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New lawsuits filed in the US Courts of Appeal are seeking to upend a fundamental tenet of the Clean Air Act (CAA or the Act) Title V operating permit program—i.e., that the program does not itself impose new substantive requirements but rather has the purpose of identifying, in a single document, the CAA requirements that apply to a source. View Full Post
Recently, Phillips Lytle’s own Dennis Elsenbeck made an appearance on Spectrum News’ Capital Tonight program with host Liz Benjamin to discuss the energy landscape in New York and the economic impact of energy-related policy decisions. As the State legislative calendar year comes to a close, the conversation centered around how energy policy should be focused… Continue Reading View Full Post
The next time a government inspector comes to a business and inspects its dumpster, do not be surprised if the resulting legal problem involves both environmental and consumer fraud actions. During the last few years, a number of national corporations have found themselves in legal trouble because the inspector found both hazardous waste and customer records containing personal information in a dumpster. View Full Post
Louisiana and Parishes Considering How to Realize Benefit from Scotus’ Wayfair Decision – Working to Change Effective Date of Enabling Legislation By Jason Brown, Jaye Calhoun, and Willie Kolarik The Louisiana Legislature is considering last minute legislation to change the effective date of legislation allowing the State to tax remote sellers but has not acted to make other centralized collection legislation operative.  View Full Post
Suddenly Everything Has Changed: United States Supreme Court Adopts an Undefined Uniform Substantial Nexus Standard, Overturns Quill, and Fundamentally Alters the State Tax Landscape in Historic Wayfair Decision By the Kean Miller State and Local Tax Team On June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its opinion in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., Dkt. No, 17-494, 585 U.S. __ (June 21, 2018).  In addition to overturning the physical presence substantial nexus standard applicable to use tax collection requirements articulated by the court in Quill[1] and Bellas Hess[2], the Court’s far reaching opinion in Wayfair creates an undefined sufficiency test for determining when a taxpayer has substantial nexus with a state for purposes of the dormant Commerce Clause.  View Full Post
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued perhaps the most significant and far-reaching decision affecting state sales and use tax collection since its Quill v. North Dakota decision in 1992.  The high court expressly overruled the Quill decision, stating that the decision’s “physical present rule…is unsound and incorrect.”  As a result of today’s ruling, each state is now generally free to require that online retailers having no physical presence in the state (i) register with the state for sales/use tax purposes; and (ii) collect sales/use tax on a retailer’s sales of products or services into the state. View Full Post
Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals Holds that the Individual Net Capital Gain Exclusion Applies to a Multi-Step Transaction By Jaye Calhoun, Jason Brown and Willie Kolarik In Camp v. Robinson, No. 10609D, (La. Bd. Tax App. June 13, 2018), the Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals (the “Board”) held that Louisiana’s Individual Net Capital Gain Exclusion applies to a multi-step transaction.  View Full Post
California Court of Appeal Upholds CEQA Exemption for Wireless Communications Facility By Daniel P. Brunton, Lucas I. Quass, and Stephanie L. Postal CEQA Case Report: Understanding the Judicial Landscape for Development [i] In a published opinion issued March 15, 2018, Don’t Cell Our Parks v. City of San Diego, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s judgment and upheld the City of San Diego’s (the City’s) determination that a wireless communications facility (the Project) qualified for a categorical exemption for new small facilities under CEQA. View Full Post
For those interested in blockchain and CLE, an excellent, on demand program from The Center for Law, Science & Innovation at the ASU Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law. _____________________________________ “The Center for Law, Science & Innovation recently hosted a Blockchain Speaker Series that brought together CEOs, legislators, and legal professionals to discuss present and future legal challenges and regulation related to blockchain technology. View Full Post
In a published decision filed June 12, 2018, the Second District Court of Appeal (Div. 6) held that the same broad definition of a “project” that mandates more extensive CEQA review of activities undertaken or approved by public agencies also applies in determining the scope of statutory exemptions that serve to exempt certain projects from CEQA review.  View Full Post