On February 8, 2016, two significant decisions regarding the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) were issued by the federal courts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s guidance in U.S. v. Kwai Fun Wong,135 S. Ct. 1625, 1638 (2015), that “the FTCA’s time bars are nonjurisdictional and subject to equitable tolling.” These…
Pillsbury would like to congratulate the winners of the “Built by Women” contest in DC, which highlights women’s contributions to the city of Washington D.C in the areas of architecture, engineering, construction, and real estate. Categories include Civic, Commercial, Cultural, Institutional, Landscape, Mixed-Use, Residential, Transportation, Urban Design. The Built By Women…
On February 5, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in the case of Palmer Ranch Holdings, LTD, et al., v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, issued a long and complex ruling that largely affirms the Tax Court’s decision regarding a contested evaluation of a conservation easement that resulted…
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required by Section 108 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601–9675 (CERCLA), to establish financial assurance and responsibility rules for classes of facilities that are associated with the production, transportation, treatment, storage or disposal of hazardous substances.…
The Presidio Army Base in San Francisco, once the headquarters of the Sixth Army and a favorite post of many soldiers and their families, is now a National Park and a National Historic Landmark. For many years, plans to renovate and protect the old post have been thoroughly discussed and…
In the case of Center for Biological Diversity, et. al v. U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in an unpublished opinion released on January 12, 2016, reversed the lower court’s dismissal of a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Citizens Suit filed against the…
In Government Contractors Brace For Continuing Changes in Cybersecurity Regulations, my Pillsbury colleague Travis Mullaney and I caution that the federal government is making cybersecurity a top priority and government contractors should expect a number of new regulation’s, policies and standards aimed at protecting against increasingly sophisticated cyber-warfare. As the government invigorates…
The ability of churches and other religious institutions to engage in ordinary business activities can be unexpectedly and adversely affected by provisions in some state constitutions which can be interpreted to exclude them from having access to public funds and public resources based on nineteenth century constitutional amendments. On January…
On January 25, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court, in FERC v. Electric Power Supply Association, et al., a 6 to 2 ruling, reversed the May 2014 decision of the D.C. Court of Appeals, which had held that a final rule of FERC governing the “demand response” in which operators of…
A company’s ability to contest in federal court what it views as unfair oversight by a federal government regulatory committee is still subject to obstacles posed by the “standing doctrine” by which access to the courts is limited to cases and controversies actually needing resolution. A recent example of this…