Analysis

2 Killings Are Reshaping ICE Strategy. States Also Have Plans.

By Carla Baranauckas

The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in separate immigration enforcement episodes have become a fresh catalyst for state lawmakers who are moving on legislation to limit federal agents' tactics or deepen cooperation with them, despite looming constitutional fights over how far states can go.

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Analysis

Clemency Was 'Broken' Long Before Trump. Can It Be Fixed?

By Phillip Bantz

President Donald Trump has transformed what has historically been a bureaucratic process for seeking federal pardons and commutations into a more freewheeling affair with few clear rules — and no easy solutions for reform, experts say.

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Albright Axes Texas' Anti-ESG Law As Unconstitutional

By Lauren Berg

Texas' law restricting state investments with financial firms and businesses that want to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels is both "overbroad and unconstitutionally vague," a federal judge has ruled, handing a sustainability-focused business group a summary judgment victory.

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Goldstein Accountant Admits Tax Return Errors

By Jared Foretek

A star government witness and the top outside accountant for SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein and his law firm admitted to making mistakes on Goldstein's tax returns and offering the grand jury erroneous testimony, under cross-examination in the U.S. Supreme Court lawyer's tax fraud trial Wednesday.

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'Extraordinary Circumstances': Elon Musk Faces USAID Depo

By Bonnie Eslinger

A Maryland federal judge on Wednesday said billionaire Elon Musk must testify in litigation filed by U.S. Agency for International Development employees claiming he illegally dismantled the foreign aid agency while head of the advisory organization known as the Department of Government Efficiency, saying "extraordinary circumstances justify the deposition."

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Trump Bid To Move NY Appeal Faces 'Fatal' Error, Judge Says

By Frank G. Runyeon

A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday repeatedly aired doubts that President Donald Trump can upend the pending New York state appeal of his hush-money conviction by moving the case to federal court.

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Ex-Fox News Host Decries Judge Pick's Arbitration Stance

By Courtney Buble

Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor and a leading advocate for ending forced arbitration of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, has come out against a federal judicial nominee for Louisiana for her past comments on the issue.

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DC Circ. Preserves Secrecy Of DOJ's Gag Orders On Google

By Allison Grande

The D.C. Circuit has rejected a nonprofit group's push to unmask applications filed by the U.S. Department of Justice that blocked Google from informing one of its email subscribers about a subpoena for some of his account data, agreeing with the lower court that the records were shielded by grand jury secrecy rules.

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Atty Nonprofit Claims Denver Police Withheld Discovery Info

By Zach Dupont

An attorney nonprofit organization claimed the Denver Police Department is not complying with Colorado open record laws, arguing in Colorado state court that the department denied a records request seeking information about discovery that wasn't shared with defendants in hundreds of criminal cases.

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US Supreme Court Won't Halt New Calif. Congressional Map

By Lauren Berg

The U.S. Supreme Court will not block California's new, voter-approved congressional districts before they can be used in this year's midterm election while California Republicans appeal their previous failed bid to block the redrawn map that they argue constitutes illegal racial gerrymandering with Democratic officials "maximizing Latino voting strength."

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Bessent Says Card Rate Cap's Effects 'Important' To Review

By Jon Hill

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to say Wednesday whether he supports President Donald Trump's proposed 10% credit card rate cap, instead telling lawmakers that reining in credit card rewards could be a way to address cost concerns.

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TMX Wants $52M Penalty From Pa. Banking Regulators Axed

By Katryna Perera

A TitleMax affiliate urged a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court panel on Wednesday to strike down a $52 million penalty that state banking regulators have lodged against it over alleged usury law violations, arguing that the disputed loans it provided to state residents were neither negotiated nor made in the Keystone State.

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FERC Says Rejection Of PJM Grid-Planning Change Was Sound

By Keith Goldberg

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has defended its rejection of a plan that PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization, brokered with transmission owners to make grid-planning decisions without the approval of the regional grid operator's members committee, saying the plan would undermine the independence of PJM.

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EPA Can't OK Calif. Engine Emissions Rules, 9th Circ. Told

By Keith Goldberg

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to determine whether California's plan to set tighter emissions rules for off-road engines warranted a Clean Air Act waiver before giving the go-ahead to the Golden State, industry groups have told the Ninth Circuit.

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Q&A

Ex-NJ Enviro Chief Credits Lawyering For Successes

By George Woolston

When he departed his job as an environmental lawyer at Gibbons PC to serve as New Jersey's environmental regulator in 2018, Shawn LaTourette showed up equipped with both public service and private practice experience in navigating the Garden State's notorious pollution.

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Drugmaker Claims Stake In La. Mail-Order Abortion Meds Row

By Mark Payne

An abortion medication manufacturer asserted its right Wednesday to defend mifepristone, moving to intervene in a federal lawsuit over mail-order abortion medication brought by Louisiana alleging that regulators violated federal law by removing an in-person dispensing requirement for the drug.

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USPTO Scraps Interested Party Precedent After New Ruling

By Ryan Davis

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has removed the precedential status of two 2019 decisions addressing the rule that patent challengers must identify all interested parties, saying they were at odds with a decision that was made precedential last year.

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USPTO's Squires Sees TMs As Key Tool Against AI Deepfakes

By Ivan Moreno

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires pitched trademarks as one of the most practical tools for combating artificial intelligence deepfakes, saying during a Wednesday webinar that name, image and likeness rights are "where the puck is going," peppering his remarks with pop culture references and sports metaphors.

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Squires Throws Out 23 Patent Challenges, Grants 12

By Theresa Schliep

The latest summary decision from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires denied 23 America Invents Act petitions and instituted 12 others, bringing his total number of patent challenges granted to 60.

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CFTC Withdraws Proposal To Ban Sports, Election Contracts

By Aislinn Keely

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Chair Michael Selig on Wednesday withdrew a 2024 proposed rule that would have banned trading on the outcome of elections and sporting events, saying the agency will instead float a new rule that promotes "innovation" in derivatives markets.

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NY, NJ Sue Feds Over Hudson River Tunnel Funding Pause

By Elaine Briseño

New York and New Jersey have accused the U.S. Department of Transportation of unlawfully withholding $15 billion to fund the rehabilitation of aging commuter train tunnels under the Hudson River, saying the government did not give a valid reason for the decision.

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Senate Committee Mulls Autonomous Vehicle Standards

By Linda Chiem

U.S. Senate lawmakers on Wednesday renewed debate over how to craft a federal regulatory framework governing autonomous vehicles in the U.S., as Tesla, Waymo and other industry executives pressed for concrete rules to help drive innovation and competition, while also defending their safety records in the face of recent incidents.

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NJ Panel Backs Approval Of Orthodox Girls' School Campus

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey appellate panel affirmed on Wednesday a township planning board's green light for a private Orthodox Jewish girls school campus, concluding that nearby homeowners failed to show the board acted arbitrarily, capriciously or under any improper influence when it approved the project.

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Fired Boston Staffer's Suit Trimmed As Mayor Ducks Claims

By Carolyn Muyskens

A federal judge has dismissed most of a former Boston City Hall staffer's employment lawsuit, including claims accusing Mayor Michelle Wu of firing her to protect a cabinet official from sexual harassment allegations.

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3rd Circ. Ponders Pa. Professor's Virtual Teaching Denial

By P.J. D'Annunzio

A Third Circuit panel on Wednesday quizzed attorneys in a case involving a Kutztown University professor who was denied remote teaching accommodations about if she should have expected in-person instruction to be an essential function of her position, despite the lack of a job description or written policy saying so.

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'Cop City' Protester Says He Was Arrested Over Ideology

By Parker Quinlan

A man who protested the construction of a police and fire training facility in the Atlanta metro area nicknamed "Cop City" has brought a lawsuit in Georgia federal court against Cobb County and two police officers, alleging he was arrested during a 2024 demonstration because of his political ideology and values.

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Express Scripts Makes 'Fundamental Changes' In FTC Deal

By Bryan Koenig

Express Scripts on Wednesday agreed to what the Federal Trade Commission called a "landmark settlement" promising major changes to its drug formulary practices, allowing the company to duck out of a case accusing all three of the country's largest pharmacy benefit managers of inflating insulin prices through rebate schemes.

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HPE Backs DOJ Bid For Final Merger Deal Approval

By Bryan Koenig

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has endorsed the Justice Department's bid for final approval of a controversial settlement permitting the $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, telling a California federal judge that Democratic state attorneys general have nothing but "vague and inaccurate accusations" that the deal was improper.

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3rd Circ. Asks If Death Scene Photo Row Is Privacy Matter

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Third Circuit on Wednesday pondered whether the mother of a man who jumped from a bridge to his death was entitled to privacy after a Philadelphia police officer shared a photo of the man's death scene, focusing its questioning on whether there was a reasonable expectation of privacy concerning a public death.

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Feds Vow New Effort To Protect Privacy Of Epstein's Victims

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge said Tuesday evening that women abused by Jeffrey Epstein have resolved privacy complaints stemming from the government's release of documents related to the deceased financier's sex crimes, after the victims' lawyers flagged widespread deficiencies.

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Wash. AG Defends 'Constitutional' Anti-Spam Law In Ulta Suit

By Ben Adlin

Washington's attorney general is defending the constitutionality of a state anti-spam law, denying arguments by beauty retailer Ulta that the statute is an undue burden on interstate commerce and runs afoul of federal law.

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US To Work With Mexico, Others On Trade Of Critical Minerals

By Dylan Moroses

U.S. officials will coordinate efforts with Mexico, the European Union and Japan to secure critical minerals and develop trade policies around those resources, according to announcements Wednesday by the U.S. Trade Representative's Office.

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EU Lawmakers May Vote On US Trade Deal This Month

By Dylan Moroses

The European Parliament will resume work on carrying out a framework trade agreement with the United States later this month following President Donald Trump's withdrawal of tariff threats in an effort to obtain Greenland, the parliament's trade committee chair said Wednesday.

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Minn. Court Denies Agricultural Tax Break For Property

By Jaqueline McCool

A Minnesota property doesn't qualify for a lower property assessment under a Green Acres tax classification because only a small portion of the property was used for agricultural reasons, the state Tax Court ruled. 

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Minn. Tax Court Lowers Tax Value Of Recreational Lot

By Jaqueline McCool

A vacant recreational lot in Minnesota should have its market value lowered because a mass appraisal conducted by the county was not reliable, the state Tax Court ruled. 

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Ore. Judge Blocks ICE From Making Warrantless Arrests

By Britain Eakin

An Oregon federal judge on Wednesday barred ICE from making warrantless immigration arrests in the state without probable cause that an individual is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained, and provisionally certified a class of people who have been or will be swept up in warrantless immigration arrests instate.

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Minn. Judge Skeptical Of Widespread Refugee Detention

By Ganesh Setty

A Minnesota federal judge on Wednesday appeared to doubt the necessity of sweeping detentions of refugees in Minnesota who have not yet secured their green cards, questioning the Trump administration's powers to return refugees to federal custody.

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Texas AG Sues County Over Immigrant Legal Defense Funding

By Spencer Brewer

The Texas attorney general told a state district court that Bexar County unlawfully used taxpayer dollars to fund the legal defense of unauthorized immigrants who are facing deportation proceedings, saying Wednesday the county may have allocated more than $1 million to an allegedly illegal program.

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NY Judge Says Child Custody Case Belongs In Navajo Court

By Joyce Hanson

A New York state family court judge has said he won't exercise jurisdiction in a domestic abuse and child custody case that originated in a Navajo Nation court, ruling that the Indian Child Welfare Act requires states to honor tribes' judicial proceedings in child custody disputes.

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Wash. Tribes Sue Feds Over $240M Of Salmon Hatchery Funds

By Joyce Hanson

Two tribes in Washington state have sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other federal agencies on claims the government unfairly told them they weren't eligible to apply for $240 million of Pacific salmon hatchery funds under the Inflation Reduction Act.

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Judge Says $40B Ligado Suit Looks 'Destined' For High Court

By Christopher Cole

Network company Ligado's nearly $40 billion lawsuit accusing the government of wrongly blocking its use of a certain slice of the airwaves seems likely to eventually land in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit's chief judge said Wednesday.

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Brief

Partisan Permit Reform Won't Last In Long Run, Dem Says

By Christopher Cole

A Democratic member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday called for bipartisan reform of state and local broadband permitting laws, saying a GOP approach that excludes the other side could stymie the legislation.

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Ex-DOJ Civil Rights Appeals Chief Joins Democracy Center

By Jack Rodgers

The former chief of the appellate section for the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has joined the States United Democracy Center as a senior legal fellow focused on election protection matters, she told Law360 Pulse in an interview Wednesday.

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Ex-Hogan Lovells Regulatory Atty Moves To Honigman In DC

By James Boyle

An attorney specializing in guiding life sciences companies through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's regulatory process has moved her practice to Honigman LLP's Washington, D.C., office after more than 11 years with Hogan Lovells.

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Ex-Top Public Corruption Prosecutor Rejoins King & Spalding

By Alison Knezevich

The former chief public corruption prosecutor at the U.S. Department of Justice has returned to King & Spalding LLP, where he worked early in his career, the firm announced Wednesday.

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Ex-Pentagon GC Joins Bradley Arant's National Security Team

By Jack Rodgers

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has hired the former legal adviser to the National Security Council, who is joining the team in Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., to work with the firm's Government Enforcement & Investigations and Defense & National Security teams, the firm announced Tuesday.

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Brief

Squire Patton Launches Korea Desk

By Anna Sanders

Squire Patton Boggs LLP announced the launch of a Korea desk on Wednesday to strengthen the firm's ability to serve local clients and companies with interests in the region.

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Bid Protest Data Contradicts Claims That System Is Inefficient

Recently released data debunks the narrative that the federal procurement system is overwhelmed by excessive or meritless bid protests, revealing instead that the process is healthy and functioning as intended, says Joshua Duvall at Duvy Law.

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New State Regs On PFAS In Products Complicate Compliance

The new year brought new bans and reporting requirements for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in half a dozen states — in many cases, targeting specific consumer product categories — so manufacturers, distributors and retailers must not only monitor their own supply chains, but also coordinate to ensure compliance, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Takeaways From The DOJ Fraud Section's 2025 Year In Review

Former acting Principal Deputy Chief Sean Tonolli of the U.S. Department of Justice's Fraud Section, now at Cahill Gordon, analyzes key findings from the section’s annual report — including the changes implemented to adapt to the new administration’s priorities — and lays out what to watch for this year.

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New Biotech Nat'l Security Controls May Have Blunted Impact

While the newly enacted federal prohibition against contracting with certain biotechnology providers associated with countries of concern may have consequences on U.S. companies' ability to develop drugs, the restrictions may prove to be less problematic for the industry than the significant publicity around their passage would suggest, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.

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Opinion

Congress Should Lead On AI Policy, Not The States

There needs to be some limits on how far federal agencies go in regulating artificial intelligence systems, but Congress must not abdicate its responsibility and cede control over this interstate market to state and local officials, say Kevin Frazier at the University of Texas School of Law and Adam Thierer at the R Street Institute.

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Breaking Down Expense Allocation In Mixed-Use Properties

Rapid increases in condominium fees and special assessments, driven by multiple factors such as rising insurance costs and expanded safety requirements, are contributing to increased litigation, so equitable expense allocation in mixed-use properties requires adherence to the governing documents, says Mike Walden at FTI Consulting.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Practicing Resilience

Resilience is a skill acquired through daily practices that focus on learning from missteps, recovering quickly without internalizing defeat and moving forward with intention, says Nicholas Meza at Quarles & Brady.

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Meet New Paul Weiss Chairman Scott Barshay

By Anna Sanders

New Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP chair Scott Barshay is a rainmaker who most recently led the corporate department, guiding clients through some of the largest transactions in recent history after joining the firm's New York office a decade ago.

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Judge Who Resigned To Criticize Trump Had Faced Inquiry

By Chris Villani

Former Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf was the subject of an inquiry into potential misconduct when he announced his November resignation, a decision he said at the time was motivated by a desire to speak out against the Trump administration, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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Judge Says AI Errors Show Atty Can't 'Learn' From Mistakes

By Ivan Moreno

A New York federal judge concluded that an attorney who repeatedly submitted filings with false AI-generated citations must be punished with case-terminating sanctions against a client he was defending in a trademark lawsuit, saying Thursday that the lawyer "has not, and apparently cannot, learn from his mistakes."

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NY Times Article Excerpts Admitted In Goldstein Trial

By Jared Foretek

Federal prosecutors pressing their case against SCOTUSblog co-founder Thomas Goldstein for tax evasion and misleading statements on mortgage applications were finally able on Thursday to present jurors with key statements the U.S. Supreme Court lawyer made to legal journalist Jeffrey Toobin for a long New York Times Magazine article.

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Texas Atty Must Explain AI 'Misuse' In Employment Case

By Lauren Berg

A prominent civil rights attorney representing a University of Texas at Austin nurse in an employment discrimination case must explain why he shouldn't be sanctioned "for his apparent misuse of artificial intelligence" to research and write a brief, a Texas federal judge ruled.

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Ex-Alex Jones Atty Asks Conn. Justices To Nix Suspension

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut attorney who formerly represented conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones in a $1.4 billion defamation case has asked the state's highest court to consider whether it was proper for a judge to suspend his law license for violating a protective order governing Sandy Hook families' personal information.

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Deel Loses Bid To DQ Quinn Emanuel In Trade Secrets Fight

By Lauren Berg

Payroll and human resources company Deel Inc. cannot have Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP disqualified from representing its competitor Rippling in a trade secrets fight, a Delaware judge ruled Thursday, saying there is no "clear conflict" that would require booting the BigLaw firm.

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State Bar Of Texas Declines To Open Grievance On Ramey

By Emily Sawicki

The State Bar of Texas has declined to open a grievance against patent litigator William P. Ramey III after a San Francisco federal court sanctioned him and his firm, Ramey LLP, for practicing law in California without a license.

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Wash. Lawyer Faces Sanction Threat Over Alleged AI Errors

By Ben Adlin

A federal judge has ordered an attorney in Washington state to submit a sworn declaration explaining why she shouldn't be sanctioned for what opposing counsel claimed are dozens of artificial intelligence "hallucinations" across multiple case filings.

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Fake Case Pulled From Toshiba Malicious Prosecution Suit

By Bryan Koenig

A former printer toner salesman is trying to salvage his lawsuit against Toshiba after the company flagged nonexistent citations, apologizing to the California federal court in a corrected brief Thursday defending claims that the electronics company manufactured a criminal case against him and others to maintain an illegal monopoly.

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McCarter & English Wants To Torpedo $22M Malpractice Suit

By Aaron Keller

McCarter & English LLP on Thursday asked a Connecticut Superior Court judge to sink a $22.3 million professional negligence lawsuit by two struggling insurers, saying failures to provide documents or knowledgeable people to testify during pretrial depositions warrant a "harsh" end to the nearly decade-old case.

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Trump's Seattle US Atty Stays On For Now Via Title Swap

By Rachel Riley

Trump administration appointee Charles Neil Floyd will continue to be the Western District of Washington's top federal prosecutor for now, under the new title of "First Assistant U.S. Attorney," after the deadline passed Wednesday for the U.S. Senate to confirm the interim appointment.

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Klobuchar Alarmed By Exodus Of Prosecutors In Minnesota

By Courtney Bublé

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on Thursday said she was alarmed by the surge of resignations by federal prosecutors in her state following the shooting deaths of two Minnesotans by immigration agents.

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Judiciary Backs Bill To Let Judges Carry Concealed Guns

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary has come out in support of a Republican-led bill to allow judges and prosecutors to carry concealed firearms across state lines, according to a letter obtained by Law360.

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Ex-Prosecutors Call For Independent Probes Of ICE Killings

By Rose Krebs

A coalition of former federal prosecutors and civil rights attorneys is urging U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure that the U.S. Department of Justice allows for "transparent, unbiased and impartial" investigations into the killings in Minneapolis last month of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration enforcement agents.

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Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2026 Editorial Boards

Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2026 editorial advisory boards.

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