Announcements, information and updates from CWAG Members and Associates
September 20, 2018
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Tuesday, November 27, 2018
We look forward to seeing you at the 2018 CWAG Winter Dinner, Tuesday, November 27, 2018 in Charleston, South Carolina. We invite your participation in this Endowment Dinner benefiting the programs and goals of the Attorneys General.
Attorneys General and private sector supporters will join together for a dinner and informal discussions at The Dewberry Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina. This highly personal and engaging dinner includes participation from approximately 25-30 Attorneys General. Attend this year's event and participate in this premier opportunity for exchanging views and forging relationships.
You may register as either a current sponsor using one of your allocations under your annual membership, or as a new sponsor.
If you are an existing sponsor who registered for the 2018 CWAG Annual Meeting, you may use your same registration code to register for the Winter Dinner. If you need your code re-sent to you, please contact Meeting Manager Ale Stephens.
To register online, go to the
2018 CWAG Winter Dinner Registration Website
. Click on "Register" and enter your name, last name and email address, then select your attendee type.
Along the top of the registration site, you will find tabs with complete details about the schedule, hotel accommodations, suggested transportation and more.
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CYBER SECURITY WORKING GROUP MEETING
The next meeting of the Cyber Security Working Group will be held in conjunction with the CWAG Winter Dinner in Charleston, South Carolina at the Dewberry Hotel. The Working Group session will be held on Wednesday, November 28th, from 9:00-11:00 am. A light breakfast will be provided.
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CWAG SPORTS BETTING SEMINAR
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Please Join CWAG Live Online to Watch the 2018 Sports Betting Seminar on October 4th - 5th
As we expect a number of state legislatures to take up this issue in their next few legislative sessions, the Attorneys General will be responsible for providing briefings and opinions to the legislature regarding the legal obstacles and parameters for Sports Betting within their state.
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Articles on topics relevant to the work of Attorneys General around the nation.
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Note: Subscription may be required for access
.)
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CWAG Cyber Security Working Group Publishes Safe Harbor Guidelines
All fifty states and the District of Columbia have laws specifically designed to deal with cybersecurity breaches. However, the laws in each state vary widely. The concept of privacy across the globe is fluid. With the official implementation of the European General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), companies that operate internationally have been forced to develop complex security systems to accommodate the GDPR’s pro-privacy, pro-user approach. Domestically, security systems that house our data remain complex and widely misunderstood.
In their role, State Attorneys General (AGs) continuously track privacy policies, monitor companies’ compliance with such policies, and sometimes enforce them against companies that abuse the trust consumers place in them. While AGs have traditionally taken a reactive role in data privacy enforcement, opportunities exist for proactive engagement and the development of proper incentives for businesses to voluntarily implement, apply, and maintain robust cybersecurity programs.
The public-private CWAG Cyber Security Working Group has come together to turn their attention from discussions and dialogue, to action. An active group of attorneys general, senior staff, and internal cyber security experts have come to the realization that independently, individual states cannot effectively deal with this criminal activity. In their view, having the ability to coordinate actions across multistate jurisdictions and in collaboration with private sector experts, would lay the foundation for a national cybercrime initiative with teeth.
The Working Group focused on “safe harbor” provisions as a public policy option worth exploring in detail. This paper develops this concept further and attempts to bring structure to the discussion by summarizing the Group’s key findings with respect to “safe harbor” and other pressing policy issues germane to the cybersecurity conversation.
This paper offers those interested in this topic a variety of options when it comes to thinking about this issue. As this is an ever evolving topic, CWAG expects this paper will be updated with comments and considerations in the months to come.
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Madigan Urges Congress to Support Funding Under Violence Against Women Act
September 17, 2018
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced she led a coalition of 56 attorneys general to urge Congress to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
Madigan and the other attorneys general sent a letter earlier to Congressional leaders and the chairs of the Senate and House judiciary committees, urging lawmakers to vote to reauthorize VAWA before it expires this year.
Under VAWA, originally passed in 1994, over $6 billion in grant funding has been awarded to government and nonprofit organizations nationwide. The grants have funded training and assistance to address and reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. The grants have also funded resources and services to assist survivors, prosecute offenders and facilitate partnerships between prosecutors, judges, advocates, community organizations and health care providers.
In their letter, Madigan and the other attorneys general emphasized the importance of VAWA to reducing the rate of sexual violence toward women and addressing the devastating effects of these crimes. Madigan and the other attorneys general urged Congress to continue funding for programs that have helped millions of domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.
Joining Madigan in submitting the letter were the attorneys general of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories.
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Schuette: Flint Man Sentenced for Cold Case Sexual Assault
September 19, 2018
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced that
Arthur David Long
was sentenced on September 18 to 10 – 20 years in prison for the 1998 rape of a woman during a home invasion. Long was charged in early 2017 after DNA testing identified him in the crime.
In August 2018, Long pleaded guilty to two counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the 1
st
Degree.
Genesee County Circuit Judge Joseph Farrah sentenced Long to 10-20 years in prison for each offense, which he will serve concurrently. He has been in police custody since charged were filed and was given credit for time served of 580 days with $650 in costs.
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Rutledge Announces Prescription for Life Milestones in Arkansas
Says, ‘we are seeing Prescription for Life making a real difference in students’ perception of opioid use
September 18, 2018
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced that more than 6,000 students across Arkansas have participated in the first-in-the-nation Prescription for Life program.
The Attorney General’s office covers the cost of Prescription for Life, a first-of-its-kind digital platform offered to all high school students in Arkansas. Since the program’s launch in September, it has been introduced in 57 schools across 50 counties with an additional 24 schools committed to launching the program this fall.
Prescription for Life is just one step in Rutledge’s multi-faceted approach to ending the opioid crisis. Rutledge is also suing the opioid manufacturers who created the crisis in Arkansas for violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Arkansas Medicaid Fraud False Claims Act. Each year, Rutledge partners with a number of agencies in hosting the Arkansas Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Summit, a free training and educational opportunity for law enforcement officers, medical professionals, pharmacists and educators. And in addition to the bi-annual Prescription Drug Take Back Day, scheduled for April 28 this year, Rutledge began partnering in 2016 with local law enforcement across the State to provide prescription drug take back boxes at every mobile office, held annually in all 75 counties. So far this year, more than 40 pounds of prescription drugs have been collected and disposed of safely – keeping them out of the hands of children and those with addictions.
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Attorney General Laxalt Proposes Bills Prioritizing Victims’ Rights While Ensuring Strong Punishment of Perpetrators of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking
September 19, 2018
Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt announced that his office submitted two bills prioritizing victims’ rights for consideration in the upcoming Legislative Session. One of the proposed bills will strengthen efforts against human trafficking. The other proposed bill intensifies State efforts to curb domestic violence by increasing penalties against offenders, while further protecting victims of the crime. Taken together, the bills prioritize victims’ rights and ensure strong, just punishment for perpetrators of these types of crimes.
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CONSTITUTIONAL VOTING RIGHTS
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Constitutional Law Expert Joins Guam Legal Team
September 18, 2018
Constitutional law expert Erwin Chemerinsky, the current Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law and author of more than 200 law review articles, has joined the Attorney General of Guam’s legal team defending the island’s political status plebiscite in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He will join Special Assistant Attorney General Julian Aguon, and Deputy Attorney General Kenneth Orcutt next month to appeal the 2017 Davis v. Guam ruling.
The ruling by District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood determined the island’s self-determination plebiscite was unconstitutional and race-based. Chemerinsky and Aguon disagree with the ruling, stating instead that the Guam law is race-neutral and seeks only to provide a platform for colonized people to express their views regarding decolonization.
“Neither the Fourteenth nor the Fifteenth Amendment was designed to prohibit this kind of political expression,” said Aguon, a human rights lawyer. Tydingco-Gatewood’s ruling was largely informed by a Supreme Court decision in the 2000 Hawaii case, Rice v. Cayetano, which resulted in non-Hawaiians being allowed to vote in Office of Hawaiian Affairs elections. “Hawaiian,” according to the State’s law, encompassed persons descended from people inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands in 1778.
Guam law, in comparison, limits the plebiscite to “Native inhabitants of Guam,” which it defines as “those persons who became U.S. Citizens by virtue of the authority and enactment of the 1950 Guam Organic Act and descendants of those persons.”
“Rice held only that ancestry may be a proxy for race, not that it always is. This case is an example of when it is not,” Chemerinsky said. “The Guam Legislature intended to carve out a class of colonized people for the purpose of determining their views regarding their right to decolonization, as recognized by international law.” Chemerinsky also said the definition of “Native inhabitants” was careful to identify a colonized people, and “whether one’s ancestor’s experienced colonization,” he said.
Davis initially filed a lawsuit against the Guam Election Commission in 2011, when he wasn’t allowed to register for the plebiscite because he wasn’t a “Native inhabitant.” The Justice Department later upheld Tydingco-Gatewood’s decision. Arguments will be heard in front of a three-judge panel in Honolulu.
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AG’s Hanford Worker Safety Lawsuit Leads to Big Win For Workers
Federal government will pay $925,000, must test and begin implementing new technology to destroy hazardous vapors or lawsuit may resume
September 19, 2018
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that the U.S. Department of Energy will conduct testing and, if successful, begin implementing a new system to treat or capture hazardous tank vapors at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation within the next three years, under the terms of an agreement submitted to a federal court.
For the first time, Energy has agreed to:
- Phased testing of new technology to capture and destroy tank vapors, and, if successful, implementation
- Install a vapor monitoring, detection, and alarm system in the areas where vapor exposures are most likely to occur
- Maintain current safety measures implemented after Ferguson’s lawsuit, including supplied air and respirators, in place to keep workers safe during testing
- Improve sharing of information regarding vapor events, worker protections, worker health monitoring, and medical surveillance
- Pay Washington state and Hanford Challenge $925,000 to reimburse for costs and fees
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Welcome to the Sponsor Spotlight, where each week CWAG will celebrate one of our private sector partners.
SIDLEY AUSTIN, LLP
With a practice highly attuned to the ever-changing international legal landscape, Sidley has built a reputation for being a powerful legal adviser for global businesses.
With more than 2,000 lawyers across 20 offices worldwide, Sidley maintains a commitment to providing quality legal services and to offering advice in litigation, transactional and regulatory matters spanning virtually every area of law.
Our highly regarded capital markets practice and broad transactional practice disciplines include corporate and securities, mergers and acquisitions, securitization, intellectual property, funds and other pooled investments, bankruptcy and corporate reorganization, bank and commercial lending, public finance, real estate, tax and employee benefits, as well as trusts and estates. Sidley’s extensive litigation experience includes general and commercial litigation, regulatory and financial litigation, antitrust, white collar criminal defense, food and drug, healthcare, patent and other intellectual property litigation, product liability and mass tort litigation, international commercial arbitration and dispute resolution, and international trade law. Our offices are found in Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Century City, Chicago, Dallas, Geneva, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.
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Updated
American Indian Law Deskbook
Is Now Available
The
American Indian Law Deskbook
is a concise, direct, and easy-to-understand handbook on Indian law. The chapter authors of this book are experienced state lawyers who have been involved in Indian law for many years.
American Indian Law Deskbook
addresses the areas of Indian law most relevant to the practitioner.
Topics include:
- Definitions of Indians and Indian tribes
- Indian lands
- Criminal, civil regulatory, and civil adjudicatory jurisdiction
- Civil rights
- Indian water rights
- Fish and wildlife
- Environmental regulation
- Taxation
- Gaming
- Indian Child Welfare Act and tribal-state cooperative agreements
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Follow the 31 AG Races in 2018 on this Interactive Website
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A significant number of states, 30 and the District of Columbia, have contests for the Office of Attorney General. Cozen O’Connor’s State Attorneys General Practice hosts an interactive map for those interested in following the races throughout the country. The State AG Election Tracker includes state-by-state AG candidate snapshots, filing deadlines and primary election dates; daily news, insights, polling and fundraising data; and the ability to sign up for real-time election-night updates via text and email. Access is free.
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