The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in SEC v. Cochran could usher in the end of the agency's in-house court for most cases, including Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters, according to Richard Cassin, founder of the FCPA blog. Should this happen, Cassin said in a June 12 post, it would be hard to imagine how the SEC could maintain its current level of enforcement activity.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross carries "profound implications for international trade," Steve Charnovitz, professor of international law at George Washington Law School, said in a blog post.

A U.S.-based multinational medical device company said it may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In a May 2 SEC filing, Stryker said it has hired outside counsel to investigate whether “certain business activities in a foreign country violated provisions” of the FCPA, adding that both the SEC and DOJ have contacted it. The company said it’s cooperating with both agencies. “At this time we are unable to predict the outcome of the investigation or the potential impact, if any, on our financial statements,” Stryker said.

DOJ will look to further crack down on Russian sanctions evasion by zeroing in on overseas investment advisers, hedge funds, law firms and private equity managers that have so far evaded scrutiny, Andrew Adams, head of DOJ's Task Force KleptoCapture, told Bloomberg. KleptoCapture is the interagency group charged with enforcing U.S. sanctions on Russia.

A case making its way through the Court of International Trade concerning CBP's interpretation of the drawback statute could result in a "win-win for the drawback community," law firm Neville Peterson said in a blog post. The case could see the court "employ a rule of lenity" when interpreting what is an "article description" for the purposes of setting substitution unused merchandise drawback eligibility, the firm claimed.

A recent Court of International Trade decision over how to value plywood imports claimed to be defective should inspire attorneys who draft international purchase agreements to double-check the language in those deals, Barnes Richardson customs lawyer Lawrence Friedman said in an April 1 blog post. Customs attorneys should ensure their agreements have language declaring "Merchandise shall be delivered free of defects, including latent defects, and suitable to its intended use," or some similar provision, Friedman said, noting that he lacks expertise in contract language.

DOJ last week offered insight on what may constitute “extraordinary” cooperation under its recently revised corporate enforcement polices, but said it doesn’t plan to issue a more concrete definition. The agency can “never articulate, in advance, what exactly will or will not satisfy these provisions,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite said, adding that each case is “different, and our prosecutors need flexibility and discretion to apply their judgment in the myriad scenarios that may be presented.”

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas dismissed a suit against the State Department concerning the regulation of 3D gun file exports, saying the claims are moot because the State Department shifted export control responsibility to the Commerce Department. Judge Robert Pitman dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction, saying plaintiffs Defense Distributed and Second Amendment Foundation failed to show the State Department still regulated the exports. Pitman also ruled that Defense Distributed's claim for monetary damages against the State Department belongs "to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims."

The U.S. filed its initial written submission March 20 in its second panel under the USMCA trade deal over Canada's dairy tariff-rate quotas, arguing that various elements of Canada's TRQ allocation system "remain fundamentally inconsistent with Canada's USMCA obligations," according to a copy of the submission posted by the International Economic Law and Policy blog.

Importers under investigation by CBP for customs penalties should consult with their lawyers on whether and when to waive the statute of limitations, customs lawyer Larry Friedman of Barnes Richardson said. Commenting on the Court of International Trade's recent decision in U.S. vs. Crown Cork & Seal, Friedman said that waiving the statute of limitations is often "the correct thing to do" since it "allows both sides to fully investigate the matter and permits settlement discussions."