Public Policy

  • September 30, 2026

    Senate Leaders Unveil Project Permitting Overhaul

    U.S. Senate energy and environmental leaders on Wednesday unveiled bipartisan legislation aimed at speeding up the permitting of infrastructure projects, and said they hope to get the bill through the chamber during the lame-duck session following November's elections.

  • September 30, 2026

    College Sports Overhaul Still Uncertain Despite Senate Lift

    A yearslong effort to comprehensively regulate college sports surged ahead this week with the U.S. Senate's easy approval of bipartisan legislation, but lingering concerns about the bill's NCAA antitrust shield and other fraught policy fights are clouding its future.

  • September 30, 2026

    Judge Backs CMS' Contested Organ Procurement Metrics

    Federal health officials didn't violate federal law when they implemented a competitive rule that will alter how organ procurers are rated by decertifying low performers, a Florida federal judge ruled, a holding that could bring wide changes to the organ donor network. 

  • September 30, 2026

    Hemp Interests Say Texas THC Rule Defies Federal Law

    A trio of hemp interests challenging a Texas policy redesignating intoxicating hemp products as Schedule I substances have urged a federal judge to declare that the policy is both preempted by federal law and inconsistent with Texas state law.

  • September 30, 2026

    DOJ Accuses Judges Of Ethics Violations With Press Remarks

    Several Minnesota federal judges ran afoul of their ethical obligations when they commented on President Donald Trump's immigration policies in a recent news article, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a judicial misconduct complaint filed Wednesday.

  • September 30, 2026

    DC Judge Sends Shinnecock Land Dispute To NY Court

    A D.C. district court judge is moving a challenge over a decision to place 84 acres into a "restricted fee" status for the Shinnecock Indian Nation to a New York district court, saying the interest in "having local controversies decided at home tips heavily in favor of transfer."

  • September 30, 2026

    NJ Co. Says PPE Stockpiling Was Chinese Sovereign Activity

    A New Jersey company accused of helping China hoard personal protective equipment to create a monopoly at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic told the Eleventh Circuit that a lower court erred in finding that the allegations fall within the commercial activity exception to sovereign immunity.

  • September 30, 2026

    DOJ Atty Picked For Judgeship Probed On Fulton County Raid

    A top U.S. Department of Justice official tapped for a federal judgeship faced questions from Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday about the department's investigation's in Fulton County, Georgia, over Trump's allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.

  • September 30, 2026

    Texas AG Says ABA Stifling Law School Competition

    The Texas Attorney General announced an investigation into the American Bar Association relating to alleged anticompetitive conduct in the association's accreditation of law schools, claiming Wednesday that the ABA "weaponized its accreditation authority" to push "unconstitutional racial and gender preference requirements."

  • September 30, 2026

    Sen. Blackburn Sues Smith For Seizing Phone Records

    U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn alleges in a federal complaint filed Wednesday that Jack Smith illegally subpoenaed her phone records as part of an investigation into alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

  • September 30, 2026

    Ariz. Land Swap Survives Despite 11-Judge 9th Circ. Dissent

    The Ninth Circuit won't rethink a decision to allow a 2,500-acre land exchange within Arizona's Tonto National Forest that tribal nations and conservation groups say will destroy a sacred Apache worship site, with 11 judges arguing in a dissent that a 2025 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the dispute was wrong.

  • September 30, 2026

    Commerce Finds Chinese, Indian Electrodes Being Stockpiled

    Imports of electrodes used for smelting from India appear to have surged in response to the opening of a countervailing duty investigation, the U.S. Department of Commerce preliminarily found Wednesday, setting up possible retroactive duties on the goods.

  • September 30, 2026

    Bessent Owes $910K In Taxes As Limited Partner, Wyden Says

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent should pay more than $910,000 in payroll taxes as a hedge fund limited partner after the Second Circuit ruled that such partners are subject to the self-employment tax, Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden said Wednesday.

  • September 30, 2026

    Judge Orders ICE Reports After Hold Room Violations

    A Maryland federal judge ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide cell count and medical care data for its short-term holding facilities in Baltimore, largely granting a detainee class's push to enforce an injunction issued over "deplorable" and likely unconstitutional conditions.

  • September 30, 2026

    Ex-Budget Official Sentenced To 7 Years After Fleeing US

    Former Connecticut budget official Konstantinos Diamantis, who fled to Greece before learning his fate on federal corruption charges, was sentenced while absent on Wednesday to seven years in prison, if extradition efforts are successful, and immediately faced new litigation over his state government pension.

  • September 29, 2026

    OpenAI Knew AI Was Rogue Before Hugging Face, Suit Says

    A public interest law nonprofit sued OpenAI in California state court Tuesday, seeking to hold the ChatGPT maker liable for a July cyberattack on Hugging Face, arguing OpenAI "straightforwardly violated California law" by failing to rein in hundreds of rogue AI agents that OpenAI knew were running amok without proper safeguards.

  • September 29, 2026

    RealPage Wins Injunction Against NY Rent Software Law

    A federal judge in Manhattan granted RealPage's request for a preliminary injunction blocking a New York law banning building owners from using the property management platform to set residential rents, saying the company is "marginally" likely to prevail on its claim the statute regulates speech protected by the First Amendment.

  • September 29, 2026

    DOJ Says Trump Name Is Key To Kennedy Center Survival

    The U.S. Department of Justice told the D.C. Circuit the Kennedy Center's donors will flee if his name isn't put back on the building, arguing in its opening brief to the appeals court that the institution faces "financial ruin" without "appropriate recognition" for Trump.

  • September 29, 2026

    Ministry Stance In Anti-LGBTQ+ Hiring Suit Confuses 9th Circ.

    An en banc Ninth Circuit struggled Tuesday to understand a Washington-based Christian ministry's legal stance as it sought to preserve its ability to reject job applicants who are gay, with several judges suggesting it was immune from enforcement action since the state recognized the jobs as ministerial and therefore constitutionally exempt from anti-discrimination laws.

  • September 29, 2026

    Trump Admin Can't Dodge Claims Over Slashed Foreign Aid

    The Trump administration has persuaded a D.C. federal judge to cut three claims from a suit seeking to stop it from terminating foreign assistance grants and contracts en masse, but most of the suit — another 15 claims — marched forward untouched.

  • September 29, 2026

    Groups Say Calif. Biogas Credits Incentivize More Methane

    Four environmental groups accused California regulators of violating state law by allowing factory farm biogas producers to receive carbon credits — a practice they said is notionally aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions but in reality incentivizes more methane production.

  • September 29, 2026

    Squires Confirms PTAB Judges Will Resume Institution Calls

    Administrative patent judges will soon resume deciding whether Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges will be instituted on the merits, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires told the Senate on Tuesday during a hearing that also raised questions about if the office has sacrificed patent quality to speed through an examination backlog.

  • September 29, 2026

    NYC Property Owners Say 2nd-Home Tax Is Unconstitutional

    A group of New York City property owners and other parties sued the New York state government on Tuesday over its pied-à-terre tax for certain high-value second homes, alleging in state court that the tax is unconstitutional because it discriminates against people who don't primarily live in the city.

  • September 29, 2026

    X Corp. Says Crypto Gambling Company Bribed X Employees

    X Corp. told a Texas federal court that a company behind two controversial crypto gambling websites, which allegedly bribed X employees, cannot arbitrate claims that X unfairly removed their access to its website.

  • September 29, 2026

    EB-5 Visa Fees More Than Double For Individual Investors

    U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced increased filing fees Tuesday for the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program — more than double for individual investors — saying the higher price tag is needed to close a $48.4 million annual funding gap.

Expert Analysis

  • Negotiating The Scope Of The Stablecoin Customer ID Rule

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    Though comments on bank regulators’ proposed rule for stablecoin issuers under the Genius Act generally agree that oversight would help prevent illicit activity, agencies must reconcile disagreement over whether to extend customer identification requirements from issuers' primary-market relationships to secondary-markets activity, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • How To Improve Hiring Transparency Amid Ghost Job Scrutiny

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    Recent regulatory and state law scrutiny of ghost job postings for roles that don't exist or aren't being filled signals a shift toward hiring transparency, and employers that fail to adapt risk enforcement actions, consumer protection claims and financial penalties, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • FTC Push May Create Dual Origin-Claim Risks For Contractors

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    Recent Federal Trade Commission actions involving Made in USA advertising requirements offer a preview of enforcement themes that may impose dual compliance burdens on government contractors that are also subject to Federal Acquisition Regulation Buy American restrictions, says Amy Hoang at Seyfarth.

  • Series

    Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

  • FCC Robotics Restrictions Raise AI Compliance Risks

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    A recent "covered list" update from the Federal Communications Commission places restrictions on foreign-produced advanced robotic devices’ ability to obtain new authorizations, creating a framework that is poorly suited to continuous artificial intelligence updates, and raising several transactional and contractual challenges, says Kim Larsen at Stinson.

  • Navigating Employer Obligations Under NY Personnel File Law

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    In light of a New York law that will soon give private sector employees the right to review and comment on their personnel files, employers should understand where their exposure lies and be mindful of where records are stored, and for how long, among other things, says attorney Jason Tenenbaum.

  • Banks Should Stay Disciplined As OCC, FDIC Ease Oversight

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    Despite a newly issued Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rule that narrows the range of conduct that regulators may require institutions to remediate, prudent risk management suggests banks should still document how they arrive at their risk determinations, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Tracking Trends In State-Level Regulatory Enforcement

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    State-level enforcement now increasingly involves antitrust, artificial intelligence and data privacy issues, and the key for organizations to reducing risk is having the ability to respond across governance, public affairs, discovery and remediation in multiple states simultaneously, say consultants at FTI Consulting.

  • Opinion

    The Time Is Right To Simplify Overlapping Broker-Dealer Regs

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    While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has made an important start to simplifying its rules, legislators should follow and expand on the commission's example by reexamining and removing the unnecessary overlap between SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and state broker-dealer regulations, says Howard Spindel at Integrated Solutions.

  • What Cos. Must Know As Fast Energy Permitting Gains Steam

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    A recently approved geothermal project in Nevada may be the first authorized by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management under a new 14-day expedited environmental review process — but project developers may find that a more thorough environmental analysis will provide better protection against litigation challenges, says Jill Yung at Allen Matkins.

  • Opinion

    Calif. Bill Goes Too Far In Trying To Regulate Attorney AI Use

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    California’s first-in-the-nation act regulating how attorneys and arbitrators use generative artificial intelligence will likely soon become law, but read broadly, the provisions may dissuade lawyers from employing AI at all, thereby depriving them of key work tools, says Joshua Wurtzel at Schlam Stone.

  • The Preemption Gap In Prediction Market High Court Petitions

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    The Supreme Court is considering three certiorari petitions following a split in prediction market litigation between the Third and Ninth circuits, but one of the petitions would not allow the court to reach the express preemption question, which would leave the dispute half-resolved, says Jordan Garman at Withers.

  • How Data Center Projects Can Navigate Wyo. Siting Process

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    As opposition to data center development grows nationwide, the way that Wyoming is handling the issue through its industrial siting process offers a counterintuitive lesson: More process, not less, can provide both meaningful scrutiny and a clear path forward for projects, says Jeffrey Pope at Holland & Hart.

  • Tips From Apex Ruling On Handling Workers' Public Criticism

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    A National Labor Relations Board judge’s recent finding that Apex Fintech Services illegally reined in an employee’s public criticism on LinkedIn should caution employers that overbroad policies and reflexive responses may not only fail to defend the company’s reputation, but compound risks of federal labor charges, say attorneys at Krevolin Horst.

  • 4 Paths To AI Safety Coordination Amid Antitrust Debate

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    Frontier artificial intelligence companies have more room for collective safety work than the debate over an antitrust waiver suggests, with several existing avenues providing different degrees of protection and oversight, says Evan Miller at V&E.

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