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Pres. Donald Trump added new countries to the list of those whose citizens face travel restrictions into the United States. Foreign nationals from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen and Somalia will now face some form of travel restriction to the United States to “address the threats that the countries’ identity-management protocols, information-sharing inadequacies, and other risk factors pose to the security and welfare of the United States.”

The U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights ("OCR") this morning formally rescinded its April 4, 2011, Dear Colleague Letter as well as the April 29, 2014, Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence. Together the two documents had set forth detailed requirements for schools to respond to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault and other sexual misconduct. In rescinding the documents, the OCR indicated it would largely revert to pre-2011 guidance, specifically its 2001 Revised Sexual Harassment Guidance together with a Q&A on Campus Sexual Misconduct also issued this morning. The new Q&A relaxes several of the requirements imposed in 2014 and sends signals that the Department will be more open to claims of discrimination brought by students accused of sexual misconduct. 

USCIS announced it has resumed premium processing for all H-1B petitions subject to the Fiscal Year 2018 cap. Effective September 18, 2017, employers may request to upgrade pending cap-subject petitions with premium processing. USCIS guarantees a 15-calendar day processing time upon receiving an employer’s request for pre

The U.S. Department of Transportation ("DOT") released its revised federal policy for automated vehicles, entitled “Automated Driving Systems 2.0: A Vision for Safety” (the “Voluntary Guidance”) on September 12, 2017, and at the same time announced it is working on a 3.0 version to be released next year.

The higher salary requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) white collar exemptions that were set to take effect December 1, 2016, have been ruled invalid by a U.S. District Court in Texas. The same court preliminarily enjoined the implementation of these regulations on November 22, 2016. That decision is presently on appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Although the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) requested that the district court delay its final decision on the merits of the case until after the court of appeals rules on the preliminary injunction, the district court declined to do so and issued its final decision on August 31, 2017.

The Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) issued a memorandum yesterday to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) informing the agency that it is initiating a review of the effectiveness of the pay data reporting requirements of the revised EEO-1 form which went into effect on September 29, 2016. As a result, the EEO-1 pay data reporting requirements are stayed indefinitely.

USCIS announced it will expand the in-person interview process for certain beneficiaries of permanent residency applications.  

As noted in our December 9, 2016, Client Alert, the Supreme Court in Salman v. U.S. ruled that the required “personal benefit” to the person disclosing inside information (the tipper) does not need to be “pecuniary” or something of a “similarly valuable nature.” Instead, the Supreme Court relied on its prior opinion in Dirks v. SEC, and found that a “gift” of inside information provided to the tipper’s family member or friend can be inferred by a jury as intent by the tipper to “provide the equivalent of a cash gift,” which is the personal benefit to the tipper. Salman, 137 S. Ct. 420, 427-28 (2016). “In such situations, the tipper benefits personally because giving a gift of trading information is the same thing as trading by the tipper followed by a gift of the proceeds.”  Id. at 428. The Supreme Court in Salman overruled as “inconsistent with Dirks” the Second Circuit’s 2014 holding in U.S. v. Newman that “the tipper must also receive something of a ‘pecuniary or similarly valuable nature’ in exchange for a gift to family or friends.”  Id. at 428. The Supreme Court did not directly address the other requirement in Newman that a non-pecuniary, non-monetary “personal benefit” can only be established with “proof of a meaningfully close personal relationship that generates an exchange that is objective, consequential, and represents at least a potential gain of a pecuniary or similarly valuable nature.”  U.S. v. Newman, 773 F.3d 438, 452 (2nd Cir. 2014) (emphasis added).

This is Part II of a four-part series discussing the new AIA 2017 forms. Part I discussed the agreements between the Owner and Contractor (A101-2017 and A102-2017); Part III will discuss the Owner—Architect forms (B101-2017, B102-2017 and B103-2017); Part IV will discuss miscellaneous new forms, including the new insurance exhibits and consultant forms.

USCIS announced it will resume premium processing for certain cap-exempt H-1B petitions effective July 24, 2017.