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Public Policy
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October 17, 2025
Georgia Justices Affirm Stormwater Charge Is Fee, Not Tax
A stormwater utility charge levied by a local government in Georgia is a fee, not a tax, the state Supreme Court said, upholding a trial court's finding that the charge did not violate the state constitution's uniformity provision on property taxation.
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October 17, 2025
Idaho Asks Justices To Reject Mootness In Trans Ban Case
The state of Idaho has again encouraged the U.S. Supreme Court to proceed with its review of whether the state's ban on transgender women in sports is unconstitutional after a lower court earlier this week rejected the plaintiff's efforts to voluntarily dismiss the suit.
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October 17, 2025
Bolton Pleads Not Guilty To Mishandling Documents
Former National Security Advisor John Bolton pled not guilty to charges that he illegally retained and shared classified national defense information Friday, a day after federal prosecutors unsealed an 18-count indictment against the former appointee of President Donald Trump who has become a critic of his administration since.
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October 17, 2025
Electronic Co. Tells Justices Trump Tariffs Are The Emergency
Emergency tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump are creating extraordinary economic threats under a law that was intended to protect U.S. retailers from such harm, a Virginia-based electronics company told the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.
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October 17, 2025
Congressional Dems Push For No Layoffs At Interior And EPA
Democratic lawmakers are demanding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of the Interior halt any plans to reduce staff as the federal government shutdown continues into its third week.
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October 17, 2025
Man Arrested In Mistaken ID Case Can Sue, 11th Circ. Says
A Florida police officer cannot escape a lawsuit alleging the officer violated the Fourth Amendment when he entered a home without a warrant and then tasered and arrested the father of a suspect in a case of mistaken identity, the Eleventh Circuit has ruled, while remanding related claims for further review.
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October 17, 2025
Federal Courts To Scale Back Operations Amid Shutdown
The federal court system has run out of money and will scale back operations beginning Monday as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, possibly leading to case delays.
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October 17, 2025
Native Policy Roundup: $128M Protects Tribal, Farm Lands
Despite the U.S. government moving into its third week of a shutdown, state and federal lawmakers continue to introduce — and approve — legislation toward advancing Native American rights and sovereignty. Law360 examines some of the state, federal and tribal legislation and policies introduced in the past week
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October 17, 2025
Lawmakers Press DOD To Undo Weapons Testing Office Cuts
Two Democratic lawmakers pushed the U.S. Department of Defense to explain and reverse funding, staff and program cuts for an independent office that evaluates weapons systems, saying they are concerned the cuts will waste tax dollars and put service members at risk.
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October 17, 2025
Texas Farm Bureau Suit Alleging USDA Discrimination Stayed
A Texas federal judge on Thursday opted to stay the Texas Farm Bureau's suit against the USDA over the agency's alleged preferential treatment of minority farmers while a similar case plays out.
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October 17, 2025
USPTO Head To Take Over Patent Review Institution Decisions
John Squires, director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said Friday that he will now make all decisions on whether to institute America Invents Act reviews of patents, including on the merits of the challenge and discretionary issues, in a major overhaul of the review system.
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October 17, 2025
NC Justices Say Doctor Can't Appeal Dismissal Denial
The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday denied a doctor and hospital's attempt to reverse an appeals court order upholding the denial of their requests to dismiss a malpractice suit, saying they did not have the right to appeal the denial in the first place.
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October 17, 2025
Industry Calls On Policymakers To Tackle Telecom Vandalism
Growing theft and vandalism of telecom lines can trigger not only immediate costs, but broader economic and social ripple effects from network shutdowns, a wireless infrastructure group warned in a pair of new reports issued to support the group's call for stepped-up law enforcement.
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October 17, 2025
UN Shipping Agency Delays Carbon Price Opposed By US
The United Nations' shipping agency agreed Friday to postpone for one year its plan to introduce a global carbon price, which the U.S. government opposes, having called it a "global carbon tax."
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October 17, 2025
Va. Judge Orders Bond Hearing For Detained Salvadoran
A Virginia federal judge ordered the Trump administration to provide a bond hearing before an immigration judge for a Salvadoran man who U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained in August, rejecting the government's argument that he is subject to mandatory detention.
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October 17, 2025
9th Circ. Upholds Nigerian's Asylum Denial For Marriage Fraud
An immigration judge reasonably denied a Nigerian man's application for asylum after finding him not credible based on a prior marriage fraud admission, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled.
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October 16, 2025
Proposed New Rules Would Cut Off Many PTAB Challenges
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proposed rules Thursday that would prevent inter partes reviews challenging patents from being instituted in many scenarios, and attorneys said implementing the plan would significantly reduce challenges and make them far less appealing to accused infringers.
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October 16, 2025
Unions Challenge Feds' AI Surveillance Of Noncitizens' Views
Three labor unions sued the Trump administration in New York federal court Thursday to stop a surveillance program they allege scours online activity for viewpoints the administration doesn't like and leverages the threat of immigration enforcement to coerce silence.
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October 16, 2025
FEMA Ordered To Restore $34M NY Anti-Terror Funds
A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore nearly $34 million in slashed funds to protect New York's massive transit system from terrorism, saying the White House unlawfully tied the state's grant to immigration policy.
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October 16, 2025
Smartmatic Faces FCPA Indictment In Philippine Bribery Case
A Florida federal grand jury on Thursday returned a superseding indictment that adds charges against Smartmatic, which wasn't previously a party to prosecutors' case accusing former executives at the voting machine company of bribing an elections official in the Philippines to secure contracts.
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October 16, 2025
Fed. Judge Keeps X's Suit Against Apple, OpenAI In Texas
A Texas federal judge told X Corp, Apple and OpenAI that they ought to move their headquarters to Fort Worth if they like litigating in Cowtown so much, opting Thursday to keep X and xAI's sweeping antitrust suit against Apple and OpenAI in the Lone Star State.
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October 16, 2025
Why Ethics Complaints Against Halligan Face 'Very High Bar'
Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan for the Eastern District of Virginia could face bar disciplinary action or court sanctions if the prosecutions she's pursuing at President Donald Trump's behest are found to be politically motivated or baseless, although proving ethics allegations will be an uphill battle, experts say.
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October 16, 2025
Farmers Urge Wash. Justices To Void Fuel Exemption Regs
A Washington Supreme Court justice suggested Thursday that the state's framework for an exemption under its greenhouse gas "cap-and-invest" program has fallen short of lawmakers' express goal of ensuring farmers have access to surcharge-free fuel for agricultural purposes.
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October 16, 2025
Lumen Wants 'Speculative' $1.4B Pension Swap Suit Tossed
Lumen Technologies Inc. asked a Colorado federal court to throw out a proposed class action alleging it wrongly transferred obligations for a $1.4 billion pension fund to a private equity-controlled insurance company, calling it "speculative" and arguing that retired employees can't show they've been harmed by the move.
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October 16, 2025
Tech Group Aims To Ax Texas' App Store Age Verification Law
A new Texas law that requires app store owners to verify users' ages and block minors from downloading apps or making in-app purchases without parental consent unconstitutionally imposes a "broad censorship regime" on the entire mobile app ecosystem, a tech industry trade group argued in a lawsuit Thursday seeking to strike down the measure.
Expert Analysis
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How Prohibiting Trigger Leads May Affect Mortgage Marketing
Recent amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibiting the sale of trigger leads mark a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for mortgage lenders, third-party lead generators and their legal counsel, who should reevaluate lead generation strategies and compliance protocols, say Joel Herberman, Rob Robilliard and Leah Dempsey at Brownstein Hyatt.
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How Hyperlinks Are Changing E-Discovery Responsibilities
A recent e-discovery dispute over hyperlinked data in Hubbard v. Crow shows how courts have increasingly broadened the definition of control to account for cloud-based evidence, and why organizations must rethink preservation practices to avoid spoliation risks, says Bree Murphy at Exterro.
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Pharma Copay Programs Raise Complex Economic Questions
The growing prevalence of copay accumulator and maximizer programs in the pharmaceutical industry is drawing increased scrutiny from patients, advocacy groups, lawmakers and courts, bringing complex questions about how financial responsibility for prescription drug purchases is determined and complicating damages assessments in litigation, say analysts at Analysis Group.
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State False Claims Acts Can Help Curb Opioid Fund Fraud
State versions of the federal False Claims Act can play an important role in policing the misuse of opioid settlement funds, taking a cue from the U.S. Department of Justice’s handling of federal fraud cases involving pandemic relief funds, says Kenneth Levine at Stone & Magnanini.
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Pemex Bribery Charges Provide Glimpse Into FCPA Evolution
A recently unsealed indictment against two Mexican nationals for allegedly bribing officials at Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, reveals that Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement is adapting to new priorities, but still remains active, and compliance programs should continue apace, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
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CFPB Proposal Defining Consumer Risk May Add Uncertainty
Though a recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal would codify when risks to consumers justify supervisory intervention against nonbanks, furthering Trump administration plans to curtail CFPB authority, firms may still struggle to identify what could attract supervisory designation under the new rule, say attorneys at Steptoe.
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Targeting Execs Could Hurt SEC's Probusiness Goals
While many enforcement changes under the Trump administration’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have been touted by commission leadership as proinnovation and probusiness, a planned focus on holding individual directors and officers responsible for wrongdoing may have the opposite effect, say attorneys at MoFo.
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Preserving Refunds As Tariffs Await Supreme Court Weigh-In
In the event that the U.S. Supreme Court decides in V.O.S. Selections v. Trump that the president doesn't have authority to levy tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, importers should keep records of imports on which they have paid such tariffs and carefully monitor the liquidation dates, say attorneys at Butzel.
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How Justices' Ruling Upends Personal Jurisdiction Defense
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Fuld v. Palestinian Liberation Organization, holding that the Fifth Amendment's due process clause does not require a defendant to have minimum contacts with a forum, may thwart foreign defendants' reliance on personal jurisdiction to evade federal claims in U.S. courts, say attorneys at Axinn.
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Key Points From DOJ's New DeFi Enforcement Outline
Recent remarks by the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division head Matthew Galeotti reveal several issues that the decentralized finance industry should address in order to minimize risk, including developers' role in evaluating protocols and the importance of illicit finance risk assessments, says Drew Rolle at Alston & Bird.
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Revamped Opportunity Zones Can Aid Clean Energy Projects
The Qualified Opportunity Zone program, introduced in 2017 and reshaped in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, offers investors federal tax incentives for development in low-income communities — incentives that are especially meaningful for clean energy projects, where capital-intensive infrastructure and long-term planning are essential, say attorneys at Dentons.
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Assessing Potential Ad Tech Remedies Ahead Of Google Trial
The Virginia federal judge tasked with prying open Google’s digital advertising monopoly faces a smorgasbord of potential remedies, all with different implications for competition, government control and consumers' internet experience, but compromises reached in the parallel Google search monopoly litigation may point a way forward, say attorneys at MoloLamken.
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Earned Wage Access Providers Face State Law Labyrinth
At least 12 states have established laws or rules regulating services that allow employees to access earned wages before payday, with more laws potentially to follow suit, creating an evolving state licensing maze even for fintech providers that partner with banks, say attorneys at Venable.
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The Pros And Cons Of Levying Value-Based Fees On Patents
The potential for a recurring, value-based maintenance fee on patents, while offering some benefits, raises several complications, including that it would likely exceed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's statutory authority and reduce research and development activities in the U.S., says Sandip Patel at Marshall Gerstein.
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Sales And Use Tax Strategies For Renewables After OBBBA
With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act sharply curtailing federal tax incentives for solar and wind projects, it is vital for developers to carefully manage state and local sales and use tax exposures through early planning and careful contract structuring, say advisers at KPMG.