Public Policy

  • June 10, 2026

    RI Adopts Rule Taxing Second Homes Valued Above $1M

    Rhode Island will implement a tax on non-owner-occupied residential properties with assessed values of $1 million or more under a regulation issued by the state Division of Taxation.

  • June 10, 2026

    San Diego Vacancy Tax Ballot Measure Heading For Defeat

    A ballot measure in San Diego to tax vacant homes, with an additional cost for empty homes owned by corporations, appeared headed for defeat with most ballots counted.

  • June 10, 2026

    Tenn. Remittance Tax Is Unconstitutional, Fintech Group Says

    A top fintech industry organization sued Wednesday to block an impending new Tennessee tax on outgoing international money transfers, challenging what the trade group contends is an unconstitutional toll on the billions of dollars sent abroad from the state each year.

  • June 10, 2026

    Feds Say NYC Pol's ICE Views 'Irrelevant' To Obstruction Case

    Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander's efforts to monitor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for possible violations of migrants' rights at a federal building are "irrelevant" to an obstruction charge against him, prosecutors told a federal judge Wednesday.

  • June 10, 2026

    Colo. Sober Home Co. Says City Can't Escape Zoning Suit

    A Colorado sober living home operator has urged a federal court to reject a city's bid to dismiss its lawsuit, arguing that the city's zoning code unlawfully singles out people in recovery from addiction for land use approval requirements that other residents are not subjected to.

  • June 09, 2026

    $200B Visa, Mastercard Swipe-Fee Deal Gets Initial Approval

    A New York federal judge Tuesday preliminarily signed off on Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.'s proposed $200 billion settlement with millions of merchants despite dozens of objections from potential class members, saying it was too soon to tell if the complaints are pervasive or "confined to a vocal minority."

  • June 09, 2026

    Challengers Of Trump's 'Slush Fund' Want Proof Plan Is Dead

    Plaintiffs challenging what they call President Donald Trump's proposed $1.8 billion "slush fund" in Virginia and Washington, D.C., federal court on Tuesday expressed doubt that the administration's plan to pay victims of "lawfare and weaponization" is truly "not moving forward" as the acting attorney general has claimed.

  • June 09, 2026

    Arbitrator Rules USPTO Violated Law By Ending Telework

    An arbitrator ruled Monday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office "committed a clear and patent breach" of agreements with the union representing some of its employees when the office eliminated telework arrangements last year at the urging of President Donald Trump.

  • June 09, 2026

    Novartis, AbbVie Lose Bid To Halt Wash. 340B Pharmacy Law

    A Washington federal judge declined Tuesday to block a state law passed to protect prescription drug access for low-income and uninsured patients, rejecting arguments from AbbVie and Novartis that the new measure illegally adds to pharmaceutical manufacturers' obligations under the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program.

  • June 09, 2026

    DHS Waives Park Laws For Big Bend Border Wall Build

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has waived multiple environmental laws as it builds border barriers and roads through Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park, saying it must quickly deter illegal crossings in areas of high illegal entry on the Texas-Mexico border.

  • June 09, 2026

    Kalshi To Start Requiring Employer Info For Certain Markets

    Prediction market platform Kalshi Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will start requiring users to verify their employer before they can trade on certain markets, and will further implement features allowing users to directly report suspicious trading activity.

  • June 09, 2026

    Key Freight Broker Negligence Win A 'Relief' For Plaintiffs Atty

    The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that freight brokers might also be liable under state law for selecting unsafe motor carriers involved in catastrophic crashes will ultimately improve highway safety by ensuring that the industry's longtime gatekeepers strengthen their vetting protocols, according to a plaintiffs attorney who helped secure the pivotal win.

  • June 09, 2026

    FCC Looks To Spur Submarine Cables With New Security Reg

    The Federal Communications Commission will start presuming that submarine cable applications that meet certain qualifications don't have to be referred to the executive branch for national security reviews, if the agency votes yes later this month on the order it'll have before it.

  • June 09, 2026

    Philly Violated Cornerstone Of Bankruptcy Law, 3rd Circ. Says

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday revived part of a pro se debtor's long-running bankruptcy fight against Philadelphia holding the city must face civil contempt sanctions for collecting on a lien after his debt was discharged, saying it "violated" one of the "historic cornerstones" of bankruptcy, which is a discharge's finality.

  • June 09, 2026

    Calif. Judge Blocks DOJ's Bid For Trans Patients' Medical Info

    A California federal judge ordered Stanford Medicine hospital not to disclose medical information belonging to trans adolescents who received gender-related care in response to a Texas grand jury subpoena, and blocked the U.S. Department of Justice from taking further steps to obtain their patient records.

  • June 09, 2026

    EU Orders Meta To Give Rival Chatbots Free WhatsApp Access

    European enforcers ordered Meta Platforms to give rival artificial intelligence chatbots free access to WhatsApp amid an antitrust investigation into the messaging service, despite Meta taking steps to provide access for a fee after previously blocking rival assistants.

  • June 09, 2026

    NY Floats Rule To Align Its Stablecoin Regs With Genius Act

    New York's Department of Financial Services on Tuesday proposed regulations to ensure its existing stablecoin framework aligns with the U.S. Treasury Department's coming requirements for state regimes under the federal law governing stable-value tokens.

  • June 09, 2026

    FDIC's Hill Eyes Resolution Planning, Assessment Changes

    Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Travis Hill said Tuesday that his agency will seek to dial back its living-will requirements for large banks and recalibrate how it charges for deposit insurance, part of a broader push to rethink the agency's approach to handling bank failures.

  • June 09, 2026

    Ex-Fla. Rep. Asks For Trial Redo On Foreign Agent Charges

    A former congressman urged a Florida federal court to overturn a jury verdict finding him guilty of secretly lobbying for Venezuela's leftist regime for $50 million, arguing several missteps by the court resulted in his conviction.

  • June 09, 2026

    DOJ Says Timing, Lack Of Injury Doom TikTok Deal Challenge

    The U.S. Department of Justice has urged the D.C. Circuit to toss a challenge to the Trump administration's approval of TikTok's sale to American investors, arguing the engineers seeking to stop the deal filed their challenge too late and lack standing.

  • June 09, 2026

    Tribe Challenges NIGC 'One-Bite' Rule In Michigan Casino Suit

    The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians on Tuesday filed a federal suit against the National Indian Gaming Commission claiming the commission's attempt to shut down a Northwest Michigan casino is improper and misapplies the "one-bite rule" governing tribal gaming to restored ancestral lands.

  • June 09, 2026

    DC Circ. Says PCAOB Challenger Must Reveal His Name

    The D.C. Circuit Tuesday backed a D.C. federal court's holding that a man anonymously challenging the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board should be required to identify himself.

  • June 09, 2026

    Judge Candidate Loses Ballot Challenge At Mich. High Court

    An Oakland County probate judge candidate will remain off the August primary ballot after the Michigan Supreme Court declined to review his challenge to the rejection of hundreds of petition signatures, while one justice urged lawmakers to reconsider election rules under which officials were not required to review affidavits that could have validated more than 100 disputed signatures.

  • June 09, 2026

    Mayors Rally To Fight Permit 'Shot Clocks,' This Time At FCC

    U.S. mayors are back fighting proposals to impose strict deadlines on local reviews of broadband projects, but this time their focus is not just on Capitol Hill but on the Federal Communications Commission.

  • June 09, 2026

    CIT Judge Skeptical Of Gov't's IEEPA Refund Appeal

    A U.S. Court of International Trade judge spent much of an hour-plus hearing Tuesday attempting to talk the federal government out of appealing his order requiring immediate refunds of President Donald Trump's invalidated tariffs, but he seemed to make little headway.

Expert Analysis

  • Human Authorship Is Still Central To Copyright Eligibility

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    In declining to review the D.C. Circuit's ruling in Thaler v. Perlmutter — holding that a work purely generated by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted — the U.S. Supreme Court has reinforced the human authorship requirement, so it is critical for creators of AI-assisted projects to document their involvement, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Recent Bank Resolution Filings Stress Readiness Over Docs

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    Against the backdrop of banking regulators' recent emphasis on institutional readiness in the event of a bank failure, a review of more than a dozen public resolution plan submissions points to an immediate future in which regulators and banks alike prioritize operational preparedness over extensive documentation, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

  • 3 Federal Policy Trends Shaping Data Center Power

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    With the White House, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Congress each pushing energy policies that will influence how data centers are sited, powered and interconnected for years to come, industry stakeholders should understand compliance obligations, consider possible downstream effects, and evaluate off-grid and self-supply energy options, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • NY Tax Talk: Calculating Tiered Partnership Income

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    Attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland discuss how the potential impact recent New York City Tax Appeals Tribunal decision in Matter of Cantor Fitzgerald holding that the entity approach should be used by tiered partnerships to compute unincorporated business tax liability, why the issue of the proper approach remains unsettled and the broader implications for federal conformity and administrative agency deference.

  • FDA Guidance May Move Goalposts For Form 483 Responses

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides formal insight on how drug manufacturers are expected to respond to Form 483s, raising some concerns about the agency's timelines and expectations, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Understanding The SEC's Consequential Crypto Guidance

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent interpretive release — its most comprehensive statement ever on the application of the federal securities laws to crypto-assets — reimagines the Howey test to resolve long-standing questions over what is a security, but leaves many issues unresolved, say attorneys at Cahill.

  • Ohio Case Reflects States' Aggressive Criminal Antitrust Turn

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    The Ohio Attorney General's Office’s recent bid-rigging indictment of an online auctioneer is the latest signal that states, through attorneys general pursuing more kickback cases and legislators expanding the reach of antitrust laws, are shedding their historical reluctance to wield their criminal antitrust enforcement powers, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Justices' Geofence Ruling May Test 4th Amendment's Future

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    When the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Chatrie v. U.S. whether law enforcement may use geofence warrants to compel Google to disclose location history data, the ruling is likely to become an important statement about the future of Fourth Amendment law in data-driven investigations, says Duncan Levin at Levin & Associates.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1

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    In the first quarter of 2026, New York's banking developments were headlined by initiatives to expand oversight of financial institutions and strengthen consumer protection laws, including a new framework for buy now, pay later lenders, a sweeping debt collection rule and a revised corporate self-disclosure program for financial crimes, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Seeking A Policy Fix As Merger Reporting Fight Continues

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    A recently announced request by the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice for public comment on the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger reporting requirements, as litigation challenging the commission's updated requirements continues, suggests the government's willingness to address how best to support modern merger enforcement without unduly burdening filing parties, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • What New Fla. Citizens Bill Means For Surplus Lines Insurers

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    A Florida bill recently passed by the Legislature as part of a continued effort to depopulate Citizens Property Insurance, the state's insurer of last resort, creates an additional pathway for commercial policies to be written by surplus lines insurers, but also presents concerns of unnecessary regulation, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • What Voluntary Calif. Carbon Reports Show About Compliance

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    While the enforcement of California's S.B. 261 is currently paused due to a Ninth Circuit injunction, more than 130 companies have nonetheless chosen to voluntarily publish climate-related financial risk disclosures, providing a useful snapshot of how the market is interpreting the law's requirements in practice, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • PTAB Memo Recenters Discretion On US Manufacturing

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    Read alongside recent Federal Circuit decisions, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires' memo on patent denial considerations emphasizes domestic manufacturing in a way that the International Trade Commission does not require, says Brandon Theiss at Volpe Koenig.

  • Why MDLs Slow Down — And How To Speed Them Up

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    Multidistrict litigation has become central to mass tort practice, but as MDLs grow in size and complexity, so do delays and costs — so tools like the new federal rule governing MDLs, targeted use of special masters and strategically deployed Lone Pine orders are more essential than ever, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

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