De-Dollarization Efforts in China and Russia
For more than a decade, China and Russia have sought to reduce their use of the U.S. dollar, or “de-dollarize” their economies, in an effort to shield their economies from U.S. sanctions, reduce expos...
Craft Alcoholic Beverage Industry: Overview and Regulation
American production of craft alcoholic beverages—whether beer, wine, liqueurs, distilled spirits, cider/perry, mead, or fermented drinks—has increased in recent years in response to rising demand. In ...
Supreme Court Holds Alaska Native Corporations Are “Indian Tribes” Entitled to CARES Act Funds
On June 25, 2021, in Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Indian Reservation (Chehalis), the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Department of the Treasury’s (Treasury) decision to dist...
Title I of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA): A Summary of the Statute
In 1976, Congress enacted the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA; P.L. 94-469) to direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evaluate the lifecycle (i.e., manufacture, importation, proce...
Voting Rights Act: Supreme Court Provides “Guideposts” for Determining Violations of Section 2 in Brnovich v. DNC
For the first time, the Supreme Court has issued a decision interpreting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in the context of state voting rules. On July 1, 2021, the Court in Brnovich v. Democr...
The CARES Act: Selected Data on Coronavirus-Related Distribution and Loan Usage in 2020
To try to assist those who may have faced financial difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Section 2202 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act; P.L. 116-136) waived t...
Supreme Court’s Decision in CIC Services, LLC v. Internal Revenue Service Impacts Pre-Enforcement Challenges to IRS Reporting Mandates
On May 17, 2021, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in CIC Services, LLC v. Internal Revenue Service, narrowing the reach of the tax Anti-Injunction Act (AIA). The AIA provides that “no sui...
American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (P.L. 117-2): Public Health, Medical Supply Chain, Health Services, and Related Provisions
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA; P.L. 117-2) is the sixth major legislative package in a series to address domestic public health and health system challenges related to the Coronavirus Dis...
Funding Conditions: Constitutional Limits on Congress’s Spending Power
The Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1) gives Congress broad power to authorize spending for the “general Welfare.” The Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Se...
Student Athlete Name, Image, Likeness Legislation: Considerations for the 117th Congress
The national debate on college athlete compensation, fueled in part by high-profile litigation and state legislative enactments, has prompted calls for congressional action on the issue of student ath...
Van Buren v. United States: Supreme Court Holds Accessing Information on a Computer for Unauthorized Purposes Not Federal Crime
On June 3, 2021, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Van Buren v. United States, holding that an individual does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) if he is authoriz...
Surfside Building Collapse: The Role of the National Construction Safety Team Act and the National Institute of Standards and Technology
Following the September 11, 2001 (9/11) terrorist attacks, there was a recognition among policymakers that no federal agency had principal responsibility for investigating building failures. To addres...
Supreme Court Preserves Patent Trial and Appeal Board, but with Greater Executive Oversight
In 2011, Congress enacted a major patent reform bill, the Leahy–Smith America Invents Act (AIA). Among other things, the AIA created new adversarial administrative proceedings within the Patent and Tr...