Public Policy

  • May 29, 2025

    Big Oil Caused Woman's Heat Wave Death, Novel Suit Says

    The daughter of a Seattle woman who died during a 2021 heat wave filed a first-of-its kind wrongful death suit in Washington state court Thursday against oil and gas giants — including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell — alleging the companies knew for decades their fossil fuel products would one day "claim lives."

  • May 29, 2025

    Ore. Pot Regulator Will No Longer Require Labor Peace Pacts

    Oregon's cannabis regulator said Thursday that it would no longer enforce a voter-approved law requiring cannabis businesses to enter into labor peace agreements with their employees, following a federal judge's ruling that the law was preempted by federal policy.

  • May 29, 2025

    Judge Favors Vanda But Seeks Deal Over Drug Approval

    A D.C. federal judge on Thursday seemed ready to rule for Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. in its challenge to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's timelines for approving new drugs but asked both sides to first try negotiating remedies to resolve the dispute.

  • May 29, 2025

    Ex-USPTO Solicitor Says He's Against Squires Nomination

    A former solicitor for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has come out against the nomination of John A. Squires to be the next director of the agency, saying in a letter Thursday that he's concerned about the nominee's desire to make existing patents stronger.

  • May 29, 2025

    Judge Challenges Visa's Bid To Dismiss DOJ Antitrust Suit

    A New York federal judge on Thursday questioned whether Visa Inc. is inappropriately raising factual disputes in its motion to dismiss U.S. Justice Department claims that the company has illegally maintained a monopoly in the market for debit card networks.

  • May 29, 2025

    Drugstores Say Texas Flouted Rules To Update Pharmacy Regs

    The National Association of Chain Drug Stores Inc. told the Texas Supreme Court that updates to statewide policy governing how pharmacies report drug prices flouted Texas rulemaking procedures, telling the state's high court that even if the updates were "good policy" they weren't lawful.

  • May 29, 2025

    DC Court Blocks Trump's Tariffs As Overreach Of Power

    The International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not empower the president to impose tariffs, the D.C. federal district court said Thursday, ruling that President Donald Trump's global levies are unlawful and barring his administration from enforcing them on two toymakers who challenged the policies.

  • May 29, 2025

    Interior OKs Utah Mine In First Fast-Tracked Energy Review

    The U.S. Department of the Interior has greenlit a uranium and vanadium mine in southeastern Utah, the first to be approved under a new, expedited 14-day environmental review process.

  • May 29, 2025

    SD Tribe Issues State Of Emergency Over Police Resources

    The Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota has declared a public safety state of emergency on its reservation due to methamphetamine use and illicit drug trafficking, urging the federal government to give the tribe more law enforcement resources.

  • May 29, 2025

    Don't Kill 'Crucial' FCC Wi-Fi Subsidy, House Lawmakers Told

    Dozens of groups urged lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday to preserve the Federal Communications Commission's off-campus wireless hot spot subsidy for schools and libraries after the U.S. Senate voted to gut the program created late in the Biden administration.

  • May 29, 2025

    Kids Launch New Climate Case Over Trump Energy Orders

    The U.S. government on Thursday was hit with a fresh lawsuit from youths alleging that federal energy policies harm their future by exacerbating climate change, specifically targeting President Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at boosting fossil fuels.

  • May 29, 2025

    Fed. Circ. Revives Trump Tariffs As It Weighs Appeal

    The Federal Circuit temporarily reinstated President Donald Trump's global tariffs Thursday, a day after the U.S. Court of International Trade held that an emergency law did not give the president "unbounded authority" to impose the measures.

  • May 29, 2025

    IRS Delaying $11M Worker Tax Credit Payout, Hospital Says

    A hospital forced to suspend its normal business as it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic told a Washington federal court Thursday that it's entitled to an $11.5 million tax refund for employee retention credits and that the IRS has failed to deliver the promised aid.

  • May 29, 2025

    Neb. Tribe Challenges Army's Repatriation Law Interpretation

    A Nebraska tribe has said the U.S. Army is introducing new errors into its Fourth Circuit arguments against efforts to repatriate the remains of two children from a Native boarding school cemetery in Pennsylvania, telling the appellate court the attempt to complicate a straightforward federal law should be rejected.

  • May 29, 2025

    Trump Pardons Twice-Convicted Former Conn. Governor

    President Donald Trump has pardoned former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, a one-time chairman of the Republican Governors Association, who resigned from office in 2004 and served two stints in prison for corruption and lying to federal election officials.

  • May 29, 2025

    Deere Says No Monopoly, Seeks End Of Right-To-Repair Suit

    Deere & Co. is pushing to end a suit from the Federal Trade Commission and five states alleging it violated the Sherman Act by restricting access to its repair tools and services, saying it doesn't participate in the repair market so it can't have a monopoly.

  • May 29, 2025

    Mass. Justices Revive Atty's Suit Against 'Spiteful' Colleagues

    Massachusetts' highest court Thursday revived part of a lawsuit brought by a former appellate court staff attorney who said he was intentionally undermined by supervisors, finding that he had made a reasonable showing that two of the three original defendants had demonstrated actual malice toward him.

  • May 29, 2025

    Ore. Extends Tax Breaks For Affordable Housing Development

    Oregon will delay the expiration of three property tax breaks intended to help the development of affordable housing under legislation signed by Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek.

  • May 29, 2025

    Mich. Farmers Must Bring New Suit To Challenge Crop Policy

    A group of Michigan dry-bean farmers can't challenge the Federal Crop Insurance Corp.'s reapproval of a crop revenue insurance program after remand, a federal court ruled, saying the farmers must initiate a new suit to challenge a remanded agency decision.

  • May 29, 2025

    Trump Names 4 Jurists, State AG Official For Fla. Judgeships

    President Donald Trump this week announced his nominations of four judges and a top official in the Florida Attorney General's Office to fill district judgeships in the Sunshine State's Middle and Southern Districts.

  • May 29, 2025

    Texas Bars Some Property Tax Hikes Above Voter-OK'd Rates

    Texas will prohibit school districts from adopting property tax rates above voter-approved thresholds in response to a natural disaster if voters previously rejected a similar proposed rate increase, under a bill signed by Gov. Greg Abbott.

  • May 29, 2025

    DOJ Sidelines ABA From Vetting Trump's Judicial Picks

    The Justice Department plans to direct judicial nominees away from a long-standing vetting process by the American Bar Association, labeling it an "activist organization," according to a Thursday letter by Attorney General Pamela Bondi.

  • May 29, 2025

    'Keyboard Terrorism' Against Officials Gets Colo. Man 3 Years

    A Colorado federal judge Thursday sentenced a man to just over three years in prison for social media posts threatening to kill a state judge, the state's top election official and federal law enforcement, citing the seriousness of his "keyboard terrorism" in denying a plea for leniency.

  • May 29, 2025

    Mich. Judge Faces Watchdog Complaint For Disparaging Boss

    A Michigan state judge made profane, disparaging comments about his chief judge during livestreamed proceedings and via emails to court employees and improperly used his position to help a judicial candidate, the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission said in a new complaint Wednesday.

  • May 30, 2025

    CORRECTED: Pa. Justices Keep Block On Voting Machine Data-Sharing

    Pennsylvania's Supreme Court left intact a lower court's ruling that blocked a county from sharing data it gleaned from unauthorized third-party inspections of its voting machines after the 2020 election. Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated which Commonwealth Court order was affirmed. The error has been corrected.

Expert Analysis

  • Avoiding Pitfalls Around New Calif. Commercial Lease Law

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    A California law that became effective this year requires commercial landlords to extend certain protections previously afforded to residential tenancies, and a few key provisions of the law especially warrant reexamination of leasing and operational processes, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • How BigLaw Executive Orders May Affect Smaller Firms

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    Because of the types of cases they take on, solo practitioners, small law firms and public interest attorneys may find themselves more dramatically affected by the collective impact of recent government action involving the legal industry than even the BigLaw firms named in the executive orders, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Filial Consortium Claims' Future After Conn. High Court Ruling

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    While the Connecticut Supreme Court recently ruled for defendants in rejecting parents’ attempt to recover loss of companionship damages in a severe child injury case, there is still potential for the plaintiffs bar to lobby for a law that would allow filial consortium claims, Glenn Coffin at Gordon Rees.

  • 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.

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