Giansante & Assoc., LLC

01/23/2026

"Environmetal insurrectionists"?

As a severe winter storm makes its way across the United States, President Donald Trump issued a confused statement in an attack on environmentalists, who he dubbed “environmental insurrectionists.” “Record Cold Wave expected to hit 40 States,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth ...

01/09/2026

Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish scheduled for oral argument. Justice Alito will not be involved, however, because of his investments in Conoco-Phillips.

Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish is a very important case involving the Court's refusal to over ride a plaintiff's selection of a State Court to litigate its damage claims over coastal wetlands destruction.

Where a federal contractor attempts to remove a case to federal court under the federal-officer removal statute, what is the correct standard for determining whether removal is proper where the activity giving rise to the lawsuit is not expressly the subject of the government contract on which remov...

01/07/2026

Is there currently a U.S. Attorney for Virginia?

A separate judge ruled in November that Halligan, a Trump ally who prosecuted James Comey and Letitia James, had been unlawfully appointed to her position.

12/08/2025

Ms. Habba has stepped down as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey avoiding any further conflict or confusion created by her unlawful appointment.

Alina Habba stepped down as the top prosecutor in New Jersey after an appellate court found last week that Attorney General Pam Bondi had improperly appointed her as U.S. attorney.

12/05/2025

Scientific Journal retracts study on safety of Monsanto Roundup. What about all the court cases that relied on that study when entering judgment in favor of the defense? Can those cases be reopened?

The journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology has formally retracted a sweeping scientific paper published in 2000 that became a key defense for Monsanto’s claim that Roundup herbicide and its active ingredient glyphosate don’t cause cancer. Martin van den Berg, the journal’s editor in ch...

12/04/2025

So, does this mean that lawyers now have to argue their own first amendment rights when facing administrative actions or other enforcement by the Justice Department? It's getting Kafka-esque out there.

DOJ’s No. 2 official said says prosecutors see “‘inconsistency”’ in attorneys’ private pleas and public commentary.

11/24/2025

Lower Merion Township in Pennsylvania has become the first township to ban gasoline leaf blowers. The new law is not without its critics.

Seasonal bans in 2026, 2027 and 2028, and the full ban goes into effect in 2029. Plenty of comments on both sides of debate.

11/24/2025

District Judge Currie decided today that Lindsey Halligan is not a lawful U.S. Attorney appointee and that her actions in presenting and signing an indictment against James Comey and Letitia James were likewise unlawful. Given that, it would appear that any actions taken by Alina Habba are likewise infirmed for many of the same reasons. If your lawyer has any dealings with the justice department, it's something to consider.

A federal judge has dismissed the criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, concluding that the prosecutor who brought the charges at President Donald Trump’s urging was illegally appointed by the Justice Department.

11/06/2025

Very interesting oral argument in the Trump Tarrif case before the Supreme Court. Justice Gorsuch hit the nail on the head when he questioned the "one way" ratcheted deligation of Congressional power that is deligated on a simple majority vote but can't be taken back or extinguished without a super-majority vote if the President doesn't want to give up that power. The issue arose in the context of the Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 but the argument applies to any similar delegation of congressional power reserved to the Congress by the Constitution.

06/18/2025

Wierd decision from the Supreme Court today. Nuclear waste, by law, can only be stored at a reactor or at a licensed federal facility (don't look for it, there are none). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a permit to a private company to store thousands of tons of spent fuel at a facility hundreds of miles from any reactor. That raises too many issues to even mention. The permit is clearly illegal. Nevertheless, the Court has denied the two objectors to the permit standing to raise them. So, the end result is that the Hobbs Act is worthless because the Courts won't enforce it. Three of the justices dissented from the decision. I find myself on their side. Here is the decision.
supremecourt.gov
www.supremecourt.gov

The inclusion of maps, photographs, or other supplemental material in Supreme Court opinions is rare. On June 22, 1983, the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Karcher  v. Daggett, in which it found that the population discrepancies for New Jersey’s recently redrawn congressional districts w...

06/04/2025

Just imagine, hundreds of little Chernobyls.

GE Hitachi’s small modular reactor (SMR) provides 24/7 on-demand, carbon-free power.

03/20/2025

EPA has approved a "beneficial use" pilot study to recycle phosphogypsum as a road base on 2,000 feet of Florida highway.