Court Battles

The 5-3 decision marks a limited victory for the Obama administration and allows regulators to challenge such deals in court.

New rules on everything from potatoes to nuclear waste are being issued or proposed on Friday in the Federal Register. Here they are:

Potatoes:
The Department of Agriculture is adjusting its rules for potatoes grown in Colorado. 

The American Petroleum Institute is asking the High Court to toss out Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards allowing gas with 15 percent ethanol into the market, RegWatch reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is set to vote Wednesday on new rules for money-market funds, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau released guidelines for new mortgage lending rules, The Hill’s On The Money reports.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is considering whether to recall more General Motors vehicles over faulty air bags, according to The Kansas City Star.

The American Petroleum Institute is urging the court to strike down an EPA ruling allowing a high-ethanol fuel blend.

The court backed a reporting requirement for gun sales that is intended to curb violence along the Mexico border.

President Obama’s forthcoming push to seat three judges on an influential bench holds major implications for high-profile fights.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has asked the Supreme Court to uphold a court decision that ruled President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) were invalid.

In a brief filed with the high court on Thursday, lawyers with the Chamber’s National Chamber Litigation Center said the justices should uphold a federal appeals courts decision that found NLRB members Sharon Block and Richard Griffin were improperly appointed to the labor board.

That decision came from a legal challenge filed by Noel Canning, one of the Chamber’s member companies. Lawyers from the Chamber’s litigation center will represent Canning at the Supreme Court — the first time they have represented a member company in that venue.

“The D.C. Circuit got it right — these so-called recess appointments are unconstitutional,” said Tom Donohue, the Chamber’s president and CEO, in a statement. 

A federal court tossed out an appeal on Tuesday from more than 25 hedge fund and investment firms worried of losing money to bigger Wall Street players after the 2008 downfall of Washington Mutual Bank.

The court ruled that the CIA does not have to release photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse to the public.

A federal judge in Arizona declined to reconsider an earlier ruling affirming the Interior Department’s authority to block new hard-rock mining on public lands.

U.S. District Judge David Campbell shut down a request for a rehearing by mining industry groups on Thursday. They’re protesting whether the federal government can unilaterally withdraw public lands from mining claims, according to The Associated Press.

At issue is an action by former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in which the ex-Interior chief banned mining on more than 1 million acres of uranium-rich land near the Grand Canyon.