Public Policy

  • August 10, 2026

    NJ Justices Rule No Purpose Needed In Takings Ordinances

    The New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday held that municipalities do not need to state the public purpose for which private property is being taken within the measure authorizing condemnation, backing a lower court's finding that a borough properly used eminent domain to take over a 50-room motel where it plans to provide parking and electric vehicle charging.

  • August 10, 2026

    Feds Target 3 More States Over Immigrant Tuition Benefits

    The Trump administration announced Monday that it has filed new lawsuits targeting states that it says unlawfully extend in-state tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrants while discriminating against U.S. citizens from other states, this time against New York, Connecticut and Vermont.

  • August 10, 2026

    Alaska Looks To Defend Road Permit In Suit By Tribal Groups

    The state of Alaska and a remote peninsula community want to join the federal government in defending a construction permit for a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge against a challenge brought by three Indigenous villages and an environmental group.

  • August 10, 2026

    Denver Says Tobacco Cos. Should Pay For Cigarette Litter

    Major tobacco companies including Philip Morris USA Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. knowingly shifted the cost of cleaning up cigarette litter onto Denver, the city alleged in a Colorado state court suit seeking to recover those expenses.

  • August 10, 2026

    Calif. AG Says Paramount Deal Challenge Is About Antitrust

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta pushed back Monday against Paramount Skydance Corp. CEO David Ellison's contention that a challenge of Paramount's Warner Bros. Discovery deal was politically motivated, saying the case is a "straight up antitrust enforcement case."

  • August 10, 2026

    China Places Antidumping Duties On US, Mexican Pecans

    China will place preliminary antidumping duties on imported pecans from the U.S. and Mexico after concluding those goods are harming its domestic industry, the government said Monday.

  • August 10, 2026

    Mass. Board Says $4M Museum Barge Taxable Real Property

    A floating barge used in its current location since 2011 in a Boston Tea Party museum complex is real property taxable by local authorities, the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board said in an opinion released Monday, upholding its $4 million valuation.

  • August 10, 2026

    Trump Picks Ex-Personal Lawyer As New White House Counsel

    President Donald Trump's incoming White House counsel is a former personal attorney for the president who is already working for the White House and was at the U.S. Department of Justice during his first term.

  • August 10, 2026

    ND Says High Court Ruling Sinks Tribes' VRA Claims

    North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe is asking for a judgment on the pleadings on two tribal nations' challenge to the state's 2021 legislative map following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, saying it's "manifestly obvious" that there's no longer a viable claim.

  • August 10, 2026

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    The Delaware Chancery Court last week tackled disputes involving merger settlements, contract claims, controlling stockholders, music rights, prejudgment interest, absentee voting and stockholder standing.

  • August 10, 2026

    Mass. Home Sales Price Best Indicator Of Value, Board Says

    The purchase price of a Massachusetts home was the strongest indicator of its value at the time, a state tax board said in an opinion released Monday, upholding a local assessor's valuations.

  • August 10, 2026

    Feds Propose Regs On Trump Account Income Exclusion

    The U.S. Treasury Department and IRS proposed regulations Monday on how employers can contribute to Trump Accounts, the new tax-advantaged brokerage accounts for children, along with guidelines on how to apply rules for nondiscrimination testing to those contributions.

  • August 07, 2026

    Senate Confirms Todd Blanche To Be AG

    The U.S. Senate voted 50-49 in the early hours of Saturday to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the permanent position.

  • August 07, 2026

    Bipartisan Sens. Float Bill On Small Biz Cybersecurity Tools

    A bipartisan bill Senate lawmakers introduced Friday aimed at protecting small businesses from threats to their networks would require the U.S. Government Accountability Office to develop a report informing small business owners what federal cybersecurity tools and programs are available to them.

  • August 07, 2026

    NYC Homeowners Say City Flubbed 2nd Home Tax Launch

    A trio of New York City homeowners sued over the city's implementation of the "pied-à-terre" tax on certain second NYC homes, claiming the city shouldn't have made their names and addresses public, and also wrongly "foisted onto" residents the burden of proving they're not subject to the tax.

  • August 07, 2026

    CFTC Warns Gambling-Style Prices Mislead Contracts Traders

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Friday told prediction markets under its supervision that they must display clear pricing information for event contracts, warning such entities that they cannot list prices in ways that look like gambling odds.

  • August 07, 2026

    OCC Denies EU Fintech's Charter Bid Over 'Significant' Gaps

    The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has denied European digital bank Bunq's application to charter a U.S. bank, citing "significant" concerns around the financial resources, business plan and managerial competence of the proposed offshoot.

  • August 07, 2026

    1st Circ. Agrees Feds Can't Block Climate, Infrastructure Funds

    The First Circuit on Friday endorsed a Rhode Island federal court's decision requiring the Trump administration to unfreeze congressionally approved funding for infrastructure, agriculture, climate and other initiatives, saying conservation nonprofits are likely to succeed on their claim that the funding cuts were unlawful.

  • August 07, 2026

    Don Lemon Seeks To Toss 'Vindictive Prosecution' By Gov't

    Former CNN anchor Don Lemon asked a federal court on Friday to throw out civil rights charges against him in connection with an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a Minnesota church service, saying he's being punished for his First Amendment protected reporting.

  • August 07, 2026

    Trump Needs Congress' OK To Build Ballroom, DC Circ. Says

    A split D.C. Circuit on Friday backed a district judge's block on President Donald Trump's construction of a new White House ballroom, saying Congress had not "ceded unfettered authority to the executive branch to dramatically redesign, reshape and reconstruct the White House — the People's House — to fit a particular president's desires."

  • August 07, 2026

    Wash. AG's 'Neutral' Income Tax Repeal Description Can Stand

    Washington's descriptions of a November ballot measure that would repeal a recently passed income tax on individual earnings over $1 million will remain largely unchanged despite pushback from activists, according to bench rulings Friday from two superior court judges in Olympia.

  • August 07, 2026

    Senators Push Back Crypto Bill Vote To September

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has confirmed that the Clarity Act to regulate cryptocurrency markets won't get a vote until the chamber returns from its August recess, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have committed to continued negotiations.

  • August 07, 2026

    FCC Demanded Fine In Misleading Way, AT&T Tells 5th Circ.

    AT&T is hoping to convince the Fifth Circuit to help it get back the $57 million it paid the Federal Communications Commission for selling off people's location data, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the agency had the right to issue the fine, by arguing it was tricked into paying.

  • August 07, 2026

    Oklahoma Tribe Wins Bid To Void Federal Drilling Approvals

    A district court judge has vacated approvals for oil and gas drilling permits on land belonging to the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, saying that, despite the U.S. Department of the Interior's claims that the licenses are moot, a live controversy still exists and the federal agency doesn't address any environmental analysis for the authorizations.

  • August 07, 2026

    Judge Says Park Signage Suit Will Continue During Appeal

    A Massachusetts judge won't pause a district court's deadlines pending the outcome of a First Circuit appeal in a dispute over a decision to remove information about climate change, slavery and Indigenous history from National Park Service sites, saying the harm to the plaintiffs outweighs any harm to the defendants.

Expert Analysis

  • New Connecticut Law On Employers' AI Use Is Inventive

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    A recently passed Connecticut law regulating the use of artificial intelligence in employment decisions innovates by using third-party risk assessments to vet and certify AI models, and by recognizing a division of responsibility between developers and deployers, potentially influencing pending legislation in other states, say attorneys at Littler.

  • Opinion

    High Court's Abortion Pill Stay Reinforces Appellate Principles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent order in Danco Laboratories v. Louisiana, staying a Fifth Circuit ruling that reinstated an in-person requirement for dispensing the abortion medicine mifepristone, should be seen not as a definitive ruling on reproductive rights, but as an affirmation of a more disciplined jurisdictional reality, says Daniel Nardo at Nardo & Associates.

  • Opinion

    International Patent Licensing System Must Be Maintained

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    As foreign approaches to patent enforcement threaten to distort the licensing markets that underpin modern technology, courts and policymakers must take action to ensure that the standard essential patent framework is preserved, says Brian O'Shaughnessy at Dinsmore.

  • Tax Highlights From Georgia's 2026 Legislative Session

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    Georgia's two-year legislative cycle recently concluded with the enactment of several significant tax bills that reflect efforts to modernize tax policy in response to evolving economic priorities, and a broader trend toward increased scrutiny of administrative agency interpretations, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • How SEC, CFTC Proposal Would Ease Private Fund Reporting

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    While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s recent proposal to streamline and lighten certain confidential reporting requirements could bring welcome changes for many private fund advisers, sponsors should consider important nuances of its potential impact, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Series

    Studying Foreign Languages Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Studying Italian and Japanese has shown me that learning a new language can benefit a legal career in several ways, including by demonstrating the importance of approaching problems from a fresh perspective and the value of practicing patience with colleagues and clients, says Anna King at Genworth Financial.

  • 6th Circ. Ruling Highlights Split On Labor Cost Depreciation

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    The Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Schoening Investment v. Cincinnati Casualty throws into relief the fine lines of courts' varying interpretations of whether a commercial property insurer may justifiably depreciate labor costs to determine the actual cash value of damage, says Nabila Rahim at Zelle.

  • Sold Inventory May Drive Tax Treatment Of Tariff Refunds

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    Companies determining the tax treatment of refunds expected following the U.S. Supreme Court's February decision invalidating tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act should consider whether the tariff costs have already reduced their income considering the cost of goods sold, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • NCUA Proposal Could Streamline Credit-Union-Bank Mergers

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    While the National Credit Union Administration's recently proposed merger overhaul may reduce procedural barriers to combinations involving banks and credit unions and signals a willingness to revisit long-settled regulations, parties should still ensure careful planning and regulator engagement throughout complex transactions, say attorneys at Fox Rothschild.

  • Operational AI Washing: Fortifying The Disclosure Record

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    The same artificial intelligence-driven workforce narratives that once appeared in earnings calls and Form 8-Ks can easily become raw material for future operational AI washing claims, so companies must be careful when drafting public disclosures because winning a federal motion to dismiss starts months before a lawsuit is ever filed, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • How The High Court Expanded Freight Broker Liability

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II that freight brokers may be liable for selecting unsafe motor carriers, the key question will be whether brokers used reasonable care in selecting a given motor carrier, with the concurring opinion offering some clues as to what reasonable care might look like, says Marc Blubaugh at Benesch.

  • Treasury Proposal Maps Compliance Road For Stablecoins

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    Stablecoin issuers should prepare for bank-style anti-money laundering and sanctions obligations under, and consider submitting comments on, the Treasury Department's proposed Genius Act rules, which are reshaping compliance expectations for digital asset businesses and affiliated financial institutions alike, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Adapting To AI-Driven Scrutiny Of Foreign Asset Disclosures

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    As the government expands AI-driven, cross-agency fraud detection, foreign asset disclosure should be viewed as part of a broader, data‑driven enforcement ecosystem that prioritizes consistency, documentation and proactive governance, says Logan Koehring at FBT Gibbons.

  • New USPTO Procedure May Be A Boon For Patent Owners

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    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's new ex parte reexamination procedure, allowing patent owners to file preorder papers to inform the EPR decision process, marks the first meaningful opportunity for owners to prevent EPR, say attorneys at Knobbe Martens.

  • Sizing Up The Rescheduling Hurdles Medical Pot Cos. Face

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    The Justice Department’s recent lowering of certain medical marijuana products to Schedule III means operators — particularly those simultaneously offering federally illegal adult-use cannabis — must implement greater structural discipline to navigate an increasingly fragmented legal landscape if they hope to benefit from new tax deductions and access to capital, say attorneys at Akerman.

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