Public Policy

  • July 29, 2026

    DOL Says Beekeeper Underpaid, Endangered H-2A Workers

    The U.S. Department of Labor sued a beekeeping business and its owner in Washington federal court Wednesday, alleging they underpaid H-2A workers, housed them in a rat-infested trailer and pressured an employee to conceal a workplace injury that nearly cost him a finger.

  • July 29, 2026

    Senate Dems Look To Put Nail In Trump-IRS Immunity Deal

    Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee introduced legislation Wednesday that they said would officially sink the portion of President Donald Trump's settlement of his suit against the IRS that grants him immunity from tax audits, while also preventing any such deals in the future.

  • July 29, 2026

    DraftKings Offers Sports Bets In Barred States, Suit Alleges

    A proposed class action in Massachusetts federal court accuses DraftKings of conducting sports betting in states that outlaw it, through prediction markets that are accessible through the same app as its sportsbook and daily fantasy sports.

  • July 29, 2026

    GOP Bill To Curb Judge Shopping May Have Limited Effect

    A Senate Republican has introduced legislation that he says will fix the judge shopping issue, but court observers don't think it will make much of a difference.

  • July 29, 2026

    DOJ Wants New Judge In Fired Court-Appointed US Atty's Suit

    A lawsuit from the Seattle U.S. attorney who was swiftly fired from his post by President Donald Trump shortly after being appointed to it by a federal court should be reassigned to a different judge, the administration has told a Washington federal court.

  • July 29, 2026

    Longtime USPTO Employee Tapped For Acting Deputy Leader

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has selected longtime employee Anne Mendez to serve as the acting second in command of the agency after Deputy Director Coke Morgan Stewart revealed this week that she's leaving for the private sector.

  • July 29, 2026

    Asylum Seeker Class Presses For Removed Member's Return

    A class of young asylum seekers has told a Maryland federal judge that the government violated a settlement when it removed one member with a cognitive disability to Guatemala without first considering his asylum application, and it should be ordered to return him.

  • July 29, 2026

    Enforcers Defend Google Search Win, Seek Payment Ban

    The U.S. Department of Justice and state enforcers urged the D.C. Circuit not to disturb a trial court's ruling that found Google illegally maintained its search monopoly, while also asking the appeals court to consider banning Google from paying to be the default search engine.

  • July 29, 2026

    DOJ Wants To Let Immigration Judges Fine For Contempt

    The Executive Office for Immigration Review proposed a rule Wednesday that would allow immigration judges to impose civil monetary penalties for contempt on attorneys, their noncitizen clients and witnesses, operationalizing a power that has lain dormant since 1996.

  • July 29, 2026

    'Vibe Coding' Pushes Cos. To Rethink Copyright Protection

    As artificial intelligence takes on more software development projects, businesses embracing “vibe coding” are adapting to uncertain copyright protection by documenting engineers’ contributions, keeping humans involved in high-value projects and leaning more heavily on trade secrets.

  • July 29, 2026

    Cornyn's Doubts Cloud Blanche's Committee Vote For AG

    The committee vote for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's bid to take the permanent role is slated for Thursday, but Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is still not on board.

  • July 29, 2026

    Texas Ties Sway Transfer Ruling In SpaceX Land-Swap Fight

    A D.C. federal judge has allowed SpaceX and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to shift a dispute over their planned land swap to Texas, finding most significant aspects of the case are tied to the Lone Star State.

  • July 29, 2026

    3rd Circ. Revives Atlantic City Hotel Dynamic-Pricing Suit

    A Third Circuit panel Wednesday revived a proposed class action accusing Atlantic City casino-hotels of illegally inflating room prices with software that allegedly shared private occupancy and pricing information among them.

  • July 29, 2026

    ACLU Seeks DOD Docs On Military Role In Immigration Courts

    The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts on Wednesday sued the Trump administration for records about the purported use of military personnel to serve as temporary immigration judges, which the organization called a violation of the founders' desire to keep the military out of domestic law enforcement.

  • July 29, 2026

    DOJ Declines To Charge Optometry Group Under New Policy

    New Jersey-based optometry practice Campus Eye Management on Wednesday became the first healthcare company to secure a declination of criminal charges under the U.S. Department of Justice's new corporate enforcement policy.

  • July 28, 2026

    Fed's 'Skinny' Accounts Need Failure Safeguards, Critics Say

    As the Federal Reserve moves closer to giving fintech and crypto firms a direct on-ramp to its payment rails, critics inside and outside the banking industry say it needs a more robust off-ramp for those that get into trouble or fail.

  • July 29, 2026

    Lowe's Coverage Row, NASCAR Team Tiff: NC Midyear Report

    The North Carolina courts are teeing up for a busy second half of 2026, including readying for a multimillion-dollar insurance trial with Lowe's and speeding through discovery in a high-profile trade secrets dispute involving former NFL coach Joe Gibbs' championship NASCAR team.

  • July 28, 2026

    Trump Asks Supreme Court To Upend $83M Carroll Verdict

    President Donald Trump urged the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday to wade in and overturn a jury's $83.3 million verdict finding he defamed writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of a decades-old sexual assault, pointing to the justices' decision giving presidents sweeping immunity for official acts.

  • July 28, 2026

    Houston's Race-Conscious Contracting Program Struck Down

    A Texas federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Houston's program awarding public contracts on a race-conscious basis violated the Fourteenth Amendment in the first federal challenge to such a program following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2023 decision striking down affirmative action admissions policies.

  • July 28, 2026

    FCC Pulls Major Provider From Lifeline, Citing Violations

    The Federal Communications Commission says it has banned one of the nation's biggest Lifeline providers from participating in the subsidy program after uncovering widespread violations of the program's rules, including a practice of transferring people back after they switched their service to another provider.

  • July 28, 2026

    DHS Can't Undo Order Halting TSA Union Deal Cancellation

    A federal judge in Seattle denied the Trump administration's bid on Tuesday to lift a court order blocking the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from canceling a collective bargaining agreement covering thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers, saying the government failed to debunk two independent grounds for the injunction.

  • July 28, 2026

    Ed Dept. Can't Cancel K–12 Mental Health Grants Worth $1B

    A Washington federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from terminating nearly $1 billion in K–12 mental health grants serving 15 states, finding that the plaintiff states are likely to prove the U.S. Education Department bypassed federal procedures when attempting to cut off the funds.

  • July 28, 2026

    Texas Judge Calls Late Bid To Disqualify Atty 'Dilatory Tactic'

    A Texas federal judge on Tuesday denied a request to disqualify an attorney representing the former chief executive of a real estate company related to the late mogul Gene Phillips, saying the attempt to knock out the attorney came way too late in the game.

  • July 28, 2026

    NJ Nursing Home On Hook For Hypothermia Death Verdict

    A New Jersey appellate panel on Tuesday affirmed a $450,000 jury verdict against a nursing home accused of negligently keeping a resident's room like an "icebox," which caused her death from hypothermia, saying the verdict was supported by sufficient evidence.

  • July 28, 2026

    Amazon To Pay $2M To End Suit Over Rest Breaks In Wash.

    Amazon will pay $2 million to resolve Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go store workers' accusations that the e-commerce giant failed to provide them with meal and rest breaks required under Washington state law, according to a settlement given final approval by a Pierce County judge.

Expert Analysis

  • What Corporate Counsel Can Learn From OpenAI Test Breach

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    The significance of the recent artificial intelligence testing breach involving OpenAI and Hugging Face lies in what it reveals about the path of AI’s evolution, because legal professionals must translate that trajectory into actionable governance, contractual and advisory frameworks, says Jason Mueller at Vorys.

  • Patent Eligibility Reforms Keep Chasing The Wrong Fixes

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    Repeated efforts to create a consistent, predictable patent eligibility standard under Section 101 have centered on replacing judge-made exceptions with new statutory language, but the better fix is to align examination standards with how courts actually apply eligibility doctrine, says former Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge Amee Shah.

  • Opinion

    Qualified Immunity Bill's Reach Goes Beyond Federal Officers

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    The federal Qualified Immunity Abolition Act, introduced earlier this year and described by the bill sponsors as a federal-officer measure, would in actuality reach the entire universe of Section 1983 defendants, a distinction that matters as much to defense counsel as to plaintiffs, says attorney V. James DeSimone.

  • State Of Insurance: Q2 Notes From Pennsylvania

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    Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey highlights notable second-quarter insurance developments in Pennsylvania, including federal court opinions providing guidance on first-party and third-party insurance coverage principles, and a pending bill seeking to regulate health insurers' use of artificial intelligence.

  • Assessing DOJ Antitrust's New, Faster Merger Review Option

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    The U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division's recently announced targeted second request option and new model timing signal a commercially friendly stance and a departure from the prior administration's position, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • NRC Proposal May Reshape Radiation Protection Framework

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    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposal to drop the long-standing requirement to keep radiation exposure "as low as reasonably achievable," alongside the U.S. Department of Energy's removal of ALARA from its own rules, suggests a broader federal reassessment of radiation protection policy, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

  • High Court, SEC Proposals Set Stage For Further Fund Reform

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in FS Credit Opportunities v. Saba Capital Master Fund and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed rulemaking packages aimed at public market reforms provide a constructive backdrop for considering additional innovations to the listed fund structure, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • AG Watch: Minn. Defends Prediction Markets Ban

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    Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has aggressively defended the state's landmark statute banning prediction markets, but the court's July 27 temporary injunction in U.S. v. Minnesota blocking the law from taking effect could set the template for state authority across the country, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: Examining Administrative, Organizational Uses

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    U.S. District Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas examines how artificial intelligence could transform a court's ability to deal with administrative work and organize materials when preparing for hearings or drafting opinions, thereby affording judges more time to resolve contested issues.

  • USDA, Treasury Moves May Widen Agricultural Deal Scrutiny

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    Two agency actions that identify weaknesses in the government’s foreign investment screening architecture signal a broadening of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’ jurisdiction over agricultural real estate transactions, more demanding beneficial-ownership resolutions and the coming integration of agency disclosure systems, says researcher Robert Green.

  • From Order To Regulation: How EOs Are Reshaping Banking

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    The pattern of regulatory activity emerging in the wake of the Trump administration's first 18 months of executive orders makes clear that financial institutions should treat presidential directives as early warning signs and not wait for final rules to assess the accompanying compliance impact, says Jonathan Kolodziej at Bradley.

  • Rhode Island Self-Checkout Law Signals National Trend

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    Rhode Island's law limiting self-checkout in retail stores is the first of its kind, but state and local lawmakers across the country are considering similar bills — and if enacted, they could create a patchwork of compliance requirements around issues including staffing, signage and restricted merchandise, says Hannah Flint at Hunton.

  • Why 4th Circ.'s Clean Water Act Injunction Ruling Matters

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    The Fourth Circuit's ruling last month in West Virginia Rivers Coalition v. Chemours, holding that a Clean Water Act permit violation does not automatically create a presumption of irreparable harm that requires a preliminary injunction, avoided a dramatic change in CWA enforcement, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • Opinion

    USCIS Delays Shouldn't Mean Detention For EB-5 Investors

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    Some EB-5 investors with pending petitions were recently detained amid a surge in immigration arrests, but when only U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services can resolve a respondent's status, immigration courts shouldn't retain cases they can't decide, and detention shouldn't replace adjudication, says Jun Li at Reid & Wise.

  • What FERC Concurrences Reveal About Large Load Priorities

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    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's recent orders concerning grid operators' procedures for connecting large loads like data centers to the power grid came with concurring statements from the FERC commissioners, which provide key insights into individual commissioners' concerns and a road map for compliance, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

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