adjust certain immigration and naturalization benefit request fees.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services plans to launch organizational accounts for non-cap filings and the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap season.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that the initial registration period for the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap season will open at noon ET on March 6, 2024, and run through noon ET on March 22, 2024.

On January 12, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it has received enough petitions to reach the cap for the additional 20,716 H-2B visas made available for returning workers for the first half of fiscal year 2024 with start dates on or before March 31, 2024, under the
H-2B supplemental cap temporary final rule.

Effective January 15, 2024, as part of annual inflation adjustments, the Department of Labor is increasing D-1, H-1B, H-2A and H-2B civil monetary penalties it assesses or enforces for employer violations.

The Department of State has released guidance and frequently asked questions on its new pilot program to resume domestic visa renewals for qualified H-1B nonimmigrant visa applicants who meet certain requirements.

On January 24, 2024, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated its policy guidance to provide that USCIS, “in our discretion and under certain conditions, may excuse a nonimmigrant’s failure to timely file an extension of stay or change of status request if the delay was due to extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the applicant or petitioner.”

On January 13, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security announced that noncitizen workers who are victims of, or witnesses to, violations of labor rights can now access a “streamlined and expedited deferred action request process.”

The Department of Homeland Security is extending and redesignating Syria for Temporary Protected Status. DHS also announced Special Student Relief for F-1 nonimmigrant students from Syria. 

The U.S. Supreme Court recently denied certiorari in a case finding that a declaratory judgment on liability was sufficient to trigger the three-year statute of limitations for seeking contribution under section (g)(f) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9613(f).

In “the latest round in the battle over chlorpyrifos,” the Eighth Circuit recently found the Environmental Protection Agency’s ban on chlorpyrifos—a pesticide used in a variety of agricultural production—was arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. 

On November 27, 2023, the Minnesota Court of Appeals, for a second time, reversed and remanded the City of Eagle Lake’s determination that an environmental impact statement was not required for a proposal to construct a motorsports park on agricultural land. 

In December 2023, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency released its "Framework for Developing and Evaluating Site-Specific Sulfate Standards for the Protection of Wild Rice."

The Iowa Court of Appeals recently had an opportunity to review an employer’s drug testing policy and procedures, shedding helpful light on the importance of procedural and administrative requirements in the statute and in your policies.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released frequently asked questions about employment-based adjustment of status.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on December 13, 2023, that it has received a sufficient number of petitions needed to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa U.S. advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for fiscal year 2024.

The Department of Homeland Security published a Federal Register notice reiterating extensions of the periods to re-register for Temporary Protected Status under the existing designations of El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan.

In Scripps College v. Jaddou, a U.S. District Court in Nebraska held that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services improperly denied the plaintiff’s I-140 immigration petition when it found that the beneficiary of the petition did not qualify for an employment-based first preference visa as an “outstanding professor or researcher.” The court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Scripps College.

The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration has announced Adverse Effect Wage Rates for H-2A agricultural workers in 2024 for range and non-range occupations.