Public Policy

  • September 04, 2026

    NY Judge Won't Block HHS Sharing Of Aid Recipients' Info

    A New York federal judge refused to block a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plan to share aid recipients' information with other agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ruling that nonprofits challenging it failed to show recipients faced irreparable harm.

  • September 04, 2026

    Fla. Judge Retires, Avoids Sanctions For Political Donations

    A judge in Orlando, Florida, stepped off the bench on Friday rather than face discipline for violating a judicial ethics rule by making nearly $30,000 in political donations.

  • September 04, 2026

    US Extends Trade Programs With African Countries, Haiti

    The government funding bill signed by President Donald Trump this week included extensions of U.S. trade agreements with African nations and Haiti through the end of 2028, locking in duty exemptions for broad swaths of products following bipartisan support.

  • September 04, 2026

    Chinese Feed Additive Imports Harming US Industry, ITC Says

    Imports of animal feed-grade additive from China are being sold at unfair prices are harming domestic industry, the U.S. International Trade Commission determined Friday, setting up duty orders.

  • September 04, 2026

    AI Land Use Fights Are Just Getting Started In Mass.

    Some Massachusetts cities and towns are scrambling to update their zoning rules amid rising tensions over artificial intelligence data centers, with disputes expected to play out in the courts and on Beacon Hill in coming years.

  • September 03, 2026

    Teamsters Set To Shed Federal Monitors After Judge's OK

    The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is slated to ease decades of government oversight meant to ferret out ties to organized crime after a New York federal judge on Thursday approved a deal between the union and the Trump administration.

  • September 03, 2026

    Fox's Supposed $500M Offer For Parler Was Fake, Jury Told

    Billionaire Rebekah Mercer testified Thursday that Parler's later-ousted CEO made her think falsely that Fox was offering $500 million for the social app, one example of the supposed misconduct she has said was the reason he was forced out.

  • September 03, 2026

    GAO Flags Bank Disclosure Review Gaps After 2023 Failures

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office urged Congress Thursday to consider closing a gap that allows certain publicly traded banks to not make the same type of investor disclosures as banks whose investor filings are reviewed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, pointing to the bank failures of 2023 as a reason why.

  • September 03, 2026

    Oil Cos. Seek Quick Appeal To Nix Suit Over Heat Wave Death

    Exxon, Chevron, Shell and other oil giants say they plan to seek appellate review of a Washington judge's order refusing to dismiss a civil suit over a woman's 2021 death that alleged the defendants knew their products were intensifying extreme weather patterns but downplayed risks to maximize profit.  

  • September 03, 2026

    SEC Moves To Scrap 'Pay-To-Play' Political Donation Rule

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday issued a proposal to rescind a rule regarding political contributions made by investment advisers, which agency Chair Paul Atkins called "overly prescriptive."

  • September 03, 2026

    State Telecom Roundup: AT&T Pushes To Cut Copper Service

    AT&T has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to end all copper-line legacy services at more than 200 locations across 20 states, as it plows forward with its plans to retire its copper lines across the nation.

  • September 03, 2026

    Ex-Pardon Atty Says DOJ Fired Her Over Actor's Gun Rights

    Former U.S. pardon attorney Liz Oyer sued the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday in Washington, D.C., federal court, alleging the department unlawfully fired her for not recommending Mel Gibson get his gun rights back — a request she said was based on the actor's relationship with President Donald Trump.

  • September 03, 2026

    Immigration Attys Sue USCIS Over Sudden Form Change

    Immigration lawyers said that the Trump administration abruptly imposed a credit score provision in family-based immigration forms, arguing in a new lawsuit Thursday that the policy change runs afoul of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

  • September 03, 2026

    Most Of Corteva's IP Claims Against Inari Move Along

    A Delaware federal court Thursday kept most claims alive in a case over seed intellectual property brought by Corteva Agriscience ahead of a trial set to begin later this month.

  • September 03, 2026

    MDL Attys Want Special Master To Vet Meta Privilege Claims

    Personal injury plaintiffs' counsel asked a California federal judge Wednesday to appoint a special master to review Meta's attorney-client privilege designations in social media addiction multidistrict litigation, arguing that Meta can't be trusted to review them in light of the judge's recent rulings that certain Meta trial-exhibit redactions were "entirely inappropriate."

  • September 03, 2026

    Trump Admin Fights Uphill To Beat Vaccine Overhaul Suit

    A California federal judge indicated Thursday that he is likely to reject the federal government's bid to toss litigation from states challenging the Trump administration's decision to cut vaccine recommendations for American children, saying he thinks the states have standing based on the effect the change will have on their healthcare systems.

  • September 03, 2026

    Pilot Plane Forfeiture Over 6-Pack Is Excessive, Justices Told

    An 83-year-old bush pilot has told the U.S. Supreme Court that Alaska flouted precedent and applied a grossly disproportionate standard by saddling him with the "ills of alcohol abuse statewide" in trying to forfeit his $95,000 plane for transporting a six-pack of beer to a dry village.

  • September 03, 2026

    GAO Says DHS Is Unlikely To Save $10.5B From Contract Cuts

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Thursday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is unlikely to realize $10.5 billion in projected savings after terminating 438 contracts because the agency can obtain many of the same services through existing contracts. 

  • September 03, 2026

    OCC Gives Initial Nods To Digital Banks Revolut, OpenReserve

    The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency preliminarily approved charter applications from European digital bank Revolut and blockchain-based bank OpenReserve to establish national banks in the United States.

  • September 03, 2026

    Judge Decries 'Gamesmanship' In Nixing EPA Waiver Moves

    A federal judge has struck an initial blow against the Trump administration and congressional Republicans' aggressive use of the Congressional Review Act to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's move to make Clean Air Act waivers for California subject to potential rescission by lawmakers.

  • September 03, 2026

    Alaska's Izembek Road Work OK'd Despite Axed Land Swap

    A federal judge has slapped down an environmental group's bid to preliminarily stop the state of Alaska and a Native village corporation from beginning construction on 2.8 miles of road adjacent to the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

  • September 03, 2026

    FCC Denies Retaliatory Pretext In ABC License Renewal Probe

    The Federal Communications Commission urged a D.C. federal court Thursday to toss ABC's suit over the agency's early review of eight station licenses, denying that a discrimination probe of network parent Disney was a pretext for retaliating against ABC.

  • September 03, 2026

    Ky. AG Sues NY Abortion Rights Org. Over Gas Station Ads

    A New York-based abortion advocacy nonprofit is violating Kentucky's consumer protection laws by illegally advertising mail-order abortion pills at gas stations throughout the state and flying ads over the state fair, the state's attorney general claimed in a lawsuit Thursday. 

  • September 03, 2026

    BIA Scraps Precedent Limiting In Absentia Removal Orders

    The full Board of Immigration Appeals said Thursday that immigration officials can rely on the most recent address on file when mailing removal notices, overruling 25-year-old precedent limiting in absentia orders for noncitizens who did not receive a mailed notice.

  • September 03, 2026

    FCC Told It Can't Preempt Local Utilities On Pole Attachments

    A municipally owned electric company from Kentucky wants the FCC to clarify that it doesn't plan to step on its toes or the toes of any other government-owned utilities as the agency seeks to pass rules that would allow it to preempt wireline decisions if localities are moving too slowly.

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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