Public Policy

  • September 16, 2026

    NGOs Petition Burnham For Wealth Tax Ahead Of Budget

    Prime Minister Andy Burnham should introduce a tax to target "extreme wealth" in the upcoming autumn budget, a coalition said Wednesday.

  • September 15, 2026

    DOJ Says Fed Law Preempt Colo., Denver Efficiency Mandates

    The Trump administration told a Colorado federal court Tuesday that federal law preempts Colorado and the city of Denver's regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, backing a magistrate judge who recommended that a lawsuit challenging the regulations proceed.

  • September 15, 2026

    DOJ Says States Could Owe Bond In Paramount Merger Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday that a coalition of state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America could indeed be required to put up a bond as they challenge Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, but only if the order they secured truly constitutes an injunction.

  • September 15, 2026

    Brothers Seek Justices' Clarity After Losing Stolen Skull Suit

    Two brothers who lost their bid to hold an Illinois county liable for a former coroner's secret skull-collecting practices asked the U.S. Supreme Court Monday to use their case as the vehicle for settling a deep circuit split they say a recent Seventh Circuit ruling "cemented."

  • September 15, 2026

    DC Circ. Vexed Over Migrant Kid Sponsor Approval Timeframe

    The D.C. Circuit tore into the Trump administration Tuesday morning after a government attorney refused to answer how long an Office of Refugee Resettlement approval of a sponsor for an "unaccompanied" child lasts, even when the court whittled the time down to a matter of hours.

  • September 15, 2026

    Alaska Judge Defers To Army Corps In Gold Mine Permit Row

    An Alaska federal judge has told tribal and environmental groups that they failed to show the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers improperly approved a Clean Water Act permit allowing JT Mining Inc. to develop access to a mineral exploration site on privately owned land in Lake Clark National Park.

  • September 15, 2026

    Lender Alleges Housing Official Ran $2.4M Ponzi Scheme

    A real estate investment firm has accused the former executive director of a Connecticut town's housing authority of operating a Ponzi scheme that caused a $2.4 million loan to "vanish," alleging he and an associate made fraudulent assurances about proposed bonds, account balances, property values and other financing.

  • September 15, 2026

    States Say DOJ Trans Care Crackdown Is Unconstitutional

    States suing the Trump administration have urged a Massachusetts federal judge to strike down directives calling for providers of gender-affirming care to be investigated and prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice, arguing the directives are arbitrary and capricious and violate the Tenth Amendment.

  • September 15, 2026

    OpenAI Wants To See Details Of SpaceXAI's Deal With Apple

    OpenAI filed an emergency motion Tuesday in Texas federal court seeking the details of a settlement SpaceXAI inked this week with Apple over claims that Apple's deal to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone violated antitrust law, saying the terms of the deal may undermine the antitrust allegations SpaceXAI is still pursuing against OpenAI.

  • September 15, 2026

    4th Circ. Probes Party Standing Over FERC Grid Planning Rule

    The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday appeared inclined to uphold the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's broad grid planning overhaul amid a raft of challenges from certain states, transmission providers and consumer advocates, with standing issues taking center stage.

  • September 15, 2026

    Fla. Judge Won't Pause Trump-IRS Settlement Sanctions

    The Florida federal judge who barred President Donald Trump and others from citing a settlement resolving what she characterized as a sham $10 billion case against his own Internal Revenue Service won't pause her sanctions order while the president appeals to the Eleventh Circuit.

  • September 15, 2026

    Walmart, Retail Groups Doubt Value Of $200B Swipe Fee Deal

    Major retail trade associations and Walmart are objecting to a $200 billion settlement over Visa and Mastercard swipe fees in New York federal court, saying the court should decertify the class or at least allow opt-outs so merchants can preserve "valuable claims that class counsel are trading away for nothing."

  • September 15, 2026

    AG Pushes Data Center Rates To Protect NC Customers

    The attorney general of North Carolina urged the state's Utilities Commission to create a new rate class for Duke Energy's data center customers, saying it would ensure they pay their fair share of energy use.

  • September 15, 2026

    DC Circ. Queries Feds On Immigrant Truck Driver Restrictions

    D.C. Circuit judges on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Department of Transportation reasonably justified the safety rationale for new restrictions on commercial driver's licenses for foreign truckers or whether it disproportionately relied on individuals' immigration status to promulgate an "exclusionary" rule.

  • September 15, 2026

    4th Circ. Unsure How To Weigh NC Ban On Ballot Selfies

    A Fourth Circuit judge on Tuesday said a voter and the North Carolina State Board of Elections are arguing a tale of two cases in a free speech fight over the Tar Heel state's ban on ballot selfies, saying neither side appears to be in agreement about what level of judicial review to use.

  • September 15, 2026

    FCC Seeks Input On Disputed Political Ad Rate Policy

    Federal Communications Commission staff on Tuesday sought comment on whether to set aside earlier guidance calling for the "lowest unit" rate for committee-backed political ads as the Fourth Circuit considers a Democratic bid to force the commission to review the policy.

  • September 15, 2026

    8th Circ. Revives Doctor's Suit Over COVID Speech Probes

    An Eighth Circuit panel on Tuesday revived a doctor's suit seeking an order limiting a Minnesota state medical board's ability to investigate him for his public statements related to the COVID-19 pandemic, finding a district court "set the bar too high" at the dismissal stage.

  • September 15, 2026

    Nadine Menendez Deadline Relief Bid Deemed Moot

    A New York federal judge on Tuesday denied as moot Nadine Menendez's request for 90 more days to file a potential challenge to her prison sentence after prosecutors said she misunderstood the deadline and still had plenty of time to seek relief.

  • September 15, 2026

    Feds Fight Ex-Fla. Rep's Bid For Time Served In FARA Case

    Federal prosecutors urged a Florida federal judge on Monday to reject ex-Florida Rep. David Rivera's request for a sentence of time served after he was found guilty of failing to register as a foreign agent after signing a $50 million contract with a unit of Venezuela's state-owned oil company.

  • September 15, 2026

    College Sports Overhaul Looms Closer After Senate Vote

    The U.S. Senate on Tuesday advanced a bill that would impose sweeping regulations on college sports, teeing up a lively legislative debate as the NCAA looks to ward off a wave of antitrust lawsuits.

  • September 15, 2026

    Justices Told DHS Voter Citizenship Database 'Unprecedented'

    The U.S. Supreme Court should reject the Trump administration's bid to reinstate the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's upgraded citizenship verification database ahead of this year's election, a voting rights group told the court Tuesday, arguing that the administration unlawfully reinterpreted several statutes to claim that Congress authorized the changes.

  • September 15, 2026

    DC Judge Blocks 2nd Trump Naming Effort At Kennedy Center

    A D.C. federal judge rejected the Kennedy Center's latest effort to put President Donald Trump's name on the building's facade Tuesday, saying yet again that the performing arts center's board can't memorialize anyone but John F. Kennedy at the facility without Congress' say-so.

  • September 15, 2026

    Dems Block Crypto Bill Over Ethics Concerns

    The Senate on Tuesday failed to clear a procedural hurdle for the Clarity Act, which was primed to be the first comprehensive federal regulatory framework for digital asset markets, as Democrats said the ethics guardrails were not strong enough.

  • September 15, 2026

    NYC Asks 2nd Circ. To Greenlight Uber, Lyft Deactivation Law

    New York City has urged the Second Circuit to lift an injunction blocking a municipal ordinance prohibiting Uber and Lyft from "deactivating" drivers without formal notice and investigation, arguing that the lower court wrongly found that the companies would likely win their contract claims.

  • September 15, 2026

    Connecticut Wins Fight Over School Vaccine Exemptions

    Connecticut has won the dismissal of a challenge to its mandatory school vaccination laws, beating through both litigation and legislative amendments allegations by parents that the state's rollback of vaccine exemptions violated religious freedom statutes and the state and federal constitutions.

Expert Analysis

  • NY Bill Would Boost Litigation Risk For Cosmetics Cos.

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    The Beauty Justice Act, now pending in the New York Legislature, would not only present compliance challenges for companies making cosmetics and personal care products, but could also be used by private plaintiffs to bring consumer fraud, false advertising, toxic exposure and product liability claims, says Kadeejah Kelly-Previl at Faegre Drinker.

  • Appellate Vape Rulings May Expand State Regulation Powers

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    Two recent federal appeals courts decisions rejecting Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act preemption challenges to state electronic nicotine delivery systems directory laws signal an emerging appellate consensus that could significantly expand states' power to regulate vaping product sales where federal enforcement falls short, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Parsing Gov't Scrutiny Of Lending To Unauthorized Workers

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    Attorneys at Mayer Brown explain guidance recently issued by three banking regulators that addresses risks associated with lending to so-called non-work authorized individuals and discuss what the regulatory update could mean for fintech companies.

  • Discovery Into Insurers' AI Use Should Stay Proportional

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    As insurers increasingly use artificial intelligence to make claim decisions, plaintiffs in first-party coverage litigation should seek discovery that tracks how materially the automated system influenced the challenged decision, not whether the insurer used AI somewhere in its operations, says attorney Joe Zaid.

  • How FCC Covered List Blitz Is Sidelining Commerce Dept.

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    The swath of recent Federal Communications Commission rulemakings raises serious questions about the purpose and future of Commerce's Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services, and how the U.S. government will go forward in imposing national security regulation on domestic applications of adversary-linked technologies, says Peter Jeydel at Troutman.

  • DOJ Healthcare Declination Offers Self-Disclosure Checklist

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's declination of criminal charges against Campus Eye Management signals that its new self-disclosure policy provides a real path for healthcare companies to avoid criminal exposure, but that path is paved with speed, transparency and operational remediation, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.

  • SEC Rulemaking Radar: The Rubber Meets The Road

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new rulemaking agenda shows its regulatory reset taking shape, with sweeping crypto proposals that could bring the biggest changes it has made to broker-dealer, exchange and trading compliance in decades, says Christopher Grobbel at Goodwin.

  • Monitor Exposure, Stay Flexible Amid Tariff Uncertainty

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    To navigate an unstable trade environment, businesses must evaluate their exposure to new tariffs invoked under a patchwork of statutory authorities and be prepared to adapt to further changes that may be on the horizon, says Bhargav Prajapati at Capital Trade.

  • CFPB Complaint Portal Overhaul Signals Changing Priorities

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    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's updates to its consumer complaint portal and decision to cease publishing consumer complaint narratives should be viewed by companies as one component of a larger recalibration of how the CFPB collects information and allocates its supervisory and enforcement resources, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Series

    Being In A Band Made Me A Better Lawyer

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    Playing shows in storied New York City venues and rehearsing with my bandmates in poorly ventilated rooms helped develop the professional qualities I rely on as a litigator, including an ability to collaborate with strong-minded equals and the determination to treat each client with singular focus, says Eliad Shapiro at Herrick Feinstein.

  • Opinion

    Correctional Healthcare Requires Clearer Legal Standards

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    As the correctional healthcare industry increasingly faces financial instability due to litigation, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons should develop clear standards for constitutionally adequate care for incarcerated patients, says Susanne Moore at Blackstone Trial Group.

  • 6 Risk Areas Future Fla. Stablecoin Issuers Should Plan For

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    Companies hoping to issue stablecoins under Florida’s new supervision regime should prioritize constructing robust risk management architecture across key areas before the Oct. 1 effective date so they can secure licenses, avoid a web of potential liabilities, and operate sustainably as state and federal regulations evolve, says Elizabeth Brusa at Shumaker.

  • 6 Key Takeaways From CFIUS Annual Report

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    Attorneys at Simpson Thacher review highlights from the annual report of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., released to Congress this month, including the launch of the American First Investment Policy and the Known Investor Pilot Program, and the agency's continued focus on enforcement despite its resource constraints.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Surviving A Long Trial

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    Most of law school trial advocacy is geared toward the sprint of trying a short case, but beyond managing a cross-examination or closing argument, effectively handling the marathon of a lengthy trial requires the ability to maintain composure, organization and credibility with the jury, says Mihir Elchuri at Hirschler.

  • AI Chatbot's Medical Claims Highlight Enforcement Risks

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    The Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine's recent lawsuit against Character Technologies, arguing that an artificial intelligence chatbot engaged in the unlicensed practice of medicine, may provide other state licensing boards with a road map for going after AI platforms, and counsel should advise clients to calibrate compliance accordingly, say attorneys at Cooley.

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