Sri Srinavasan meets all the criteria on Empirical SCOTUS’ list for USSC nominees.

Empirical SCOTUS takes a look at the leading prospects who may be on the list of possible nominees for a Hillary Clinton selection for the U.S. Supreme Court — assuming she ends up in the White House and Donald Trump doesn’t.

Adam Feldman points out that his speculation also assumes that Obama nominee Merrick Garland will not be confirmed by the Senate in a lame-duck session.

All judges on the list aside from Garland are less than 60 years of age. The other criteria were that they had an initial ABA Qualifications rating of “well qualified” and the judge must have gone to a top-five ranked law school.

Feldman singles out Sri Srinivasan of the DC Circuit as the only judge to meet all of the list’s criteria. The India-born Stanford graduate worked in the Office of the Solicitor General, is ranked “highly qualified” and is 49 years old.

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The Alabama Supreme Court will recuse itself from suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore’s appeal of his ethics convictions, and defer to a special court to hear the appeal, according to a report by the Montgomery Advertiser.

Reporter Brian Lyman wrote that a public lottery will be held in the Alabama Supreme Court chambers Thursday afternoon, where the names of seven justices drawn from a pool of retired appellate court, circuit court and district court judges will take place.

Moore was suspended last month for the remainder of his term after he urged state probate judges to defy the federal courts on gay marriage, telling probate judges that a state order to refuse marriage licenses to gay couples remained in “full force and effect.” His advice came six months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled gays and lesbians have a fundamental right to marry.

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Attorney Stephen B. Diamond of Chicago has filed at least 911 qui tam actions in Cook County Circuit Court under the Illinois False Claims Act (FCA) and has racked up almost $30 million in settlements over 15 years, a new analysis by Bloomberg BNA reveals.

But the analysis shows that Chicago’s “king of qui tam” could be facing tougher sledding in the enterprise that has brought him $11.6 million.

“Bloomberg BNA’s analysis, drawn from hundreds of previously confidential settlements collected though a Freedom of Information Act request on the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, provides the first clear picture of Diamond’s false claims business model and the financial impact it has had on hundreds of defendants,” Bloomberg reports.

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Bloomberg’s Greg Stohr points out that this presidential election marks the first time since 1968 with a Supreme Court seat needing to be filled. And three current justices are at least 78 years old, so the next president could fill enough vacancies to shape rulings for a generation.

He suggests some questions for Wednesday night’s debate moderator Chris Wallace to ask Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

A question for Clinton: Secretary Clinton, the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that the Constitution protects individuals’ right to have a gun. Should the court overturn that holding?

And for Trump: Mr. Trump, should the Supreme Court overturn the 2015 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage? If so, should the marriages of tens of thousands of gay couples since then be invalidated?

Other questions could cover who would be nominated for the Supreme Court, the Citizens United ruling, and the use of eminent domain.

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A federal appeals court has found the structure of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to be unconstitutional but has left the agency in place to “continue to operate and perform its many duties.”

The court said the way the CFPB is organized violates the Constitution’s separation of powers because it limits the president’s ability to remove the agency’s director, currently Richard Cordray, reports James Peltz for the Los Angeles Times.

The court said the law that now allows the bureau’s director to be removed only “for cause” conflicted with the Constitution, which allows the president to remove executives for any reason.

In his written ruling, Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, rejected the notion of shutting down the CFPB and said that the bureau instead “will continue to operate and perform its many duties,” Peltz reports.

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Mylan NV has announced it will pay $465 million to settle questions of whether it underpaid U.S. government healthcare programs by misclassifying its EpiPen emergency allergy treatment, Reuters is reporting. The announcement comes as the company is under intense scrutiny after a series of drastic price increases.

“Mylan has been lambasted by consumers and lawmakers for raising prices on the lifesaving EpiPen sixfold to over $600 for a package of two in less than a decade, making the devices unaffordable for a growing number of families,” writes Deena Beasley.

At issue is whether Mylan made more money on EpiPen than warranted from state Medicaid programs by having it classified as a generic product. That classification yielded much smaller rebates to the government health plans. Beasley explains that the Medicaid rebate for a generic prescription drug is 13 percent, compared with a minimum 23.1 percent for a branded drug.

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Carl Ferrer, chief executive of advertising website Backpage.com, was arrested on Thursday on criminal charges including pimping, as authorities investigate the company which has been accused of facilitating sex trafficking of minors, according to a Reuters report.

“Backpage, the second-largest U.S. online classified ad service after Craigslist, has faced scrutiny from the U.S. Senate as well as civil lawsuits over allegations that the site facilitates sex trafficking, especially of children,” reports Dan Levine for Reuters.

The California AG’s office also announced a criminal charge against the controlling shareholders of Backpage.com, Michael Lacey and James Larkin. Ford said warrants have been issued for Lacey and Larkin but they are not in custody. Ferrer was custody in Houston on a California warrant.

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The enactment of new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations governing unmanned aircraft systems – or “drones” – has companies and consumers alike dreaming of the stuff of science fiction, but if the new regulations are any indication, the FAA is in no rush to see those dreams become reality, write Sarah L. Bruno, Anthony V. Lupo and Daniel B. Jasnow of Arent Fox LLP.

The new regulations permit use of drones for some commercial purposes, but the FAA declined to clear the way for package delivery by drone, according to the article on the firm’s Behind the Scenes blog.

“Although not a blank check for commercial interests, the FAA’s new rule on commercial drone use likely signals just the beginning of a long regulatory debate over the commercial use of unmanned aircraft, as well as the potential safety and privacy concerns that should, or should not, influence such a debate,” the authors write.

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The Federal Trade Commission, in its first public remarks since a federal judge last week entered a $1.3 billion judgment against payday loan businessman Scott Tucker, called the penalty the largest of its kind, reports The Kansas City Star.

The judgment against Tucker and related entities eclipses the FTC’s previous record judgment from litigation: a $478 million judgment in 2012 ($501.4 million, when adjusted for inflation) against John Beck, the perpetrator of a deceptive real estate get-rich-quick scheme, according to reporter Steve Vockrodt.

U.S. District Court Judge Gloria Navarro last week entered a $1.3 billion judgment against Tucker and others to wrap up a case brought by the FTC in 2012.

“The FTC tracked and sued Tucker, his brother Blaine Tucker and several corporations under their control on claims that they extended loans that deceived consumers about the true cost of their credit,” Vockrodt explains. “For example, the FTC said that $300 loans extended by Tucker’s companies cost $390, at a 30 percent interest rate. In reality, through deceptive loan terms and automatic loan renewals, the FTC said many consumers ended up paying nearly $1,000.”

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Reuters is reporting that U.S. regulations, proposed by the Treasury to crack down on companies that try to reduce taxes by rebasing abroad, have begun a White House review and could be finalized shortly.

The regulations would make it difficult for U.S. business operations to avoid taxation while shifting profits overseas through a practice called “earnings stripping.”

The White House Office of Management and Budget regulations received the proposed regulations last week and now has up to 90 days to decide whether the rules should be finalized or returned to Treasury for further consideration, reports Reuters’ David Morgan.

“The Obama administration has faced widespread criticism from the business community over its regulatory assault on tax inversions, which are tax-driven mergers in which a U.S. company acquires a smaller, foreign business in a low-tax country and shifts its headquarters there, if only on paper, to avoid higher U.S. taxes,” according to the report.

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While the oral arguments about the merits of the Clean Power Plan are heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) remains confident the plan will be upheld by the courts, reports Renewable Energy Magazine.

The Clean Power Plan is the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule placing the first-ever federal carbon pollution limits on American electric power plants, writes Robin Whitlock.

Tom Kiernan, CEO of AWEA, issued a statement, saying in part: “The clean-energy train has already left the station in the form of affordable renewable energy already making major carbon pollution reductions today. The Clean Power Plan reasonably builds on these existing trends in the power sector that have allowed many states to reliably and cost-effectively slash carbon pollution at a rapid rate over the last decade through investment in clean sources of electric generation, like wind power. We fully expect the D.C. Circuit to agree that EPA correctly took these facts into account in considering well-established pollution control measures, such as renewable energy, when establishing carbon reduction standards for power plants under the plan.”

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The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administrationreleased new policy guidelines in September for its review of private settlement agreements presented to the agency for approval in whistleblowing actions, reports Littler Mendelson P.C.

Authors Ed Ellis, Chip Jones and Kevin Griffith write that OSHA issued these guidelines based on its concern that certain confidentiality and other provisions in settlement agreements may unlawfully restrict or discourage employee activity that the government would like to protect and promote. The new policy guidelines track the approach recently adopted  by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The article explains that the SEC issued an agreed cease-and-desist order on August 10, 2016 in BlueLinx Holdings, Inc., requiring the company to amend its severance agreements. “In that cease-and-desist order, the SEC directed the company to remove language from its agreements that prevented employees from accepting monetary awards from the SEC for whistleblowing complaints. BlueLinx also agreed to pay a $265,000 civil penalty,” according to the article.

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The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Roy S. Moore, was suspended on Friday for the remainder of his term in office for ordering the state’s probate judges to defy federal court orders on same-sex marriage, reports The New York Times.

The Alabama Court of the Judiciary did not remove Moore from the bench entirely, as it did in 2003 after he defied orders to remove a giant monument of the Ten Commandments from the state judicial building, but the order effectively ends his career as a Supreme Court justice. His term ends in 2019, and Chief Justice Moore, 69, will be barred by law from running again at that time because of his age, reports The Times‘ Campbell Robertson.

The unanimous nine-member court cited Moore’s “disregard for binding federal law,” exhibited in a January order to the state’s 68 probate judges to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and “his history with this court.”

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Pam Bondi

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said she had no regrets about asking Donald Trump for money and no regrets about keeping the donation even after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had filed a lawsuit against Trump University, reports the Associated Press.

“If I had returned it, you would have reported ‘Bondi accepted a bribe, got caught and returned it,'” Bondi said. “That’s how the reporting goes. And so, no, there was nothing improper about it. So there was no reason to return it.”

Reporters Gary Fineout and Michael Biesecker write that Rep. Ted Deutch, a South Florida Democrat and member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that “Bondi’s murky answers only raise more questions” that should be looked into by federal prosecutors.

Bondi’s office said at the time of the donation that it was “reviewing” the New York lawsuit, but it never took any other action.

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Deutsche Bank AB is saying it has no intention of paying the U.S. Justice Department’s demand of $14 billion to settle high-profile probes into its packaging of mortgages in the run-up to the financial crisis, reports MarketWatch.

The Justice Department’s investigations are connected with the bank’s issuance and underwriting of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007, writes reporter Sara Sjolin.

In a statement, the German bank said, “Deutsche Bank has no intent to settle these potential civil claims anywhere near the number cited. The negotiations are only just beginning. The bank expects that they will lead to an outcome similar to those of peer banks which have settled at materially lower amounts.”

“The bank expects that they will lead to an outcome similar to those of peer banks, which have settled at materially lower amounts,” it added, saying it has been asked to make a counterproposal.

The Justice Department has settled mortgage-related claims with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.  for $5.1 billion and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for $13 billion.

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Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are asking the Justice Department to investigate the circumstances surrounding a $25,000 donation the Donald J. Trump Foundation made to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at a time when her office was considering whether to open a fraud investigation of Trump University, according to a Washington Post report.

The committee’s Democrats allege that the donation in 2013 “may have influenced Mrs. Bondi’s official decision not to participate in litigation against Mr. Trump,” and asks Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch to explore whether federal bribery or other laws might have been violated, report Matt Zapotosky and David A. Fahrenthold.

In a separate case, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on CNN Tuesday that his office was “concerned that the Trump Foundation may have engaged in some impropriety” and had “been looking into the Trump Foundation to make sure it’s complying with the laws that govern charities in New York.”

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The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against the general counsel of Ohio-based chemical company RPM for allegedly mishandling the response to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation, Bloomberg Law reports.

Edward W. Moore, RPM general counsel and chief compliance officer oversaw the company’s response in 2011 when the DOJ started investigating whether its subsidiary, roofing materials company Tremco, had overcharged the government by millions of dollars on certain contracts,according to the SEC complaint.

The SEC accuses Moore of failing to disclose the investigation to RPM’s shareholders, along with his CEO, CFO and internal audit committee and auditors, in a timely manner, writes Gabe Friedman.

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Merrick Garland

Hillary Clinton has started talking to reporters again, but Bloomberg Law reports there’s still a big question she hasn’t answered: Would she re-nominate Merrick Garland to the open seat on the Supreme Court?

Senate Republicans have refused to hold hearings on Garland’s nomination, saying the next president should be the one to select a nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

The Democratic presidential candidate has studiously avoided saying whether she would renominate Garland for the vacancy if it is still pending next year, writes Bloomberg’s Greg Stohr.

“Clinton’s decision would shape both the direction of the court and tone of her presidency. She could stick with Garland, a 63-year-old moderate whose nomination has languished since March. Garland would shift the court to the left but not as far as some liberals would like,” Stohr writes. “Or she could opt for a younger, more progressive nominee, as well as the bigger confirmation fight that would invite.”

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Managing third-party vendor relationships has recently become a hot topic for state and federal financial bank regulators, writes Jerry Blanchard of  Bryan Cave LLP.

Some examinations have resulted in regulators imposing settlements and impose civil money penalties on vendors, he reports.

He explains that, “The OCC guidance is generally looked at as the ‘gold standard’ for evaluating issues that need to be addressed in a vendor agreement. That does not mean that every contract a bank signs needs to have every one of those issues addressed or that each one needs to be resolved in favor of the bank. Vendor contracts come in many different shapes and sizes and may affect everything from back office processing, internet delivery systems, use of the ‘cloud’ to the people watering the plants at the branch. vendors will vary from small local operations to multi-national companies.”

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In orders issued just six days apart last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected language in severance agreements requiring employees to waive rights to receive additional monetary recovery, particularly awards for providing information to government enforcement agencies, reports Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart.

“The Commission’s actions underscore its continuing scrutiny of any provisions that might impede the flow of information to the government, even where there is no evidence of any such effect. They also drive home that employers must continue to stay abreast of legal developments and modify their policies, practices, and agreements promptly.” write the authors, Margaret H. Campbell and Karen L. Vossler.

The advise employers to review and revise policies, practices, and employment agreements, including confidentiality, severance, separation and similar agreements. “In particular regarding recovery-limiting language, employers should consider carefully whether to use it at all, given that an enforceable waiver cuts off additional recovery from the employer,” they write.

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