Public Policy

  • September 22, 2026

    Dispensary's Tax Deduction Properly Nixed, IRS Tells 9th Circ.

    The U.S. Tax Court correctly ruled that a San Francisco marijuana dispensary's expenses found to be tied to trafficking in controlled substances aren't deductible, the IRS told the Ninth Circuit, saying such a deduction shouldn't be allowed in determining an amount to settle the business's $3 million tax debt.

  • September 22, 2026

    Gun Industry Says Conn. Pistol Ban Violates 2nd Amendment

    A firearm industry trade association, a gunmaker and a retailer have pushed back on a Connecticut state law banning pistols that can be converted into fully automatic weapons, launching a federal lawsuit that largely mirrors a challenge Glock brought the same day.

  • September 22, 2026

    Asylum-Seekers Win Class Cert. For Third-Country Challenge

    A D.C. federal judge certified a class of noncitizens challenging the Trump administration's use of international agreements to remove asylum-seekers from the U.S. to third countries, rejecting government arguments that the class couldn't pass muster.

  • September 22, 2026

    8th Circ. Questions Iowa's Bid To Unblock Parts Of PBM Law

    The Eighth Circuit on Tuesday appeared skeptical of the state of Iowa's bid to have the appellate court unblock parts of its law limiting pharmacy benefit managers' power to set drug prices, with multiple judges questioning different aspects of the state's standing and federal preemption analysis.

  • September 22, 2026

    EU, Philippines Reach Preliminary Free Trade Deal

    The European Union and the Philippines have reached a "substantial agreement" on a free trade deal that would mutually reduce or remove tariffs on 97% of trade between them, the bloc announced Tuesday.

  • September 21, 2026

    Glock Says Conn. Ban On 'Convertible Pistols' Is Too Vague

    A new Connecticut state law banning pistols that can be "readily converted" into fully automatic weapons should not apply to guns produced by Glock Inc. and, if it does, the statute is unconstitutionally vague, the company said in a federal lawsuit Monday.

  • September 21, 2026

    Insider Critiques Of Meta Came From Ignorance, Jury Told

    A Meta vice president testified before a New Mexico state jury Monday that, "with all due respect," criticisms of the company's data handling from investigation partner Gibson Dunn and from then-Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg were born of a lack of understanding.

  • September 21, 2026

    Due Process Not Limited In Bond Hearing Suit, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit held in a published opinion Monday that a certified class of asylum-seekers apprehended well within the U.S. border can challenge their detentions, rejecting the government's contention that the U.S. Supreme Court limited their due process rights.

  • September 21, 2026

    Costco Says It Didn't Say 'Zero Heavy Metals' In Protein Powder

    "Good, clean nutrition" doesn't actually mean "free of lead," Costco Wholesale Corp. told a Washington federal court on Friday as it pushed for dismissal of a proposed class action claiming its Orgain protein powders contained dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals.

  • September 21, 2026

    Ala. Judge Halts ICE Construction-Site Arrest Policies

    An Alabama federal judge on Monday temporarily prohibited immigration officials from entering construction sites without warrants, preemptively detaining workers without justified suspicion that someone is an unauthorized immigrant and detaining workers who show proof of lawful presence.

  • September 21, 2026

    L3Harris Says Navy Deal Aims To Bolster Missile Supplies

    L3Harris Technologies said Monday that it's inked a multiyear agreement with the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, California, to manufacture key missile components needed for national defense.

  • September 21, 2026

    AT&T Asks FCC To Raise Mobile Power Limits In 3.45 GHz Band

    AT&T is asking the Federal Communications Commission to raise the power limits for mobile and portable devices operating in the 3.45 gigahertz band, a slice of midband spectrum used largely for commercial 5G and home internet coverage.

  • September 21, 2026

    HHS Can Claw Back $195M In Medicaid Payments From Mich.

    A D.C. federal judge on Monday said Michigan must return almost $200 million in Medicaid payments made to two state-operated psychiatric facilities, agreeing with a finding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' appeals board that the institutions did not meet federal requirements.

  • September 21, 2026

    Mich. City Says Data Center Moratorium Suit Is Premature

    A Michigan city has urged a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit from developers that challenges a one-year moratorium on data center development, saying the pause doesn't represent a final land use decision that can be reviewed by a court.

  • September 21, 2026

    FERC Wrongly Segmented Pipeline's Water Eval, DC Circ. Told

    Environmental groups have told the D.C. Circuit that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission botched its analysis of the effects of a Williams Cos. unit's pipeline expansion project on streams and other aquatic resources in Virginia and North Carolina.

  • September 21, 2026

    Cable Biz Insists FCC Can Preempt Broadband Rate Regs

    A cable industry group argued Monday that the Federal Communications Commission has the authority to stop states from regulating broadband rates when the federal agency issues new rules aimed at speeding up deployment.

  • September 21, 2026

    Groups Want Colo. Detention Facility Halted Over Enviro Risks

    Advocacy groups urged a Colorado federal judge to order the halt of construction and planned operation of a federal immigrant detention facility in a Colorado town, contending Monday that the facility poses significant environmental risks and the agencies violated federal law in developing the facility's plans.

  • September 21, 2026

    Ill. Panel Says News Report Bars Law Firm's FCA Suit

    An Illinois appellate court on Friday upheld the dismissal of a whistleblower lawsuit brought by Forde & O'Meara LLP accusing a company of secretly assigning its interests in unpaid state bills to unapproved entities to duck taxes, agreeing that a prior public disclosure of the alleged scheme in a news report bars the firm's claims.

  • September 21, 2026

    IRS Properly Nixed Tax Deals, Couple Owe $1.8M, Judge Says

    A disbarred lawyer and his wife owe more than $1.8 million in outstanding tax liabilities the IRS has tried to collect for more than a decade, a Wisconsin federal judge said, finding the agency substantiated the liabilities and confirmed that it properly rescinded compromise offers to resolve the debts.

  • September 21, 2026

    Ligado Says Damages Rise To $50B In Gov't Takings Case

    Network company Ligado told the U.S. Court of Federal Claims that damages caused by the U.S. government for allegedly blocking its use of licensed airwaves have grown to $50 billion because of interest climbing on the amount originally sought.

  • September 21, 2026

    ICE Contractor To Pay $48.75M To End Family Separation Suit

    U.S. government contractor MVM Inc. has agreed to pay $48.75 million to resolve a proposed class action over its alleged participation in a policy that separated thousands of immigrant families during the first Trump administration, according to a motion for preliminary approval.

  • September 21, 2026

    'So What?': Judge Pans DOJ Bid To End TikTok Consent Decree

    A California federal judge said Monday he will not end a 2019 consent decree the government reached with TikTok Inc. predecessor Musical.ly over its collection of data on kids under 13 just because the U.S. Department of Justice is asking him to, saying the DOJ gave him no information about why he should.

  • September 21, 2026

    NJ Court Backs Arbitration Award Against Concrete Co.

    A New Jersey federal court on Monday upheld an arbitration award ordering a concrete supplier to rehire an employee who was fired after he tested positive for marijuana, rejecting the company's claim that an arbitrator exceeded her authority when issuing the award.

  • September 21, 2026

    Copyright Chief Firing Fight Paused Over Pending Legislation

    A D.C. federal judge has paused U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter's challenge to the Trump administration's attempt to fire her, saying pending legislation that would give the president authority to appoint the office's leader could have an "obvious effect" on the dispute.

  • September 21, 2026

    Mass. Court Affirms Toss Of Gun Evidence In 22-Judge Ruling

    An evenly split Massachusetts Appeals Court on Monday let stand a judge's suppression of a gun found by Boston police officers during an inventory search prior to a vehicle being towed, in a rare ruling involving all but three of the intermediate appellate court's 25 judges.

Expert Analysis

  • Why Courts Are Pushing Back On Greenwashing Laws

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    Recent Fourth Circuit and California federal court decisions blocking state greenwashing statutes on First Amendment grounds reveal a tension at the heart of environmental marketing regulation — while states want clarity, courts aren't prepared to let legislatures flatly ban categories of truthful commercial speech, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • What NYC Bridge Crash Signals About Micromobility Liability

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    A recent fatal crash between a cyclist and a man riding a high-powered electric scooter on New York City's Queensboro Bridge highlights how litigation over accidents involving micromobility devices may increasingly shift away from ordinary negligence and toward product liability, says Jeff Korek at Gersowitz Libo.

  • 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.

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