Public Policy

  • December 22, 2025

    Ábrego García Remains Free For Now As Md. Judge Slams DOJ

    Kilmar Ábrego García will remain free through Christmas after a Maryland federal judge said she would leave a restraining order barring his redetention in place until the new year at least. She also blasted Trump administration lawyers for "misrepresentations" she said were made in "bad faith."

  • December 22, 2025

    Education Dept. Ordered To Restore $1B In Mental Health Grants

    The U.S. Department of Education will not be allowed to cut more than $1 billion in mental health grants for schools after a Washington federal judge ruled that the agency acted illegally by citing new, undisclosed Trump administration priorities as a basis for slashing the funding.

  • December 22, 2025

    Localities Say FCC Exceeding Powers Could Lead To Suits

    Local officials warned the Federal Communications Commission that extensive litigation could result if the agency tries to expand its power in easing permit approvals for high-speed deployment projects, an authority they say is not provided in federal statute.

  • December 22, 2025

    Fulton County Must Face State's 2020 Election Subpoenas

    The election board of Fulton County, Georgia, was ordered to hand over documents from the 2020 presidential election to its state counterpart by a state judge who said that while the subpoenas might seem "stale and ill-timed," they remained enforceable.

  • December 22, 2025

    7th Circ. Rejects Challenge To Chicago Towing Practices

    The Seventh Circuit on Monday affirmed the dismissal of a putative class action challenging the city of Chicago's practice of booting, towing, impounding and ultimately disposing of residents' cars to enforce compliance with its traffic code, saying it doesn't amount to a taking under the Fifth Amendment.

  • December 22, 2025

    Calif. Atty Slams 'Protectionist' ABS Fee-Sharing Ban

    A California attorney has pushed back on opposition from the California's attorney general and the state's bar association amid his efforts to block enforcement of a ban on fee sharing with out-of-state law firms owned by nonattorneys, arguing the new state law is a "protectionist act, in defiance of the constitution."

  • December 22, 2025

    4 Legal Ethics Matters That Rocked 2025

    This year, judges across the country grappled with attorneys' use and misuse of generative artificial intelligence, and prominent federal prosecutor battles dominated headlines in some of the top legal ethics matters of 2025.

  • December 22, 2025

    DOI Pauses Work On East Coast Offshore Wind Projects

    Construction on five offshore wind projects along the Atlantic coast was paused Monday by the U.S. Department of Interior over national security concerns, according to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum.

  • December 22, 2025

    BREAKING: Jury Deadlocks In Ex-NY Gov. Aide's Foreign Agent Case

    A Brooklyn federal judge on Monday declared a mistrial in a case alleging a former top aide to two New York governors did the bidding of the People's Republic of China at the highest levels of state government in exchange for millions of dollars, after the jury deadlocked on all charges.

  • December 22, 2025

    Oklahoma Looks To Dismiss Tribes' Hunting Rights Lawsuit

    Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and other state officials are asking a federal court to dismiss a challenge that looks to block the state from citing Native Americans for hunting and fishing on tribal lands, arguing that it is the latest unsuccessful effort to broaden the reach of a landmark 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

  • December 22, 2025

    Advocacy Groups Warn Against Kalshi's Gambling Push

    A trio of nonprofits that advocate against gambling are fighting betting company Kalshi's efforts to curb Maryland gaming regulators' oversight, telling the Fourth Circuit that health consequences and threats to elections and youth sports would be significant if Kalshi succeeds.

  • December 22, 2025

    White House Looks To Open More Spectrum Bands

    President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to free up a large amount of airwaves for the wireless industry, including federally held spectrum running from 7.125 to 7.4 gigahertz.

  • December 22, 2025

    Tariff Refunds Would Be 'A Mess,' Economic Official Says

    It would be an "administrative problem" to issue tariff refunds in the aftermath of a potential U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the White House's trade measures, a top economic policy official said.

  • December 22, 2025

    2025 Was A Policy Year Like No Other For Immigration Attys

    This year brought nonstop immigration policy whiplash as the Trump administration ramped up enforcement, triggering panic among employers about I-9 compliance in a landscape of constantly shifting adjudication and work authorization policies. Here, Law360 looks at how policy shifted attorney practice in 2025.

  • December 22, 2025

    Vape Cos. Get Partial Block Of Va. Law, But Claims Trimmed

    A Virginia federal judge has agreed to halt enforcement of certain provisions of a state law barring the sale of vapes that are not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, while dismissing two of the three claims vape companies had brought in the lawsuit.

  • December 22, 2025

    Minn. Montessori School Gets Property Tax Break, Court Says

    A Montessori school in Minnesota was exempt from property taxes as a seminary of learning, the state tax court ruled, saying it met the requirements for the tax break as outlined in case law.

  • December 22, 2025

    Physicist Takes No-Jail Deal To End 'Buffalo Billion' Saga

    A New York physicist who over a decade ago allegedly defrauded the Empire State's "Buffalo Billion" development initiative while serving as president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute copped to a conspiracy count Monday in another step toward closing a case that wound its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • December 19, 2025

    Feds To Appeal Dismissal Of Comey, James Indictments

    The U.S. Department of Justice indicated Friday that it will appeal the dismissals of headline-grabbing indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, after a federal judge ruled the controversial prosecutor handling both cases was not properly appointed.

  • December 19, 2025

    The Telecom Developments That Defined 2025

    As Republicans took the reins of the Federal Communications Commission this year, the commission wasted little time filling a wish list of industry demands, from axing older regulations to launching plans to relax limits on media consolidation, streamline Space Bureau paperwork and put the kibosh on unwanted cable billing rules.

  • December 19, 2025

    Senate Bill Would Direct Extra BEAD Funds To AI

    Congress has a lot of ideas about what should happen with funds that states were allocated as part of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, but end up not using — the newest one is turning those dollars toward workforce development related to artificial intelligence.

  • December 19, 2025

    DraftKings Beats Suit Over Calif. Gambling Ban, For Now

    A California federal judge said during a hearing Friday he plans to toss with leave to amend a proposed class action alleging DraftKings' Daily Fantasy Sports games and others violate California's ban on sports betting, while calling the case "significant" for "clearly" implicating public policy and the California penal code.

  • December 19, 2025

    Colo. Judge Rules Lumen's Claims Not Time-Barred

    A Colorado federal judge ruled that Lumen Technologies' suit against a consulting firm isn't time-barred, dismissing the firm's bid for summary judgment after it was accused of being liable for a faulty structural analysis of a building Lumen wished to purchase in Miami. 

  • December 19, 2025

    Fed Seeks Input On Limited Master Accounts For Fintechs

    The Federal Reserve Board on Friday took another step toward rolling out what are known as skinny master accounts for fintech firms, requesting public feedback on a special purpose Reserve Bank account prototype "tailored to the risks and needs of institutions focused on payments innovation."

  • December 19, 2025

    9th Circ. Revives Excessive Force Suit Against Spokane Police

    The Ninth Circuit has held that police officers in Washington state could have violated the Fourth Amendment rights of a man who died in their custody during a suspected drug overdose, finding that their alleged use of force would be excessive under federal law if proven.

  • December 19, 2025

    Trump's Cannabis Order: The Impact On Hemp And Research

    President Donald Trump's executive order Thursday reignited an administrative process to reclassify marijuana as a less restricted drug, but its provisions touching on cannabis research and hemp-derived CBD are less obvious.

Expert Analysis

  • Regulatory Rollback And Lingering Limbo: The CFPB In 2025

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has implemented significant changes since President Donald Trump took office in January, including dismissing actions with prejudice, withdrawing guidance and rescinding rules, casting the bureau in uncertain light heading into 2026, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

  • Nuclear Power Pitfalls And Opportunities To Watch For In 2026

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    Shepherding nuclear power projects to completion requires navigating more risks and obligations than almost any other infrastructure undertaking, but with the right strategies, states, developers, vendors and contractors can overcome these hurdles in 2026 and beyond, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • 2025 Calif. Banking Oversight Centered On Consumer Issues

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    The combination of statutory reform, registration mandates and enforcement activity in 2025 signals that California's financial regulatory landscape is focused on consumer protection, particularly in the areas of crypto kiosk fee practices, earned wage access providers and elder fraud, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • A 6th Circ. Snapshot: 3 Cases That Defined 2025

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    With more than a thousand opinions issued this year, three rulings from the Sixth Circuit stood out for the impact they'll have on the practice of civil procedure, including a net neutrality decision, a class certification standards ruling and an opinion about vulgarity in school, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

  • Sports Gambling Scrutiny Expands Risks For Teams, Leagues

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    The Minnesota attorney general recently sent warning letters to 14 website operators for offering what the state considers illegal online gambling, demonstrating why the sports industry, including teams and leagues, should ask critical questions about organizational compliance, internal controls and potential criminal liability, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • The CFTC's Road Ahead Under Newly Confirmed Chair

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    Michael Selig's Dec. 18 confirmation as U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair comes at a critical juncture, as the agency is poised to gain oversight over the crypto industry and increase its jurisdictional mandate covering prediction markets, says Elizabeth Lan Davis at Davis Wright.

  • How Fractional GCs Can Manage Risks Of Engagement

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    As more organizations eliminate their in-house legal departments in favor of outsourcing legal work, fractional general counsel roles offer practitioners an engaging and flexible way to practice at a high level, but they can also present legal, ethical and operational risks that must be proactively managed, say attorneys at Boies Schiller.

  • SEC Rulemaking Radar: A Reset, A Shift And A Preview Of '26

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    With major proposals withdrawn and new priorities emerging, forthcoming U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposals in 2026 will look to reshape how digital assets are regulated, recalibrate market structure and simplify how small companies go public, says Christopher Grobbel at Goodwin.

  • Changes In Crypto, Cybersecurity Defined NY Banking In 2025

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    The major takeaways from 2025 in New York banking policy involve updated guidance, regulations and requirements primarily affecting innovation and digital banking, in areas such as cybersecurity, virtual currencies, and buy now, pay later programs, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • Opinion

    Justices Should Clarify Loper Bright Doctrine Via Patent Case

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    The U.S. Supreme Court should use the Lynk Labs v. Samsung patent case to provide urgently needed guidance on how last year’s Loper Bright decision should be applied to real-world questions of agency authority in the post-Chevron world, says Timothy Hsieh at Oklahoma City University School of Law.

  • How OECD Tax Update Tackles Mobile Workforce Complexity

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    The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s recently updated model tax convention — a recalibration of international tax principles in response to an increasingly mobile workforce — should prompt companies to reevaluate cross-border operations, transfer pricing policies and tax controversy strategies, say attorneys at Eversheds.

  • Reviewing 2025's Most Pertinent Wiretap Developments

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    2025 was a remarkable year in the world of web tracking wiretapping litigation, not only for the increased caseload but also because of numerous developing theories of liability, with disputes expected to continue unabated in 2026, say attorneys at Squire Patton.

  • 2025 Legal Milestones That Will Shape Psychedelics Sector

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    As 2025 draws to a close, psychedelic drug development stands at an inflection point, experiencing unprecedented momentum through recent sweeping regulatory changes and landmark clinical milestones, amid rapidly evolving regulatory expectations, say Odette Hauke at Odette Alina LLC and Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell.

  • M&A Midmarket Shows Resilience Amid 2025 Challenges

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    Midmarket mergers and acquisitions showed a slight decline in volume but climbed in value for much of 2025, particularly in the private equity space, indicating that the middle market M&A environment is cautious but steady heading into 2026, say attorneys at Stoel Rives.

  • Del. Dispatch: Key 2025 Corporate Cases And Trends To Know

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    The Delaware corporate legal landscape saw notable changes in 2025, spurred by amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law, ubiquitous artificial intelligence fervor, boardroom discussion around DExit, record shareholder activism activity and an arguably more expansive view of potential Caremark liability, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

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