Public Policy

  • May 01, 2025

    Judge Won't Ax Anti-DEI Injunction For Plaintiffs' Tweaks

    A Maryland federal judge Thursday declined to upend his preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from implementing the bulk of the president's executive orders aiming to slash diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the public and private sectors.

  • May 01, 2025

    New Bill Holds Judges Accountable Even After They Retire

    A Georgia Congressman on Thursday introduced legislation that would ensure misconduct complaints against judges would still be investigated, even if the judge has resigned, retired or even died.

  • May 01, 2025

    Ex-Credit Union Regulator Says Suing Trump 'Had To Be Done'

    One of two Democrats suing President Donald Trump for unlawful termination from the National Credit Union Administration warned Thursday of damaging potential ripple effects if their firings are allowed to stand, casting their decision to litigate as daunting but necessary.

  • May 01, 2025

    Ex-Amtrak Director Steered IT Contracts For Bribes, Feds Say

    Pennsylvania federal prosecutors announced Thursday that the former director of network planning and engineering for Amtrak is charged with taking bribes worth tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for steering millions of dollars in Amtrak contract work to various vendors.

  • May 01, 2025

    Troops Urge High Court To Keep Transgender Ban On Ice

    Several transgender service members and recruits told the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to reject the Trump administration's bid to lift a federal judge's order prohibiting implementation of the Pentagon's ban on transgender military service, claiming the policy is so deeply rooted in animosity that it won't survive judicial inspection.

  • May 01, 2025

    DOJ Grilled On 'Bottleneck' After Refugee Processing Orders

    A Washington federal judge expressed frustration with the federal government Thursday for moving "with one hand behind its back" to resume processing of certain refugees after the Ninth Circuit clarified the scope of a partial block on the Trump administration's refugee program shutdown.

  • May 01, 2025

    Aetna And Humana Accused Of Medicare Kickbacks And Bias

    The federal government brought a bombshell False Claims Act suit Thursday against Aetna, Elevance and Humana, claiming the insurers paid hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to brokers in exchange for enrollments into their Medicare Advantage plans, with Humana and Aetna also accused of discriminating against disabled beneficiaries.

  • May 01, 2025

    HHS Report Finds 'Serious Concerns' On Trans Care For Youth

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday released a report it says raises "serious concerns" about medical interventions used to aid young people in gender transition.

  • May 01, 2025

    SEC Drops Case Against Crypto Promoter Ian Balina

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission moved Thursday to drop its suit over cryptocurrency influencer Ian Balina's alleged promotion of so-called SPRK tokens, about a month after Balina's attorneys said the federal regulator planned to walk away from the case.

  • May 01, 2025

    FinCEN Targets Cambodian Firm As Crypto Money Launderer

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury's financial crimes watchdog on Thursday called out Cambodia-based Huione Group as a primary money laundering concern and proposed to "sever its access to the U.S. financial system" due to its alleged laundering of $4 billion worth of crypto scam and other illicit proceeds.

  • May 01, 2025

    Judge Rejects Appeal Over Pronoun Use In Trans Athlete Case

    A Colorado federal judge told a group of athletes Thursday that any stigma they perceive over his choice of pronouns to refer to a transgender volleyball player is "self-inflicted," according to an order declining to get the Tenth Circuit involved in his decision not to recuse from the case. 

  • May 01, 2025

    Judge Told Data Would Let Rivals Mimic Google Search

    An academic testifying for Google on Thursday told a D.C. federal court that the data sharing provisions being proposed as a fix in the search monopolization case would allow rivals to reverse engineer Google search and if not match the results, at least mimic them.

  • May 01, 2025

    'Fingers Crossed' At FCC As Court's Subsidy Ruling Closes In

    There's plenty of hand-wringing at the Federal Communications Commission as a U.S. Supreme Court decision draws near over the legality of the revenue-raising scheme used to pay for more than $9 billion in broadband and phone service subsidies.

  • May 01, 2025

    NY School District Appeals Mascot Ban While Feds Investigate

    A Long Island, New York, school district is appealing a decision that denied its bid to block a ban on the use of Indigenous mascots and names in public schools, while the federal government investigates the state's education department and board of regents alleging Civil Rights Act violations.

  • May 01, 2025

    States, Green Groups Look To Vacate NEPA Ruling

    States that had asked the Eighth Circuit to revive vacated National Environmental Policy Act regulations are now abandoning their appeal because the White House has eliminated the standards — but they're still asking that a lower court's decision striking down the regulations be overturned.

  • May 01, 2025

    GOP Seeks To Stop 'Frivolous Lawsuits' With Reconciliation

    The House Judiciary Committee approved along party lines a proposal they say will prevent "frivolous lawsuits" by barring courts from enforcing contempt citations for failure to comply with injunctions if the plaintiff has not posted a bond for litigation costs.

  • May 01, 2025

    DHS Urges Justices To Let Venezuelan Protections Be Undone

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security turned to the nation's highest court on Thursday, asking the justices to pause a nationwide injunction blocking the agency from undoing the Biden administration's extension of temporary protected status for Venezuela during its appeal.

  • May 01, 2025

    Wash. Justices Take Up Meta's $35M Political Ad Penalty

    The Washington State Supreme Court has agreed to review a $35 million judgment for penalties and legal fees against Facebook parent company Meta for repeatedly running afoul of the state's political advertising transparency law.

  • May 01, 2025

    Industry Groups Want FCC Enforcement Rework

    Five telecom industry groups asked the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday to revamp its enforcement policies after a recent Fifth Circuit decision wiped out a $57 million consumer data privacy fine against AT&T.

  • May 01, 2025

    Insurance Pros Stress Disaster Mitigation In Senate Hearing

    A panel of insurance experts stressed in front of a U.S. Senate committee Thursday the importance of mitigation efforts, such as strengthening building codes and hardening homes, as the experts discussed how prices in the property insurance market have soared because of recent natural disasters across the country.

  • May 01, 2025

    CFPB, Lenders Float Deal To Vacate Medical Debt Rule

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has agreed to a proposed consent judgment that would vacate a Biden-era rule banning an estimated $49 billion in medical debt from credit reports, striking a deal with lender trade groups that sued in Texas federal court to block the rule.

  • May 01, 2025

    Senators Reintroduce Patent Eligibility, PTAB Reform Bills

    U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Chris Coons on Thursday brought back two significant patent reform bills from last term that overall aim to make invalidating patents more difficult.

  • May 01, 2025

    Okla. DAs Say Tribes Can't Overrule State Court Opinion

    Two Oklahoma district attorneys have urged a federal court to throw out Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nation lawsuits challenging the district attorneys' attempts to prosecute tribal citizens for crimes committed in Indian Country, arguing that their complaints wrongly seek to overturn a state criminal court opinion.

  • May 01, 2025

    3rd Circ. Unsure Defunct NJ Law Blocked ICE Detentions

    The Third Circuit appeared skeptical of prison operator CoreCivic Inc.'s argument Thursday that a defunct New Jersey law barring detention centers from contracting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is unconstitutional, questioning whether the statute actually blocked the federal government from detaining migrants.

  • May 01, 2025

    Multinationals Grapple With Tariff-Induced Pricing Issues

    President Donald Trump's flurry of tariff actions since taking office has created new questions for multinationals and their transfer pricing tax planners, including how to properly account for cost increases associated with new duties in related party transactions.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Tools To Help Existing Gov't Contracts Manage Tariff Costs

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    Five pointers can help government contractors scrutinize their existing contracts for protections like equitable adjustment and duty-free entry clauses, which may help insulate them from tariff-related cost increases, say attorneys at Covington.

  • 4th Circ. Health Data Ruling Opens Door To State Law Claims

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    In Real Time Medical v. PointClickCare, the Fourth Circuit recently clarified that state law claims can rest in part on violations of a federal law that prohibits electronic health information blocking, expanding legal risks for health IT companies and potentially creating exposure to a range of competitive implications, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • Opinion

    Lawsuits Shouldn't Be Shadow Assets For Foreign Capital

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    Third-party litigation financing amplifies inefficiencies from litigation and facilitates national exposure to foreign influence in the U.S. justice system, so full disclosure of financing arrangements should be required as a matter of institutional integrity, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • 2 Del. Rulings Reinforce Proof Needed For Records Demands

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    Two recent Delaware Court of Chancery decisions involving Amazon and Paramount Global illustrate the significance of the credible basis standard on books and records requests, underscoring that stockholders seeking to investigate wrongdoing must come forward with actual evidence of misconduct — not mere allegations, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • How To Accelerate Your Post-Attorney Career Transition

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    Professionals seeking to transition to nonattorney careers may encounter skepticism as nontraditional candidates, but there are opportunities for thought leadership and to leverage speaking and writing to accelerate a post-attorney career transition, say Janet Falk at Falk Communications and Evgeny Efremkin at Toronto Metropolitan University.

  • Key Takeaways From The 2025 Spring Antitrust Meeting

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    Leadership changes, shifting priorities and evolving enforcement tools dominated the conversation at the recent American Bar Association Spring Antitrust Meeting, as panelists explored competition policy under a second Trump administration, agency discretion under the 2023 merger guidelines and new frontiers in conduct enforcement, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • 3 Action Items For Innovators Amid Fintech Regulatory Pivot

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    As the federal banking agencies seek to smooth the way for banks to engage in crypto-related activities, banks and technology companies should take note of this new chapter in payments services, especially as leadership in digital financial technology becomes a national priority, says Jess Cheng at Wilson Sonsini.

  • What PFAS-Treated Clothing Tariff Bill Would Mean For Cos.

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    In keeping with a nationwide trend of greater restrictions on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives would remove tariff advantages for PFAS-treated clothing — so businesses would be wise to proactively adapt their supply chains and review contracts to mitigate liability, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • How Tariffs May Affect Proxy Contests This Season

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    While global tariffs imposed by the Trump administration will certainly chill at least some activity this proxy season, and make defending contests significantly easier, there will likely be many new activist investments once there is more economic certainty, meaning more proxy fights this fall, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Running A Compliant DEI Program After EEOC, DOJ Guidance

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    Following recent guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice that operationalized the Trump administration's focus on ending so-called illegal DEI, employers don't need to eliminate DEI programs, but they must ensure that protected characteristics are not considered in employment decisions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • A Closer Look At New NYSE, Nasdaq Listing Rule Changes

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has recently approved changes to the New York Stock Exchange's and the Nasdaq's listing rules on reverse stock splits, minimum share price requirements and required liquidity for initial listings, meaning listed companies facing delisting will have fewer means to regain compliance, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Opinion

    GENIUS Act Can Bring Harmony To Crypto-Banking Discord

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    ​​​​​​​By embracing crypto innovation while establishing appropriate guardrails, the so-called GENIUS Act charts a path forward that promotes financial inclusion and technological advancement without compromising stability or constitutional rights, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School.

  • Opinion

    US Reassessment Of OECD Tax Deal Is Right Move

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    The wholesale U.S. reevaluation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global tax deal ordered by President Donald Trump is a positive step that could ultimately create a more durable international tax system, says Anne Gordon at the National Foreign Trade Council.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Be An Indispensable Associate

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    While law school teaches you to research, write and think critically, it often overlooks the professional skills you will need to make yourself an essential team player when transitioning from a summer to full-time associate, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • The Path Forward For Construction Cos. After Calif. Wildfires

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    The increasing frequency of disastrous wildfires, like those that recently occurred in California, presents a set of complex challenges for the construction industry, including regulatory hurdles and supply chain disruptions that can complicate rebuilding efforts, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

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