Insights

Orlando, Fla.– June 22, 2023: The Florida Commission on Offender Review has denied parole to Crosley Green, ruling that his tentative parole release date will be in 2054, when he will be 97 years old. The 65-year-old grandfather has already served 32 years in prison, including 19 years on death row, for a Brevard County murder that he did not commit.

Orlando, Fla.– April 17, 2023: Crosley Green embraced his family Monday in what may be his last day as a free man and then surrendered again to the Florida Department of Corrections in Orlando. The 65-year-old grandfather has already served 32 years, including 19 on death row, for a murder that he did not commit. After a federal court found that Mr. Green was wrongfully convicted, he has been free for the past two years on conditional release while his case was on appeal. He was ordered to return to prison after an appeals court overturned his win and the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear his case.

On November 27, 2024, a group of eleven state attorneys general (the “AGs”) sued three of the world’s largest asset managers (the “Asset Managers”), accusing them of anticompetitive stock acquisitions, deceptive asset management practices, and an antitrust conspiracy to restrict coal output. The states seek declaratory and injunctive relief including divestitures, as well as fines under state laws, although the allegations could provide a basis for follow-on private treble damages claims under the antitrust laws.

Investors pursuing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs or applying sustainability standards have recently faced high-profile antitrust accusations, leading some to reconsider their participation in certain sustainable investment groups. On August 9, 2024, Climate Action 100+ confirmed the withdrawal of a major investor from the initiative, less than two weeks after the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives had sent information requests to more than 130 of the group’s members as part of an investigation into ESG programs. This follows numerous similar requests by the Committee since December 2022, as well as similar requests and threats of legal action against asset managers by some State Attorneys General since August 2022.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representative Mondaire Jones (D-NY) introduced the “Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act” (S. 3847 and H.R. 7101), which, if enacted, would dramatically change the standards and processes for federal merger review across all sectors of the economy, giving the DOJ and FTC powers like those of—if not stronger than—the European Commission. The new bill is perhaps the most aggressive federal legislative proposal yet seeking to halt and reverse industry consolidation, highlighting concerns likely to impact ongoing negotiations on Capitol Hill regarding other pending antitrust legislation.