At the annual Food Safety Summit in Rosemont, Illinois, the Department of Justice’s increased focus on food safety enforcement was a key topic of discussion. While it was quite clear that the DOJ’s increased enforcement activity in high-profile food contamination cases involving companies such as Dole Foods and Chipotle Mexican Grill in 2016 caught the

Healthcare fraud enforcement, which has received much less media attention than Republican-led efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s administration, nevertheless had some key developments that provide signals for future trends in the space.
Continue Reading The First 100 Days: A Renewed Commitment to Health Care Enforcement

Technician replacing the screen of a used smartphone

At various times over the last several years, the DOJ has pushed for updates to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) that would include greater access to encrypted information stored on electronic devices. This week, FBI Director James Comey once again pressed for changes that would provide law enforcement with greater access to encrypted data,

As observed in this blog and elsewhere, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has aggressively pursued enforcement actions in administrative proceedings before its own Administrative Law Judges (ALJs), rather than before federal judges in the U.S. District Courts.  In response, defendants have begun raising constitutional challenges to the SEC’s administrative proceedings, claiming that the SEC’s hiring and removal process for ALJs violates the Appointments Clause in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution.  On June 8, 2015, for the first time, a federal district court enjoined SEC administrative proceedings against defendant Charles L. Hill, accepting the claim that the SEC’s hiring process for ALJs violated the Appointments Clause.  
Continue Reading DOJ and SEC Dig In After Judicial Blow to SEC’s Home “Court” Advantage