Public Policy

  • August 10, 2026

    9th Circ. Backs Wash. In PacifiCorp Carbon Law Regs Fight

    A divided Ninth Circuit panel declined on Friday to reinstate PacifiCorp's claims that Washington's carbon emissions cap-and-invest program unconstitutionally increases electricity prices for its out-of-state customers, concluding that the power company has not plausibly alleged the targeted regulations discriminate against interstate commerce.

  • August 10, 2026

    DHS Says Big Bend Border Wall Enviro Waivers Are Legal

    Immigration officials told a Texas federal judge that construction of a barrier along the Mexico border near Big Bend National Park is a national priority and the need for quick construction outweighs compliance with numerous environmental laws.

  • August 10, 2026

    House Dems Seek AI Hearings After OpenAI, Anthropic Hacks

    On the heels of major cybersecurity incidents with OpenAI and Anthropic, Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, is leading a group of House Democrats in calling for the heads of the major artificial intelligence companies to come before Congress.

  • August 10, 2026

    Lack Of Fiduciary Duty Frees Chemours From NC PFAS Suit

    Chemours Inc., its affiliates and DuPont Industrial Biosciences USA LLC on Monday got the dismissal of a proposed class action by a North Carolina resident over contamination of Brunswick County's water.

  • August 10, 2026

    Crypto, Data Center Noise Has 'Shattered' NC Town, Suit Says

    A cryptocurrency mining and artificial intelligence data center in rural North Carolina is emitting a cacophony that is destroying local residents' quality of life, according to neighbors who allege the operators have refused to take steps to mitigate the alleged nuisance.

  • August 10, 2026

    DOJ Creating Process For Marriage Broker Penalties

    The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday said it's setting up a procedure to handle claims for civil penalties against international marriage brokers for alleged violations of a federal statute regulating their operations.

  • August 10, 2026

    Kalshi Loses Bid To Keep Conn. Betting Regulators At Bay

    A Connecticut federal judge denied Kalshi's bid to shield itself from the state's gaming regulators Monday, finding that the site's sports contracts likely flout state gambling laws.

  • August 10, 2026

    SBA Replaces 8(a) Program's Social Disadvantage Test

    The U.S. Small Business Administration issued a final rule making it possible for small business owners to qualify for the 8(a) business development program by claiming they've been harmed by a company's DEI policies or a university's affirmative action programs.

  • August 10, 2026

    DHS To Require E-Filing Of Certain Immigration Forms

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released an interim final rule Monday enabling U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to mandate electronic filing of some immigration forms, which USCIS said would provide "substantial cost savings and greater efficiency."

  • August 10, 2026

    Costco Can't Shake Wash. Workers' Moonlighting Class Action

    More than 26,000 Costco Wholesale Corp. workers have beaten back the company's bid for an early win in their Washington state court moonlighting class action, though a judge also denied the workers' own push for a pretrial victory.

  • August 10, 2026

    Scammers Claim They're FCC Enforcers, Consumers Warned

    If a consumer is contacted by someone purportedly with the Federal Communications Commission claiming their phone number is being investigated and demanding personal and financial details, it's a scam.

  • August 10, 2026

    Judge Blocks DOD Military Label For Chinese Biotech Co.

    A D.C. federal judge temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Defense from enforcing a decision to designate WuXi AppTec Co. Ltd. as a Chinese military company, ruling the department's justifications appeared to lack a grounding in the evidence they cited.

  • August 10, 2026

    Mich. Journalist Challenges Drone Law Over Police Ban

    A Michigan citizen journalist convicted of interfering with police by flying a drone near a law enforcement operation has sued Bay County officials in federal court, arguing that the state's drone law is unconstitutional when used to restrict nonobstructive recording and livestreaming of police.

  • August 10, 2026

    Judge Trims BCBS Privacy Suit Over Public Site Data

    Blue Cross Blue Shield Association beat most claims in a proposed privacy class action Friday when an Illinois federal judge ruled that federal employees' searches for doctors, symptoms and medical conditions on its public website did not amount to protected health information.

  • August 10, 2026

    NJ Justices Rule No Purpose Needed In Takings Ordinances

    The New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday held that municipalities do not need to state the public purpose for which private property is being taken within the measure authorizing condemnation, backing a lower court's finding that a borough properly used eminent domain to take over a 50-room motel where it plans to provide parking and electric vehicle charging.

  • August 10, 2026

    Feds Target 3 More States Over Immigrant Tuition Benefits

    The Trump administration announced Monday that it has filed new lawsuits targeting states that it says unlawfully extend in-state tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrants while discriminating against U.S. citizens from other states, this time against New York, Connecticut and Vermont.

  • August 10, 2026

    Alaska Looks To Defend Road Permit In Suit By Tribal Groups

    The state of Alaska and a remote peninsula community want to join the federal government in defending a construction permit for a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge against a challenge brought by three Indigenous villages and an environmental group.

  • August 10, 2026

    Denver Says Tobacco Cos. Should Pay For Cigarette Litter

    Major tobacco companies including Philip Morris USA Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. knowingly shifted the cost of cleaning up cigarette litter onto Denver, the city alleged in a Colorado state court suit seeking to recover those expenses.

  • August 10, 2026

    Calif. AG Says Paramount Deal Challenge Is About Antitrust

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta pushed back Monday against Paramount Skydance Corp. CEO David Ellison's contention that a challenge of Paramount's Warner Bros. Discovery deal was politically motivated, saying the case is a "straight up antitrust enforcement case."

  • August 10, 2026

    China Places Antidumping Duties On US, Mexican Pecans

    China will place preliminary antidumping duties on imported pecans from the U.S. and Mexico after concluding those goods are harming its domestic industry, the government said Monday.

  • August 10, 2026

    Mass. Board Says $4M Museum Barge Taxable Real Property

    A floating barge used in its current location since 2011 in a Boston Tea Party museum complex is real property taxable by local authorities, the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board said in an opinion released Monday, upholding its $4 million valuation.

  • August 10, 2026

    Trump Picks Ex-Personal Lawyer As New White House Counsel

    President Donald Trump's incoming White House counsel is a former personal attorney for the president who is already working for the White House and was at the U.S. Department of Justice during his first term.

  • August 10, 2026

    ND Says High Court Ruling Sinks Tribes' VRA Claims

    North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe is asking for a judgment on the pleadings on two tribal nations' challenge to the state's 2021 legislative map following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, saying it's "manifestly obvious" that there's no longer a viable claim.

  • August 10, 2026

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    The Delaware Chancery Court last week tackled disputes involving merger settlements, contract claims, controlling stockholders, music rights, prejudgment interest, absentee voting and stockholder standing.

  • August 10, 2026

    Mass. Home Sales Price Best Indicator Of Value, Board Says

    The purchase price of a Massachusetts home was the strongest indicator of its value at the time, a state tax board said in an opinion released Monday, upholding a local assessor's valuations.

Expert Analysis

  • How DOJ Is Approaching Monitorship After Signaling Limits

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    As the U.S. Department of Justice keeps more monitors in place than expected, a look at the matters in which prosecutors are maintaining oversight reveals the sort of companies enforcers might trust to self-remediate, and also those that may receive independent supervision, say attorneys at Kendall Brill.

  • Opinion

    DHS' World Cup Influencer Warning Overreads Visa Law

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    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s reported position that foreign influencers covering the 2026 World Cup need work visas if their content is monetized runs contrary to both legislative intent and long-standing precedent that structure the visa inquiry around labor market substitution, says Jun Li at Reid & Wise.

  • 3 Steps For Banks As Section 1071 Rule Finally Becomes Final

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    Some community banks and other lenders will get some breathing room in the final Section 1071 rule exempting them from small business lending reporting duties, but other reporting institutions should update applications, systems and staff training ahead of the 2028 compliance date, says Memrie Fortenberry at Jones Walker.

  • Why DOE Isn't Phasing Out Appliance Efficiency Regs

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    While the U.S. Department of Energy recently acted on President Donald Trump's 2025 executive order requiring it to consider sunsetting many energy regulations, the DOE has not proposed phasing out efficiency standards for appliances and industrial equipment — but it could pursue other approaches to ease such requirements, say attorneys at HWG.

  • Series

    Power To The Paralegals: Burnout As A Structural Problem

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    Law firm leadership can best retain their paralegals not by encouraging self-care, but by seeking top-down structural solutions for the quiet proliferation of responsibilities and the vicarious exposure to client trauma that particularly drive burnout in this vital role, says Erika Sneeringer at Brockstedt Mandalas.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: June Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five recent rulings from cases involving allegations of internet data misuse, consumer fraud claims, immigration, insurance and First Amendment violation claims.

  • Justices' FCC Fine Ruling May Weaken Agency Leverage

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Federal Communications Commission v. AT&T upheld the commission's forfeiture framework as consistent with Jarkesy, but it is also likely to reduce the effectiveness of the commission’s forfeiture proceedings as a collection and deterrence tool, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Takeaways From 1st Del. Ruling Applying Moelis Amendments

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    Delaware corporations should carefully review contractual arrangements and governance documents following the Court of Chancery's recent enforcement of a non-Delaware forum selection clause in a CEO's employment agreement under 2024 amendments to the state's General Corporation Law, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Ill. Law Firm MSO Bill Clashes With Court Power, Ethics Rules

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    An Illinois bill prohibiting law firms from certain business arrangements with management service organizations, sent to the governor for signature last week, encroaches upon the courts' constitutional powers and goes beyond the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct in regulating investment in law-related services, says Matthew O’Hara at Smith Gambrell.

  • Google Antitrust Case Puts Spotlight On De Facto Exclusivity

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    Mozilla's recent amicus filing in U.S. v. Google arguing that its agreement to make Google the default search engine did not amount to de facto exclusivity highlights the growing debate over traditional indicators of exclusivity, with implications for any business that uses rebates, preferred contracts or volume incentives, says Chris Gowen at WilmU Farnan School of Law.

  • Justices' Montgomery Ruling Doesn't Expand Shipper Liability

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    Whether negligent hiring liability claims against shippers will increase after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last month in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II is anyone's guess, but the ruling itself will have no impact on shippers' actual liability in personal injury claims relating to trucking accidents, says Ronald Leibman at McCarter & English.

  • GHG Rescission Undermines State Climate Suit Preemption

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    As the U.S. Supreme Court considers the fate of state climate litigation in Suncor Energy Inc. v. Boulder County, it must confront the fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rescission of its greenhouse gas endangerment finding has also removed the foundation for federal preemption of state climate suits, says attorney Gregg Goldfarb.

  • Constructing AI Compliance Plans As State Laws Diverge

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    With Colorado, Connecticut and the federal government recently announcing wildly different approaches to artificial intelligence regulation, creating a workable compliance program means addressing overlapping obligations using shared systems rather than separate silos, say attorneys at Ogletree.

  • How McDonnell Still Shapes Bribery Defense Strategy

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    The pending federal bribery allegations against Washington, D.C., Council member Trayon White Sr. highlight for defense counsel the importance of overcoming the “official act” requirement established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in McDonnell v. U.S., and juries' critical role in distinguishing between official and unofficial acts, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • Assessing Issues The CFTC's Sports Betting Rules May Face

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently proposed a rule to consolidate its control of sports bets made on prediction market trading platforms, but problems may arise from possible conflicts between the proposed changes and state laws — and maybe even the Commodity Exchange Act itself, says David Slovick at Kopecky Schumacher.

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