Public Policy

  • August 06, 2026

    NC House OKs Unpaid Suspensions For Judges Under Inquiry

    Republicans in the North Carolina House of Representatives have given the green light to a legislative proposal empowering the chief justice of the state Supreme Court to suspend trial court judges without pay if they're under investigation by the state Judicial Standards Commission.

  • August 06, 2026

    Fired Immigration Judge Sues DOJ Over Bias Claims

    A Democratic immigration judge fired days before her position became permanent has sued the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the Constitution does not give the president authority to discriminate against civil service employees.

  • August 06, 2026

    FCC Orders Denver Billboards To Cease Operations

    The Federal Communications Commission has said two electronic billboards in Denver are interfering with T-Mobile signals and has ordered them to stop or face daily fines of more than $25,000.

  • August 06, 2026

    China Announces Trade Countermeasures After US Actions

    China's government will strengthen export controls on drones and their components as well as suspend coordinated inspections with U.S. officials and start new investigations into American businesses as countermeasures in response to recent U.S. actions implicating Chinese companies.

  • August 06, 2026

    Missouri Fires Back At Challenge To New Hemp Regulations

    Missouri officials asked a federal judge to throw out a suit challenging new regulations on intoxicating cannabinoid products, saying the hemp coalition and other companies that sued to block the law haven't shown they have standing.

  • August 06, 2026

    Hogan Lovells Cadwalader Adds Ex-Treasury Crypto Atty

    Hogan Lovells Cadwalader has hired a former Treasury Department counsel, who in his last role was the agency's first official dedicated to focusing on digital asset policy and blockchain technology, the firm announced Thursday.

  • August 06, 2026

    DOE Can't Force FOIA Filers To Reaffirm Old Requests

    A D.C. federal judge blocked the U.S. Department of Energy's requirement that Freedom of Information Act filers confirm their interest in pending requests filed before October 2024 within 30 days or face closure, ruling that the policy was never authorized in the FOIA statute.

  • August 06, 2026

    Feds Turn To 11th Circ. In Battle For Ga. Election Workers' Info

    Federal prosecutors told a district court it will ask the Eleventh Circuit to overturn a July decision to quash a U.S. Department of Justice subpoena seeking information about workers who helped handle the 2020 general election in Fulton County, Georgia. 

  • August 05, 2026

    New Mexico Says Blanche, DOJ Blocked Epstein Ranch Probe

    The state of New Mexico asked a Washington, D.C., federal court Wednesday to force the U.S. Department of Justice to hand over unredacted Jeffrey Epstein investigative files, saying it needs the materials for its own investigation of alleged crimes at the late sex offender's Santa Fe County ranch.

  • August 05, 2026

    Trump Admin Can't Deport Asylum Seekers Over Unpaid Fees

    A Massachusetts federal judge Wednesday temporarily barred the Trump administration from imposing consequences on asylum seekers who fail to timely pay an annual asylum fee, but refused to halt a one-year work authorization cap for those with temporary protected status.

  • August 05, 2026

    Defense Dept. Was 'Ostrich Burying His Head', Judge Says

    A Massachusetts federal judge Wednesday compared the U.S. Department of Defense's since struck-down reimbursement limit for grant-funded research to an "ostrich burying his head in the sand," awarding attorney fees to the academic organization that successfully challenged the policy.

  • August 05, 2026

    Senate Version Of Kids' Online Safety Legislation Clears Panel

    A key U.S. Senate committee Wednesday advanced four legislative proposals designed to shield children from online harms presented by addictive design features and artificial intelligence-powered chatbots, setting up a clash with a package of digital safety bills that has already passed the House but that several senators have blasted as "toothless."

  • August 05, 2026

    Wash. Landlords' COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium Suit Tossed

    A Seattle federal judge has thrown out a group of landlords' proposed class action challenging COVID-19-era eviction bans imposed by Washington cities and the state, saying Wednesday that appellate courts have recognized that landlord-tenant regulations generally do not qualify as physical takings of private property.

  • August 05, 2026

    Senate Dems Grill Trump's Judge Picks For 5th Circ., Alabama

    Senate Democrats on Wednesday dug into two judges nominated by the president to serve in Alabama district court and on the Fifth Circuit over their careful answers about who won the 2020 election and one's history of advocating against a ban on forced arbitration for workplace sexual harassment and assault claims.

  • August 05, 2026

    How Plaintiffs Won A $604M Verdict Against CH Robinson

    Roland Christensen of Arnold & Itkin LLP said that for the life of him, he couldn't understand why C.H. Robinson didn't cut a deal offered by the families of victims who burned to death following an 18-wheeler crash.

  • August 05, 2026

    5th Circ. Wary Again Of FCC's Control Over Subsidy Program

    A panel of Fifth Circuit judges on Wednesday raised new questions about the Federal Communications Commission's oversight of the country's $9 billion annual telecom subsidy program after a U.S. Supreme Court decision kept the fund intact last summer.

  • August 05, 2026

    Fed. Gov't Held In Contempt By Judge Over ICE Phone Data

    A California district judge held the federal government in contempt in litigation over immigration arrest tactics for not complying with a discovery order requiring forensic imaging of phones used by agents during their operations, imposing a fine of $500 per day until the government complies with the order.

  • August 05, 2026

    Incumbent Wash. Justices On Top In Early Primary Results

    Three incumbent Washington State Supreme Court justices — including two governor appointees — led their respective primary races Wednesday, as a state trial judge edged ahead in the race for another open seat on the high court, according to preliminary election results.

  • August 05, 2026

    Soldier Wants To Fight DOJ, CFTC Maduro Bet Cases At Once

    The U.S. Army soldier accused of reaping prediction market profits with his knowledge of the January operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro wants to fight parallel actions from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. Justice Department at once, and contends the government can't use his case as an "experiment" for how to police trading on platforms like Polymarket.

  • August 05, 2026

    Stewart Says Patent System 'Crisis' Fueled USPTO Changes

    Coke Morgan Stewart, the deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office who left the agency last week, said in an interview with Law360 this week that new limits on patent challenges and other policy changes she helped lead were driven by a sense that the patent system was in "a pretty significant crisis."

  • August 05, 2026

    Kalshi To Block Wash. Betting But Said Pause Is Overbroad

    Kalshi agreed to implement geofencing restrictions by Aug. 26 to prevent people in Washington from making bets on the platform in accordance with a state judge's preliminary injunction, but the prediction market is still at odds with state officials over the scope of the court order.

  • August 05, 2026

    Kansas Judge Permanently Blocks Abortion Care Restrictions

    A Kansas state court has permanently enjoined a slew of restrictions on abortion care, including requirements that providers disclose patients' reasons for seeking an abortion to the state and inform patients about abortion pill "reversal" treatments the court said were "unlikely to be biologically plausible."

  • August 05, 2026

    DHS Wants To Hire Debt-Tracer To Track Down Deportees

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection is seeking bids for a contract to hire a private company to track down immigrants in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras who left voluntarily or were deported from the U.S. before paying off immigration-related fines.

  • August 05, 2026

    NYC's Food Apps Data Law Goes Too Far, 2nd Circ. Says

    A New York City law that would require DoorDash, GrubHub and other delivery apps to share customer data with the restaurants fulfilling food orders violates the First Amendment, the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday.

  • August 05, 2026

    FCC Returns $881M In Unused TV Broadcaster 'Repack' Funds

    The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that it has returned $881 million that went unused in the TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund.

Expert Analysis

  • How Reincorporating In Texas May Alter Earnout Disputes

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    While the DExit debate has focused on shareholder suits, far less attention has been paid to what reincorporating in Texas means for M&A disputes, making it particularly important to understand the nuances between Delaware and Texas earnout jurisprudence, say attorneys at Selendy Gay.

  • What To Know If DOL Raises Overtime Salary Floor

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    With the U.S. Department of Labor recently rescinding a 2024 rule that increased the minimum salary for the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime exemptions, employers should assess how a future increase would affect their workforce, paying particular attention to job duties requirements and state laws, says James Coleman at Constangy.

  • Roundup

    The Most Talked-About Supreme Court Decisions Of 2026

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    This term, 11 U.S. Supreme Court decisions quickly became hot topics among Law360's guest writers.

  • Structuring Space Nuclear Deals For Regulatory Risk

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    With the White House's recent focus on space nuclear power, a highly important question for companies that want to build orbital reactors, lunar surface systems or critical components is whether the transaction documents can handle foreign investment constraints, export controls and treaty-linked liability, says Kristie Blase at Frazer + Blase.

  • Proof, Not Just Timing, Will Decide Clean Energy Credits

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    For wind and solar projects that sprinted to begin construction before the accelerated placed-in-service deadline of July 4, project owners must now assemble and maintain documentation to qualify the project and defend against a potential clean energy credit audit, says Peter Lowy at Nelson Mullins.

  • Coordinating Life Sciences IP Strategies In The US And EU

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    As postgrant practice for life sciences patents is restructured in the U.S. and European Union simultaneously, patent owners will need to implement transatlantic coordination that treats international proceedings as components of a single intellectual property risk architecture, says Paul Calvo at Sterne Kessler.

  • Texas Business Court Rulings Show Deal Terms Paramount

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    As the courts within the Texas Business Court system have begun reaching the substantive merits of the cases before them, they are persuasively demonstrating they will not only enforce the terms of transactions as written, but will also embrace a holistic approach to complex transaction documentation interpretation, says Christopher Pace at Winston Taylor.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The year's second quarter brought several noteworthy financial services developments to California, including activity around a commercial finance oversight bill, the former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head's appointment to lead a new consumer agency, and a ruling reinforcing viable bank-fintech partnerships, say attorneys at Manatt.

  • Trademark Law As A Tool To Bolster NIL Rights Against AI

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    The meteoric rise of artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes is prompting high-profile celebrities to protect their name, image and likeness rights using federal trademark law — a powerful yet limited supplement to traditional NIL claims, says Susan Natland at BakerHostetler.

  • What Ex-CFPB Head's Calif. Role May Foretell For Oversight

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    California Gov. Gavin Newsom's selection of former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra to lead a new consumer agency signals tougher state financial services oversight, especially for fintechs, as well as heightened enforcement activity and larger penalties, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • Why SEC Climate Rule Rescission Wouldn't End Disclosure

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    If the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent proposal to rescind its 2024 climate-related disclosure rules is adopted, companies would no longer need to prepare for the rules' specific governance, emissions, attestation, financial statement and tagging requirements, but several important constraints would remain, say attorneys at Venable.

  • New Colo. Retainage Bonds Shift Construction Power Balance

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    A new Colorado law that can force property owners and developers to accept bonds from contractors in lieu of traditional cash retainage means owners’ practical leverage now derives from administering a risk-transfer mechanism, not from controlling cash, but key questions remain about who may assert a claim and how enforcing a bond actually works, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • Justices Stand On Statutory Specifics In Cisco And Landor

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    With its June 23 decisions in Cisco Systems Inc. v. Doe and Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, the U.S. Supreme Court doubled down on the critical point that the statute invoked in a federal claim must authorize a private lawsuit and the remedy sought, says Patrick Judd at Phelps Dunbar.

  • Immigration Ruling Maps Alternative To Universal Injunctions

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    A Rhode Island federal court's decision in Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS vacating policies that froze key immigration adjudications for nationals of 39 countries, and paused asylum applications altogether, suggests how practitioners might press for the Administrative Procedure Act's bad faith exception to record review and seek vacatur as a viable alternative to universal injunctions, says Kemal Hepsen at Mandamus Lawyers.

  • New Va. Finance Laws Signal Consumer Protection Push

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    Virginia's 2026 legislative session produced several noteworthy developments for financial institutions, including garnishment reforms, mortgage assumption requirements and debt collection reforms, signaling broader trends toward increased consumer protection, enhanced fraud prevention obligations and greater accountability in financial services operations, says Jay Spruill at Woods Rogers.

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