Public Policy

  • September 17, 2026

    NIH Grant Terminations Violate First Amendment, Court Told

    The National Institutes of Health is violating the First Amendment by terminating research grants based on policies aimed at suppressing "disfavored" viewpoints on gender identity, climate change and a host of other topics, researchers told a California federal court in a proposed class action suit.

  • September 17, 2026

    Cruz, Markey Urge Senate To Pass Bill On AM Radio In Cars

    Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., have called on the Senate to advance the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act following its passage in the House of Representatives.

  • September 17, 2026

    Tech Co. Settles Suit Over Flawed NC Digital Court System

    A putative class of individuals who alleged they were wrongfully arrested or detained due to glitches in North Carolina's electronic court system has settled its federal lawsuit against Tyler Technologies, the software developer behind the new digital court system, according to a notice filed Wednesday.

  • September 17, 2026

    Canada Commits To Trade Initiatives With EU, Southeast Asia

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday committed to work with European Union officials to enhance the trading relationship between the bloc and Canada as the country's top trade official is scheduled to visit major partners in Asia in the coming days to advance negotiations on trade agreements.

  • September 17, 2026

    Tenn. Prosecutor Immune In $850K Hemp Seizure Suit

    A Tennessee federal judge has dismissed a hemp distributor's claims against a district attorney general over 216 pounds of hemp that was seized, then destroyed, following a 2023 traffic stop, finding he has prosecutorial immunity.

  • September 17, 2026

    Calif. Judge Holds Off On Sanctioning ICE Amid GEO Talks

    A California federal judge deferred imposing sanctions on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday after the agency said it's working to give monitors access to health records for detained immigrants at a facility where the judge has twice ordered conditions to be improved.

  • September 17, 2026

    Minn. Homeowner Asks Justices To Undo Costs Order

    A self-represented Minnesota homeowner's effort to throw out tax court order recovering a county's litigation costs in a property valuation dispute will go before the state Supreme Court, according to a writ of certiorari filed Thursday.

  • September 17, 2026

    1st Circ. Lets HUD Shift $1.3B In Homelessness Aid

    A First Circuit panel said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development may redirect $1.3 billion in homelessness funding from programs that focus on permanent housing to those supporting temporary shelter and assistance, finding the Trump administration likely was not required to go through a notice-and-comment procedure.

  • September 17, 2026

    For Single-Party FTC, Easier Suits May Come With A Cost

    The Federal Trade Commission has ditched its historical multimember, multiparty ethos for a one-party regime in which fewer dissents might make it easier for Chairman Andrew Ferguson to pursue his agenda, but it also forecloses the potential "moderating influence" that comes with winning broad buy-in from commissioners of two parties.

  • September 17, 2026

    Republicans Move Trump's CFPB Pick Ahead To Full Senate

    President Donald Trump's latest pick to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moved closer to confirmation Thursday as Republican lawmakers voted to advance his nomination to the U.S. Senate floor.

  • September 17, 2026

    Commerce Orders Duties On Algerian Steel Rod Imports

    Imports of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from Algeria will be subject to a countervailing duty after the U.S. Department of Commerce finalized its determination Thursday that the imports are benefiting from government subsidies.

  • September 17, 2026

    Ex-Conn. Budget Official Flees US Before Corruption Sentence

    Former Connecticut budget official Konstantinos Diamantis slipped out of the United States before learning his fate on federal corruption charges by driving to Florida, taking a boat to the Bahamas, and flying to London, apparently using a Greek passport he was not supposed to possess, attorneys revealed in court Thursday.

  • September 17, 2026

    SEC Issues Innovation Exemption For Tokenized Stock Trading

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday unveiled its long-awaited innovation exemption, permitting certain crypto projects and liquidity providers to support tokenized stock trading for a five-year period without registering as exchanges or dealers.

  • September 16, 2026

    Post-Cambridge Analytica Investigation Unserious, Jury Told

    New Mexico jurors heard testimony Wednesday from a former Facebook employee that the social media giant's investigation of third-party app developers after the Cambridge Analytica scandal was weakened by executive anger over the cost and pressure for it to wrap up, among other things.

  • September 16, 2026

    Express Scripts Seeks To Exit AIDS Group's Drug Rate Suit

    Express Scripts called on a Washington federal judge to toss a lawsuit accusing it of using its market power to bully the AIDS Healthcare Foundation into accepting lower reimbursement rates for life-saving drugs, contending Tuesday that the case rehashes allegations a Missouri federal court has already rejected twice.

  • September 16, 2026

    Protesters Say Feds' Fight Shows Need For Misconduct Probe

    The U.S. government's opposition to a special investigation of prosecutorial misconduct that "poisoned" a now-dismissed criminal conspiracy case suggests Chicago prosecutors are still shielding critical details regarding the extent of official communications preceding the prosecution, underscoring the probe's necessity, protesters argued Tuesday.

  • September 16, 2026

    CFTC Probing Carbon Credit Markets, Enforcement Chief Says

    U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Enforcement Director David Miller said Wednesday that the division is investigating carbon credit markets as part of his agency's commitment to policing fraud in emerging markets.

  • September 16, 2026

    Philly Says DraftKings Suit Seeks To Block Consumer Probe

    Philadelphia has urged a Pennsylvania federal judge to throw out DraftKings' suit challenging the city's consumer protection ordinance, telling the court that although it's investigating how the online betting platform markets its product to residents, the complaint is premature since the city hasn't taken any enforcement action.

  • September 16, 2026

    Senate Committee OKs Free Speech Bill Despite AI Worries

    A bipartisan bill aimed at preventing the government from leaning on media companies to suppress the speech of third parties made it through committee Wednesday morning, but not until the leadership of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee went head-to-head with each other on the matter.

  • September 16, 2026

    FCC Members See Progress On Opening Gov't Spectrum

    Federal Communications Commission leaders on Wednesday touted progress toward the government's goal of transitioning unused federally held airwaves to the private sector to spur wireless industry growth.

  • September 16, 2026

    Okla. Mothers Contest Abortion Ban In Fatal Fetal Cases

    A pair of mothers urged an Oklahoma state court Wednesday to bar the state from criminalizing abortion care for pregnant individuals who learn their fetus won't survive birth, arguing that doing so violates fundamental rights under Oklahoma's constitution.

  • September 16, 2026

    FIU Students Say Administrators Knew About Protest Rights

    Florida International University administrators aren't immune from claims they violated student's speech rights by disciplining them for protesting against federal immigration enforcement tactics because they were well aware of U.S. Supreme Court precedent protecting students' speech rights, the students said Tuesday.

  • September 16, 2026

    Conn. Agency Rejects Avangrid Units' Bids For Higher Rates

    Connecticut's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority decreased rates for Avangrid Inc. subsidiaries Connecticut Natural Gas Corp. and Southern Connecticut Gas in a pair of decisions issued after a state judge remanded prior decisions on their rate amendment applications for additional proceedings.

  • September 16, 2026

    WSU Says It Had No Duty To Stop Idaho Murders

    Washington State University urged a federal judge Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit from families of four University of Idaho students killed by a WSU teaching assistant, arguing that the university had no obligation to stop Bryan Kohberger from committing the murders while he was off duty and across state lines.

  • September 16, 2026

    Utah Tribe Loses Repeated Bids To End Water Suit In Its Favor

    A Utah federal court has denied a Native American tribe's motion for default judgment and motion for entry of default against a group of farm companies in a water-use lawsuit, ruling the tribe's separate bid for summary judgment conflicts with the other two motions.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • NRC Proposal May Reshape Radiation Protection Framework

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    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposal to drop the long-standing requirement to keep radiation exposure "as low as reasonably achievable," alongside the U.S. Department of Energy's removal of ALARA from its own rules, suggests a broader federal reassessment of radiation protection policy, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

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