News & Publications

On March 4, 2021, the US Supreme Court held that draft biological opinions prepared by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) were subject to the deliberative process privilege and therefore exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).1  While FOIA generally mandates the disclosure of documents held by federal agencies, predecisional documents generated during an agency's deliberations are generally exempt from disclosure. In a 7–2 [...]

his week, we take a look at two cases requiring the Ninth Circuit to navigate interlocking provisions of state and federal law.  In the first case, the Court addressed how the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies to a creditor's attempt to collect a debt when state law was unclear that the effort was time barred.  In the second case, the Ninth Circuit examined whether and how California's Labor Code applies to flight attendants given [...]

Prior to the enactment of Real Property Actions and Proceeding Law ("RPAPL") § 1302-a, defendants waived their affirmative defense of standing in a residential foreclosure action by failing to raise that defense in an answer or a pre-answer motion to dismiss.  See, e.g., JP Morgan Chase Bank, Nat'l Ass'n v. Butler, 129 A.D.3d 777, 780 (2d Dep't 2015).  However, since the enactment of RPAPL § 1302-a, which became effective on December 23, 2019, defendants can raise [...]