Public Policy

  • September 29, 2026

    USPTO Details Best Practices For Subject Matter Declarations

    Patent applicants submitting declarations explaining why their patents are eligible under Section 101 of the Patent Act should hand in those statements separately from other evidence and also send them in sooner rather than later, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires recommended on Tuesday.

  • September 29, 2026

    DC Circ. Weighs Limits On Boasberg's Contempt Inquiry

    A top Justice Department official told an en banc D.C. Circuit panel that a district judge should refer former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for contempt over the 2025 deportation flights to El Salvador and move on, saying the judge had no authority to wrap others into his inquiry.

  • September 29, 2026

    Glock Says Conn. Wouldn't Clarify Convertible Pistol Sale Ban

    Glock Inc. criticized Connecticut's attorney general and other state authorities Tuesday, arguing litigation was necessary because officials provided no clear answers when asked whether certain pistols violate a new law that bans the importation, advertising or sale of newly manufactured handguns that can be "readily converted" into fully automatic weapons.

  • September 29, 2026

    Colo. Says DHS, ICE Flouted Notice Laws For Detention Site

    Colorado urged a federal judge to nullify a government contract for the renovation and operation of a federal immigrant detention facility northeast of Denver, alleging Tuesday that federal agencies flouted their legal obligations to conduct an environmental analysis and to notify the public about the planned facility's environmental impact.

  • September 29, 2026

    Fed Bill Seeks To End NY Control Of Seneca Policing

    U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., has introduced companion legislation that will establish a path to end a federal law that gave the state criminal jurisdiction over Seneca Nation territory, which is designed to resolve overlapping responsibilities among federal, state and tribal authorities.

  • September 29, 2026

    Agency Says Indicted Ex-Boss Can't Use Home For Bond

    The former executive director of two Connecticut housing authorities cannot use his home to secure a $500,000 bond in his federal wire fraud case, the Groton Housing Authority and related entities told the state court judge overseeing a civil case arising from his alleged theft.

  • September 29, 2026

    FCC Can Step Into Idaho Pole Dispute With Utility, ISP Says

    An internet service provider insisted the Federal Communications Commission has jurisdiction in its fight with a utility over pole upgrades for broadband gear in Idaho, saying state regulators lacked authority over the issue when the dispute first occurred.

  • September 29, 2026

    Feds Seek To Throw Out States' Challenge To DEI Contract EO

    The Trump administration told a Maryland federal court that it should toss a lawsuit from states challenging its implementation of an executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion practices in the government contracting space, arguing the order falls within well-settled law.

  • September 29, 2026

    NY Court Officials Must Disclose Secret Guidance To Judges

    The New York State Office of Court Administration must hand over a batch of memos instructing state judges how to interpret the law after fighting for years to keep them under wraps, a New York state appeals court ruled Tuesday.

  • September 29, 2026

    Public Citizen Files 2 Complaints Over Trump Ads

    Nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen has filed two complaints following the appearance of an ad boosting the image of President Donald Trump that was paid for by government funds.

  • September 29, 2026

    Akin Adds House Financial Services Staffer To Lobbying Team

    Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP said Tuesday a former senior staff member on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services has joined its lobbying and public policy practice in Washington, D.C.

  • September 29, 2026

    Tax Co. Urges 5th Circ. To Deny Microcaptive Rules Case Stay

    A global tax services provider asked the Fifth Circuit to deny the IRS' request to stay its challenge to the agency's reporting rules for microcaptive insurance companies pending the resolution of a similar case before the appeals court, saying it should be allowed to present its own arguments.

  • September 29, 2026

    11th Circ. Urged To Undo School's Ban On Penguins Book

    Book authors urged the Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday to overturn a Florida school's ban on a children's novel about two male penguins that partnered to raise a chick, arguing that the lower court unlawfully created a new exception for governments to regulate private speech. 

  • September 29, 2026

    Justices Allow Third-Country Removals To Resume, For Now

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume, for now, deporting immigrants to countries besides their own, while agreeing to review the legality of the practice.

  • September 29, 2026

    11th Circ. Won't Pause Sanctions Against Trump In IRS Case

    An Eleventh Circuit panel refused Tuesday to pause a district court's sanctions order barring President Donald Trump and others from citing the agreement he made to settle his $10 billion suit against the Internal Revenue Service while they appeal the order.

  • September 29, 2026

    Qualcomm Presses High Court To Ignore FedEx RPI Dispute

    Qualcomm wants the U.S. Supreme Court to skip a bid from FedEx to examine the Federal Circuit's refusal to review whether the technology company complied with real-party-in-interest requirements in a patent challenge, arguing the same type of dispute won't likely come up again.

  • September 29, 2026

    DC Circ. Won't Rehear Ute Tribe's 1.5M-Acre Land Fight

    An en banc D.C. Circuit won't rehear a Utah tribe's petition to overturn a decision that says it has no compensable title to 1.5 million acres in the state after the Indigenous nation argued that the lower court misinterpreted an 1880 law.

  • September 29, 2026

    NY, Brooklyn Landlord Settle Rent Stabilization Suit

    New York has agreed to settle a state court lawsuit against a Brooklyn landlord whom it accused of failing to register his rent-stabilized units with the state government, the New York Attorney General's Office announced.

  • September 29, 2026

    CBP Bars Indonesian Palm Oil With Possible Illicit Labor Ties

    Imported palm oil products from two Indonesian companies will be barred from entering the U.S. because of suspected ties to forced labor, Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday.

  • September 29, 2026

    Senate Passes Bankruptcy Bill Restoring Higher Debt Limits

    The U.S. Senate passed a House-approved bill that would bring back and make permanent higher debt limits for small businesses and individuals accessing streamlined restructuring processes.

  • September 29, 2026

    Davis-Bacon Rule Fight Resumes In Texas

    A Texas federal court will rule on dueling bids for early wins between construction groups and the U.S. Department of Labor over a challenge to 2023 Davis-Bacon Act regulations, according to an order lifting a stay in the case.

  • September 29, 2026

    Chinese, Indian Electrodes Dumped, Commerce Finds

    Imports of electrodes used for smelting from India and China are facing possible antidumping duties, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Tuesday, finding they are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value.

  • September 29, 2026

    Jack Smith Says He Won't Be Intimidated By Trump Threats

    Former special counsel Jack Smith testified on Tuesday he "will not be silenced" by threats of prosecution by the president or others.

  • September 28, 2026

    FEMA Can't Tie Grant Funds To Election Process, Court Says

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency does not have the authority to condition receipt of counterterrorism grants on the way localities administer elections, a D.C. federal judge ruled Monday, handing a win to governments in Tennessee, Texas and Ohio just weeks before the midterms.

  • September 28, 2026

    Trump's New Birthright Order Still Unconstitutional, Suit Says

    Parents and expecting parents of U.S.-born children lodged a putative class action Monday in D.C. federal court, saying President Donald Trump's latest executive order targeting birthright citizenship, just like one the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down, is unconstitutional.

Expert Analysis

  • 3 Ways Tokenization Is Moving To Traditional Finance

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    Recent initiatives reflect efforts to integrate distributed ledger technology into existing regulatory frameworks for securities, banking and payments settlements while preserving the underlying rights and obligations of market participants, say attorneys at Hughes Hubbard.

  • At The Intersection Of Right-To-Repair Laws And IP Rights

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    Right-to-repair legislation passing through Congress highlights a broad tension between manufacturers' security measures and consumer autonomy, with important repercussions for the automotive industry's intellectual property rights, says Keith Noe at Lando & Anastasi. 

  • Opinion

    States Should Reconsider Forced PBM Divestiture Laws

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    State legislatures are attempting to enact policies intended to force pharmacy benefit managers to divest from pharmacies, but these laws would have the practical effect of reducing patient access and competition, potentially violating the U.S. Constitution in the process, says former Utah Attorney General John Swallow.

  • HSR Deals Proceed More Steadily Than Narratives Suggest

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    The most recent Hart-Scott-Rodino Act data show that transaction volume remained relatively stable, transaction values continued to increase and enforcement activity remained low, suggesting that enforcement rates have been relatively consistent across presidential administrations despite widely differing public rhetoric regarding merger enforcement, says Amanda Wait at Michael Best.

  • Assessing The Benefits Of Fla.'s Newest Business Structure

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    As of July 1, Florida business owners can create protected series LLCs to shield assets from liability while avoiding increased costs and wasted time, but burdensome recordkeeping obligations are crucial to maintaining the very protection that makes them attractive in the first place, says Gregory Ritter at Moritt Hock.

  • Key Post-Proposal Shifts Likely In CFPB Loss Mitigation Rule

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    Mortgage servicers, borrowers and consumer advocates should prepare for a likely narrowed version of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's loss mitigation rule, which is likely to permit sequential reviews, defer to investor guidelines, extend compliance timelines and preempt conflicting state standards, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Series

    Teaching SEC Investigations Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Instructing a law school course on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations has made me a more thoughtful, deliberate practitioner because it requires me to continually reassess and challenge what I know about securities law enforcement, how I know it and how best to explain it, says David Chase at Miami Law.

  • Noncompete Laws Show States Focusing On Bans, Healthcare

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    The first half of 2026 confirms that state legislatures are driving the most consequential changes in noncompete law, including a few state bans and several healthcare-specific laws, making a one-size-fits-all approach increasingly untenable for multistate employers, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What's Inside Proposed, Expanded NY Stablecoin Regulations

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    New York's recently proposed regulations for payment stablecoin issuers would, if adopted, increase the regulatory burdens of a state license, and midsize issuers considering a conversion to a federal charter should weigh the associated costs of both options, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Justices' Tax Sale Ruling Tees Up Auction Fairness Battles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Pung v. Isabella County, Michigan, that taxpayers are not entitled to fair market value of real property seized to satisfy a tax debt shifts attention to the fairness of state and local auction procedures, and whether taxpayers claiming surplus proceeds face unwarranted hurdles, say attorneys at Miller Canfield.

  • What Corporate Counsel Can Learn From OpenAI Test Breach

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    The significance of the recent artificial intelligence testing breach involving OpenAI and Hugging Face lies in what it reveals about the path of AI’s evolution, because legal professionals must translate that trajectory into actionable governance, contractual and advisory frameworks, says Jason Mueller at Vorys.

  • Patent Eligibility Reforms Keep Chasing The Wrong Fixes

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    Repeated efforts to create a consistent, predictable patent eligibility standard under Section 101 have centered on replacing judge-made exceptions with new statutory language, but the better fix is to align examination standards with how courts actually apply eligibility doctrine, says former Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge Amee Shah.

  • Opinion

    Qualified Immunity Bill's Reach Goes Beyond Federal Officers

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    The federal Qualified Immunity Abolition Act, introduced earlier this year and described by the bill sponsors as a federal-officer measure, would in actuality reach the entire universe of Section 1983 defendants, a distinction that matters as much to defense counsel as to plaintiffs, says attorney V. James DeSimone.

  • State Of Insurance: Q2 Notes From Pennsylvania

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    Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey highlights notable second-quarter insurance developments in Pennsylvania, including federal court opinions providing guidance on first-party and third-party insurance coverage principles, and a pending bill seeking to regulate health insurers' use of artificial intelligence.

  • Assessing DOJ Antitrust's New, Faster Merger Review Option

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    The U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division's recently announced targeted second request option and new model timing signal a commercially friendly stance and a departure from the prior administration's position, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

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