Public Policy

  • July 13, 2026

    Judge OKs Pause On Reviewing CFPB Layoff Plan

    A D.C. federal court has approved a joint bid from the Trump administration and a union that represents Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staffers to pause weighing a response to the administration's plan to lay off about half of the agency's remaining workforce, after the parties argued the president's nominee to head the agency should be given the chance to review the plan if he is confirmed.

  • July 13, 2026

    States Win Vacatur Of Remain-In-Mexico Termination Memos

    A Texas federal judge granted Texas and Missouri's push to block the Biden-era termination of the Remain in Mexico policy, which required asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims were processed, and ruled a nationwide vacatur was appropriate.

  • July 13, 2026

    FCC Ditches Lifeline Obligations In Hundreds Of Counties

    The Federal Communications Commission has announced a list of counties across the country in which eligible telecommunications carriers will no longer be required to advertise and offer Lifeline-supported voice service.

  • July 13, 2026

    Cannabis Co. Says Mich. City Forced Illegal License Waiver

    A marijuana dispensary in Michigan's Upper Peninsula told a federal court that a Michigan municipality changed cannabis licensing rules midway through the process and committed fraud and breach of contract.

  • July 13, 2026

    Hemp Co. Tells 7th Circ. To Leave RICO Case Buried

    Hemp product maker Urb Cannabis and its affiliates are urging the Seventh Circuit to leave intact the dismissal of a hemp seller's suit alleging that Urb's products were illegal and led to a police raid on his store, saying the racketeering claims are insufficient and fail to describe the conspiracy or identify its members.

  • July 13, 2026

    Blanche Hearing To Proceed After Graham's Death

    The Senate Judiciary Committee will still hold the confirmation hearing for Todd Blanche's nomination to be attorney general on Wednesday, despite the death of committee member Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over the weekend. 

  • July 13, 2026

    Families Cite Geofence Ruling In Newborn Blood Testing Case

    A group of parents suing the state of Michigan over the way newborn blood samples are collected and stored has asked a federal judge to revive its claims by citing recently decided U.S. Supreme Court precedent over the use of bulk cellphone data by police.

  • July 13, 2026

    DHS Revives Plan For NJ Immigrant Detention Center

    The U.S. government told a federal judge that it's actually still considering plans to turn a New Jersey warehouse into an immigrant detention center, a week after it reported it no longer intended to pursue the challenged project.

  • July 13, 2026

    CBP Sends Another $15B In Tariff Refunds To Treasury

    Customs and Border Protection finalized over $15 billion more worth of tariff refunds in just under two weeks, according to a Monday declaration filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

  • July 13, 2026

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    The Delaware Chancery Court last week handled disputes involving corporate control, post-closing competition, executive departures, arbitration awards and shareholder litigation.

  • July 13, 2026

    Health Org. Can't Halt FTC Texas Suit Over Trans Youth Care

    A D.C. federal court declined to bar the Federal Trade Commission from pursuing a consumer protection suit in Texas against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, finding WPATH failed to show those proceedings threatened the court's injunction of a related investigation by the FTC.

  • July 13, 2026

    Alaska Tribal Health Group Drops $390M Suit After Deal

    The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is looking to nix its $390 million challenge to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over seven years of alleged unpaid contract support cost claims after the parties reached a settlement in the dispute.

  • July 13, 2026

    Ex-Lawmaker's Atty License Pulled After Fraud Conviction

    Former Connecticut state Sen. Dennis A. Bradley will lose his law license on an interim basis later this week while a court considers imposing a lengthier suspension over his March 27 wire fraud conviction.

  • July 13, 2026

    NY Times Says Gov't Can't Justify Concealing Boat Strike Videos

    The New York Times told a New York federal judge that the U.S. Department of Defense's "vague and implausible" justification for withholding footage from several military strikes on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean is countered by its decision to release clips from the footage on social media.

  • July 13, 2026

    Mass. Judge Hints At Fee Award In DOD Grant Cap Case

    The U.S. Department of Defense was "not substantially justified" in moving forward with a unilaterally imposed reimbursement limit for grant-funded research support costs, a Massachusetts federal judge said Monday while weighing whether to award legal fees to a group that successfully challenged the cap.

  • July 13, 2026

    Hawaii To Expand First-Time Homebuyer Tax Break

    Hawaii will increase the individual income tax deduction amount that can be claimed for a taxpayer's contribution to a first-time homebuyer account under a bill approved by Democratic Gov. Josh Green.

  • July 13, 2026

    Trump-IRS Settlement Result Of Sham Suit, Judge Rules

    President Donald Trump's $10 billion suit against his own Internal Revenue Service and the resulting settlement deal lacked a legitimate controversy, given Trump's control over both the agency and the U.S. Department of Justice, a Florida district judge said Monday in an order barring Trump or others from citing the deal.

  • July 13, 2026

    $725M Liquid Nails Deal Would Harm Market, FTC Tells Judge

    Loctite maker Henkel's planned $725 million acquisition of Liquid Nails would create a construction adhesives market behemoth with a "staggering" 80% retail share, the Federal Trade Commission told a Manhattan federal judge Monday as it challenges the deal.

  • July 13, 2026

    US Sets Tariff Rate Quotas For Sugar, Syrups

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture set the tariff-rate quotas on Monday for imports of both raw cane sugar and certain refined sugars that will be subject to lower tariff rates for the 2027 fiscal year.

  • July 13, 2026

    12 Democratic AGs Challenge Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal

    A dozen Democratic attorneys general on Monday sought to block Paramount Skydance's proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing in a California federal court challenge that the deal threatens competition for film distribution and basic cable.

  • July 10, 2026

    NY Nonprofits Want ICE Docs On Courthouse Arrest Policies

    Nonprofit groups suing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over courthouse arrest policies pressed a Manhattan federal judge to force the agency to produce documents and testimony concerning arrests it conducts outside immigration courts after the agency's revised policy concerning such arrests in Manhattan was put on hold.

  • July 10, 2026

    Biggest Illinois Decisions Of 2026: Midyear Report

    One of the biggest decisions to come down in Illinois so far this year applies a 2-year-old Biometric Information Privacy Act amendment retroactively in an appellate ruling experts anticipate will deflate settlement values even though it came from a federal court.

  • July 10, 2026

    Trump Admin. Cuts ESA 'Harm' Definition, Groups Vow Fight

    The Trump administration on Friday said it's scrapping a long-standing definition of "harm" for the Endangered Species Act that included habitat degradation, with environmental groups promising a legal challenge and warning the change will put imperiled species at greater risk of extinction.

  • July 10, 2026

    States' Stopgap Suit Aims To Shield K-12 Mental Health Grants

    Washington and 14 other states launched a preemptive lawsuit Friday to stop the Trump administration from ending federal grants for mental health programming in public schools, seeking to preserve the funding if the U.S. Department of Education succeeds in asserting new grounds for canceling the grants in a related case.

  • July 10, 2026

    Crypto Firms Urge CFTC To Tailor Rules, CME Urges Caution

    Cryptocurrency industry groups and firms are urging the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to make regulatory tweaks to ensure blockchain-based financial products aren't burdened by unsuitable requirements of traditional registration categories, while some traditional finance players told the agency to tread carefully as it considers deregulation for fintech businesses.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Cow Horse Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Moving an unwilling 800-pound cow while riding a horse at high speed is exhilarating, a little unhinged and, at least for me, a surprisingly effective training ground for litigation — both demand focus, preparation over rigid planning and the willingness to act despite fear, says Ashley Zitrin at Glenn Agre.

  • Unpacking The Take It Down Act's Compliance Ambiguities

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    The Federal Trade Commission’s recent guidance concerning the Take It Down Act suggests that covered platforms should build removal systems immediately and prioritize compliance, but until courts or regulators provide additional clarity, companies will be navigating a statutory framework that is urgent and uncertain, says Laura-Kate Bernstein at ZwillGen.

  • Protecting AI-Driven Innovation In Life Sciences IP

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    Recent developments, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's evolving inventorship standards, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the "person of ordinary skill in the art" standard demand that life sciences companies elevate AI patent strategy to a top priority, says Sandra Haberny at Quinn Emanuel.

  • NY's UCC Updates Spell Change In Digital Asset Lending

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    Given the state’s role as a preferred jurisdiction for financing transactions, New York’s recent enactment of Uniform Commercial Code amendments, which establish control as a central concept for determining who has rights to a digital asset, will encourage nationwide growth toward a more technology-neutral approach to secured transactions, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • How Trump's Nuclear EO Has Transformed The NRC

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    In the year since President Donald Trump issued Executive Order No. 14300, directing sweeping reforms of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency has revised key oversight programs and proposed major rulemakings and new licensing frameworks — but the NRC must continue to center transparency and trust as key values, says Brooke Clark at Morgan Lewis.

  • Opinion

    Agentic AI And Securities Law: Steps Congress Should Take

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    Agentic artificial intelligence technology doesn't fit comfortably into the existing securities regulatory landscape, so Congress should avoid repeating the mistakes that led to the legal uncertainty crypto companies and investors have faced over the past decade-plus by providing a legislative framework before AI fully matures, says Joseph A. Hall at Davis Polk.

  • Weighing Trade-Offs Of SEC's Semiannual Reporting Proposal

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    Though public companies could benefit from a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposal that would allow them to file earnings reports just twice a year, widespread adoption could also increase market volatility, complicate capital raising and fragment disclosure standards to the detriment of issuers and investors, say attorneys at Seward & Kissel.

  • High Court's Hikma Decision Reshapes 'Skinny Label' Suits

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hikma v. Amarin marks a significant victory for generic drug manufacturers, but rather than putting an end to so-called skinny label inducement claims, it narrows and refocuses them, say attorneys at Sterne Kessler.

  • Virginia's Cannabis Retail Veto Leaves Industry In Legal Limbo

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    Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger's recent veto of legislation that would have established a regulated retail cannabis framework halts momentum built by the General Assembly, but it also sends important signals about what a future regulatory framework must address to survive, says Charles Slemp at Cozen.

  • Opinion

    At High Court, Oil Cos.' Suncor Preemption Claims Fall Short

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    In Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, oil and gas companies argue that municipalities' climate deception claims are equivalent to emissions standards for their industry — but the suit is ultimately incapable of imposing such standards, say Thomas McGarity at the University of Texas School of Law and James Goodwin at the Center for Progressive Reform.

  • What Colorado AI Law's Major Rewrite Means For Employers

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    Colorado's landmark law regulating employers' use of artificial intelligence tools was recently replaced with a narrower regime that eliminates many burdensome obligations, but still imposes a host of requirements focused on transparency and accountability, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Operational AI Washing: The Next Frontier Of Fiduciary Risk

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    While there are still no final Delaware decisions applying Caremark specifically to artificial intelligence governance failures, previous case law provides a blueprint, so the question for boards is whether their governance architectures will satisfy Caremark when the first cases are decided, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • A Look At The Court's Next Steps In Live Nation Antitrust Case

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    Following a recent jury verdict that Live Nation and Ticketmaster operated as a monopoly to fix ticket prices, a New York federal court stands to weigh Live Nation's bid for a new trial, approve the U.S. Department of Justice's March settlement with the defendants, and impose remedies that include full structural separation, say attorneys at Crowell.

  • How Crypto Firms Can Prep As Clarity Act Inches Toward Law

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    Though the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act’s road to enactment remains uncertain, the statutory framework for regulating digital commodities recently advanced by the Senate Banking Committee is now sufficiently developed that market participants can begin preparing in several areas where the complicated legislation would affect them, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Checking For AI Errors Is Now A Two-Way Street

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    A handful of recent federal and state cases demonstrate the importance of checking for errors generated by artificial intelligence not only in your own court submissions, but also your opponent's, as well as when catching opposing counsel's AI mistakes could result in an award for attorney fees, says Tamara Barago at Hollingsworth.

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