Court Battles

An appeals court on Tuesday denied complaints from environmental groups that said federal regulators are ignoring the lessons from Japan’s Fukushima meltdown when approving the first U.S. nuclear construction project since 1978.

A federal court tossed out regulations that would require employers to post notices about union rights.

A top New York state official is suing two of the nation's largest banks over alleged repeated violations of a national mortgage settlement. 

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday that he intends to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo for 339 documented violations for failing to provide timely responses to mortgage modification applications that he argues puts struggling homeowners at risk for losing their homes.

“The five mortgage servicers that signed the national mortgage settlement are legally required to take specific, rigorous and enforceable steps to protect homeowners,” Schneiderman said in a statement. 

Attorney General Eric Holder has threatened litigation against Kansas over a new law that claims to nullify federal gun controls.

A federal court on Tuesday swatted down complaints from financial and tech giants who demanded a regulatory intervention by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on stock market fees.

Federal regulators acted fairly when denying drugmaker AstraZeneca an extension to the exclusive rights to make an antischizophrenic drug, an appeals court said Friday.

Capital One and two former senior executives paid financial regulators a total of more than $3.5 million to settle charges they manipulated auto loan losses leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Wednesday that the U.S. bank, which reported $21.4 billion in revenue last year, understated the losses the company took from subprime auto loans that could have otherwise been a signal to the looming credit bubble burst.

Losses from Capital One’s auto finance business in the second and third quarters of 2007 vastly exceeded the company’s internal estimates, the SEC says. In financial reports, however, the bank underreported the numbers by 18 percent and 9 percent during those quarters, respectively, or by as much as $72 million and $51 million.

A court-ordered agreement between regulators and environmental groups to issue updated regulations on the waste runoff from power plants will go forward, a federal court said Tuesday.

The court rejected a request from the energy industry to overturn the consent order from 2010 that forced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use its powers under the Clean Water Act to review rules for power plant emissions.

The 2012 federal district court ruling essentially invalidates proposed federal regulations limiting speculation on 28 commodities, including gasoline.

The settlement would allow Anheuser-Busch to purchase Grupo Modelo.