Public Policy

  • July 23, 2026

    HUD Says States Aren't Harmed By Fair Housing Standards

    The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development told a California federal court to toss a suit filed by the District of Columbia and 15 states over past standards for receiving funding for fair housing enforcement, arguing that the plaintiffs lack Article III standing because they have not shown how they have been harmed by the funding standards.

  • July 23, 2026

    Lack Of Jurisdiction Dooms $273M 'Rip And Replace' Suit

    The Court of Federal Claims has tossed a complaint from a telecom that says the Federal Communications Commission wrongly denied it $273 million in "rip and replace" funds for replacing Chinese-made equipment, saying that the company's dispute belongs in federal appeals court.

  • July 23, 2026

    BIA Justice Office Says Cocaine Ring Hit SD Reservation

    The Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Justice Services says it has dismantled a trafficking operation responsible for distributing cocaine throughout South Dakota and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that has led to the indictments of 14 people and the seizure of narcotics, guns and cash.

  • July 23, 2026

    DOJ Looks To Streamline Some Merger Reviews

    The U.S. Department of Justice introduced a new model timing agreement for merger reviews on Thursday, as part of what it said was an effort to help antitrust enforcers focus their investigations on key issues early in the process.

  • July 23, 2026

    Feds Withdraw Subpoenas To NYT Over Trump Jet Reporting

    The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office on Thursday withdrew grand jury subpoenas served on four New York Times journalists who reported on security flaws aboard a jet gifted to President Donald Trump for use as Air Force One, after a federal judge threatened to quash the inquiries.

  • July 23, 2026

    7th Circ. Backs Chicago's Tenant Payout Ordinance

    The Seventh Circuit held Wednesday that a Chicago ordinance requiring owners of foreclosed rental buildings to pay tenants $10,600 to help with relocation costs is not an unconstitutional taking of property, saying that state and local authorities have broad power to regulate landlord-tenant relationships.

  • July 23, 2026

    NJ Rule Change Proposed To Shield AG's Atty Training Docs

    A potential rule change would exempt New Jersey's attorney general from having to publicly release certain government attorney training materials, like those at the center of a government watchdog's recent lawsuit.

  • July 23, 2026

    Senate Confirms 2 Judges, Advances Ohio And Colo. Picks

    The Senate on Thursday voted 48-47 to confirm Judge Daniel Traynor of the District of North Dakota to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and 49-44 to confirm Antonio M. Pozos, a partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, as a judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

  • July 23, 2026

    USTR Says EU's Google Actions Cast Cloud On US Trade Deal

    The U.S. trade deal with the European Union may be undermined by European Commission actions against Google owner Alphabet, including penalties totaling over $1 billion and claims that the U.S. technology giant unfairly favored its own services in certain applications, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Thursday. 

  • July 23, 2026

    Conn. Banking Dept. Says Debt Servicer Lacks Key Atty Ties

    An Illinois servicing company that says it provides administrative services to debt relief lawyers cannot avoid Connecticut Department of Banking enforcement efforts because it does not appear to be connected to licensed in-state attorneys, the department has said, urging a state judge to dismiss a challenge to its authority.

  • July 23, 2026

    2026 Marks Banner Year For AI Changes To Insurance Industry

    The first half of 2026 has seen continued development of artificial intelligence systems in the insurance industry, including new coverage terms for policyholders and evolving regulatory scrutiny for insurers. The changes promise to alter the insurance market in the months to come.

  • July 23, 2026

    Montana Judge Orders BIA To Reconsider Tribe Policing Bid

    A Montana federal judge says the Bureau of Indian Affairs must reconsider a Montana tribe's request to assume the agency's law enforcement operations on its reservation after a U.S. magistrate judge last month recommended the decision.

  • July 23, 2026

    Jack Smith's Lawyers Say Criminal Referral Twists Testimony

    Former special counsel Jack Smith's legal team has said the criminal referral a U.S. Congress member sent the Department of Justice to investigate Smith is based on a "spurious claim."

  • July 23, 2026

    ABA Rips DOJ's 'Absurd' Firm Subpoenas In Documents Fight

    The American Bar Association has blasted as "absurd" the government's move to subpoena law firms as an attempt to avoid a documents request from the organization amid allegations the Trump administration worked to intimidate law firms into conforming with his policy goals through executive orders last year.

  • July 23, 2026

    NM Tribes Move To Block Kalshi Offerings On Native Land

    Four indigenous nations have asked a New Mexico federal judge to stop Kalshi from offering sports-related contracts on their lands, arguing that the prediction market giant is plainly violating laws that give the tribes sole authority over sports betting.

  • July 23, 2026

    Trade Court Finds Bridgestone's Thai Tire Duties Justified

    The U.S. Department of Commerce correctly identified various shortcomings in Bridgestone's compliance during an antidumping duty administrative review for imported bus and truck tires from Thailand, according to a U.S. Court of International Trade opinion rejecting the company's challenge.

  • July 23, 2026

    USTR Sets Large Canadian Tariff Quotas For Sugar Products

    The U.S. will allocate a large portion of its fiscal 2027 tariff rate quotas for refined sugar products and certain sugar-containing goods to Canada, according to a notice published Wednesday by the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

  • July 23, 2026

    USDA Workers Seek Injunction Over Religious Messaging

    The National Federation of Federal Employees and a group of federal workers urged a California federal court to halt the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from sending "proselytizing" religious messages to agency employees by email, arguing the messages are unconstitutional and are causing irreparable harm.

  • July 23, 2026

    Crowell & Moring Adds Former UBS Bank USA GC

    Crowell & Moring LLP hired a former general counsel for UBS Bank USA this week to advise banks, fintechs and digital assets companies on regulatory matters.

  • July 23, 2026

    Interior Energy Pro Joins Holland & Hart In DC As Of Counsel

    The former U.S. Department of the Interior's deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management has a new role at Holland & Hart LLP's Washington, D.C., office.

  • July 22, 2026

    SpaceX May Not Escape Shareholder Suits' Orbit So Easily

    SpaceX's recent blockbuster initial public offering includes a novel and untested framework to steer shareholder disputes to Texas' Business Court and arbitration while prohibiting investor class actions, in a move attorneys said will certainly be challenged in court and could lead to the company facing an impractical number of arbitration proceedings.

  • July 22, 2026

    6 Copyright Cases To Watch In The Second Half Of 2026

    An appeal over whether an AI-powered legal research tool unlawfully used Westlaw material and a long-running fight involving a Miles Davis tattoo could produce some of 2026's most significant copyright rulings. Here is Law360's list of the most notable copyright cases to watch for the rest of the year.

  • July 22, 2026

    OpenAI Says AI Agent Hacked Startup Platform During Testing

    OpenAI disclosed "an unprecedented cyber incident" that occurred when two of its artificial intelligence models broke out of their testing environment and accessed the servers of Hugging Face, a third-party AI and machine learning startup that operates an open-source platform for developers and others to share models and datasets.

  • July 22, 2026

    House Republicans Urge Fed To Speed Up Bank M&A Reviews

    Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee are calling on the Federal Reserve to explore what else can be done to speed up its bank merger reviews, urging it to look into clearing long-delayed applications and allowing more approvals without a board vote.

  • July 22, 2026

    Amazon's Deal To End Gambling Suit Draws App Makers' Ire

    Developers of casino-style mobile apps sought to intervene Wednesday in Amazon's tentative deal to end consumers' proposed class action accusing the platform of enabling illegal online gambling, arguing that the settlement would leave the developers on the hook for $140 million while forcing Amazon to pay just $2.5 million.

Expert Analysis

  • Ch. 11 Ruling Raises Bar For Avoiding Default Interest

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    Following a New York bankruptcy court's recent decision in 33 Mako, solvent debtors may find it significantly harder to avoid paying contractual default interest to oversecured lenders under Section 506(b) of the Bankruptcy Code, say attorneys at Benesch.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • 'Skinny Label' Arguments Spotlight Induced Infringement Risk

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    Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Hikma Pharmaceuticals v. Amarin Pharma highlight the uncertain boundary between lawful generic competition through so-called skinny labels and induced patent infringement, with potential implications for patent holders’ communication, enforcement and causation strategies across industries, says Anton Hopen at Trenam.

  • What Jury Holdouts Can Teach Trial Lawyers About Strategy

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    Though a hung jury can be a disappointment, a psychological understanding of jury holdouts can help trial lawyers shape their damages arguments and understand leadership and group composition as a function of jury selection, says Clint Townson at Townson Litigation.

  • 'Mobile' Sources For On-Site Generation May Be A Risky Bet

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering treating large on-site generators used at data centers as mobile rather than stationary sources under the Clean Air Act, a significant policy change that would leave developers that adopt this solution at risk of regulatory reversals, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • AI Investment Advice May Fail Investor Protection Rules

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    Based on an ongoing study of artificial intelligence platforms' investment advice given to retail investors, direct access to AI may not yield recommendations for typical households that are suitable under relevant securities rules, raising new and important issues in the regulation of financial markets, says Bruce Carlin at Rice University.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

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    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • AG Watch: Reconciling 2 Maryland Data Privacy Statutes

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    In-house counsel should map the interplay between the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act's strictly necessary standard to deliver a requested service, and the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act's exemption of consent-based pricing within loyalty programs, before the state attorney general begins enforcement on the latter in October, says Erek Barron at Mintz.

  • EPA Listing Signals New Scrutiny Of Drugs In Drinking Water

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    The recent publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's latest draft drinking water contaminant list highlights pharmaceuticals as a category of concern, marking the start of a process that could shape future research priorities, monitoring requirements, and federal and state actions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • New Cuba Sanctions Raise Risks For Foreign Banks, Cos.

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    President Donald Trump's bold move leveling secondary sanctions against Cuba expands enforcement risk for foreign banks and companies with no U.S. nexus, signaling that non-U.S. businesses should reassess related transactions, counterparties and exposure as regulators test this broader authority, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • SEC Clarifies 'Baby Shelf' Restrictions For Small Cos.

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    For smaller public companies looking to access the capital markets, the so-called baby shelf requirements can be a significant limitation, but recent guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission helps to alleviate the effect of subsequent baby shelf restrictions on an at-the-market facility, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • Nexstar Offers A Cautionary Tale On State-Level Deal Scrutiny

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    State-enforcement challenges to the $6.2 billion Nexstar-Tegna merger remind legal practitioners that federal approval isn't always sufficient to deliver certainty on closing, integration and timetable assumptions, says Brett Story at Britehorn Securities.

  • How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

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    Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.

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