Public Policy

  • September 02, 2026

    Public Access Gets Win In Ex-Fla. GOP Chair's Records Case

    A Florida appellate court ruled Wednesday in favor of public access to investigative records involving the former chairman of the Sunshine State's Republican Party, finding that only legislators can create exemptions under the state's Public Records Act. 

  • September 02, 2026

    NOAA Fisheries Lays Out Priorities For Trump Seafood Order

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries division announced several dozen priorities to boost the U.S. seafood industry Wednesday, prompting one environmental group to call it a "depraved laundry list" of ways the Trump administration is willing to sacrifice ocean life.

  • September 02, 2026

    FCC Staff Are Making Big Decisions, But The Tactic Isn't New

    When an arm of the Federal Communications Commission that deals with broadcast competition waived one of the country's signature media ownership rules without a full FCC vote this year, it wasn't the first time agency staff had been entrusted with a major decision by the FCC's politically appointed chair.

  • September 02, 2026

    House Rejects Amendment To Fix Court At 9 Justices

    The House failed to pass a proposed constitutional amendment on Wednesday that would keep the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices at nine.

  • September 02, 2026

    Migrant Advocates Can't Revive El Salvador Deal Challenge

    A D.C. federal judge once again shot down a challenge to the Trump administration's agreement with El Salvador that sent hundreds of detained noncitizens to the CECOT terror prison, ruling that the immigrant advocates challenging the deal had failed to show how their requested relief could redress the alleged harms.

  • September 02, 2026

    States Sue To Block Medicaid Ban On Youth Gender Care

    Twenty state attorneys general on Wednesday challenged the Trump administration's plan to halt Medicaid funding for minors' gender-affirming care, alleging the move would violate federal law and usurp congressional power over government spending.

  • September 02, 2026

    DOJ Backs OpenAI, Microsoft Fair Use Defense In NYT IP Case

    The federal government is weighing in on the sprawling copyright litigation against OpenAI Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in New York federal court brought by The New York Times and others, telling the judge that using copyrighted texts to train generative tools shouldn't expose developers to broad infringement liability.

  • September 02, 2026

    AT&T Asks To Cut Copper-Based VoIP Service In 20 States

    AT&T is continuing with its plans to end its legacy copper-line telephone service across the United States, asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to cut services that rely on copper wires in certain areas in 20 states.

  • September 02, 2026

    Trump Foreign Equipment Order Perplexes Power Cos.

    The U.S. power industry is scrambling to make sense of President Donald Trump's sweeping executive order restricting imports of equipment used for the electricity grid, and attorneys say complying with the directive could ultimately make projects more expensive and take them longer to build.

  • September 02, 2026

    Colo. Says Semiautomatic Gun Law Is Constitutional

    Colorado officials urged a federal judge to not block the enforcement of a new state law restricting ownership of certain semiautomatic firearms, contending the law is constitutional and complies with recent Supreme Court precedent.

  • September 02, 2026

    14 Cos. Banned From US Networks Over Robocall Violations

    More than a dozen voice service providers have been booted from U.S. networks after failing to follow Federal Communications Commission rules aimed at staunching the barrage of robocalls that assault Americans' phones every day.

  • September 02, 2026

    FCC Floats 'Scorecard' To Deal With Robocall Deluge

    As the flood of robocalls continues, Federal Communications Commission leaders are considering a "scorecard" to let consumers rate their voice service providers as to how effectively they are blocking unwanted calls.

  • September 02, 2026

    10th Circ. Says Vape Shops Fumbled Utah Flavor Ban Appeal

    The Tenth Circuit dismissed an appeal brought by vape businesses challenging Utah's flavored e-cigarette ban, ruling that the companies picked the wrong order to bring to it on appeal.

  • September 02, 2026

    Kroger, Costco, Major Grocers Added To DOJ Beef Price Probe

    The U.S. Department of Justice expanded its investigation into potential anticompetitive conduct in the American beef industry to include The Kroger Co., Walmart, Costco Wholesale Corp. and five other major grocers.

  • September 02, 2026

    Imported Feed Additive Is An Antibiotic, Trade Court Rules

    An animal health company's imports of a powdered feed additive should have entered the U.S. as a duty-free antibiotic, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday, undoing its previous classification as a preparation for animal feed from China that carried a 25% tariff.

  • September 02, 2026

    UMich Says Student Banned From Campus Can't Show Bias

    The University of Michigan and several of its officials on Wednesday asked a federal judge to dismiss a civil rights suit brought by a student and former university employee, saying his claims that he was barred from a campus area for expressing pro-Palestinian views fail and arguing the university was simply enforcing its standard trespass policy.

  • September 02, 2026

    11th Circ. OKs Refusal Of $1.5M Offer To End $140M Tax Debt

    The Eleventh Circuit rebuffed a software company founder's $1.5 million offer to settle his $140 million tax debt from 1999, ruling Wednesday that the IRS properly rejected the lowball offer in a case tied to sham arrangements.

  • September 02, 2026

    11th Circ. Revives Some Of Pot Co.'s License Bias Claims

    The Eleventh Circuit revived Wednesday a cannabis company's suit against Georgia regulators over a denied production license, saying the company showed it suffered an injury from the state's "pay to play" system and had the right to bring a lawsuit despite cannabis being federally illegal.

  • September 02, 2026

    Optics Co.'s £346M Sale Not Stopped By Antitrust Authorities

    Optics technology provider Gooch & Housego, advised by Burges Salmon LLP, said Wednesday that it cleared a regulatory hurdle in its proposed acquisition by Kirkland & Ellis LLP-led private equity shop Arlington Capital, as the antitrust waiting period for the £346 million ($470 million) deal has expired.

  • September 02, 2026

    Mass. Woman Admits Assault On Agents Detaining Immigrants

    A Massachusetts woman pled guilty in federal court on Wednesday to assaulting and threatening to kill federal agents outside a courthouse where they were attempting to detain immigrants, prosecutors said.

  • September 02, 2026

    Crypto Mine Noise Suit Belongs In State Court, Neighbors Say

    Residents of a North Carolina town suing over allegedly excessive noise coming from a nearby cryptocurrency mining and AI data center want their lawsuit bumped back down to state court, arguing the damages they're seeking fall short of the threshold required for federal jurisdiction.

  • September 02, 2026

    DOJ Says Trump's Jan. 6 Speech Was An Official Act

    The U.S. Department of Justice argued Tuesday that President Donald Trump was carrying out one of his office's "most important functions" when he urged protesters to head to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and "fight like hell," so the D.C. Circuit should deem his speech official conduct.

  • September 02, 2026

    Dems Call Subpoenas' Secrecy Request 'Abuse Of Authority'

    Democratic lawmakers Sen. Ron Wyden, Ore., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Wash., have called for an investigation into subpoenas issued from federal law enforcement to private companies that contain nondisclosure provisions and carry threats of legal consequences for noncompliance.

  • September 02, 2026

    Localities Say DHS Can't Tie Grant Funds To Election Process

    Governments in Tennessee, Texas and Ohio have asked a D.C. federal court to grant them a win against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, arguing Congress did not condition receipt of counterterrorism grants on the way localities administer elections.

  • September 02, 2026

    Calif. Beats DOJ's Challenge To State Trans Athlete Policy

    A California federal judge tossed Monday the government's challenge to Golden State policies allowing transgender students to compete on sports teams that aligned with their gender identity, finding a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling doesn't bar such policies and the government failed to notify the state of its funding restrictions.

Expert Analysis

  • More Cos. Will Copy SpaceX's Shareholder Proposal Opt-Out

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    For more than 80 years, the shareholder proposal looked like a federal right guaranteed to all public company investors, but after SpaceX opted out before its recent initial public offering, other companies are likely to follow, says Mohsen Manesh at the University of Oregon School of Law.

  • 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.

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