Public Policy

  • August 28, 2026

    Feds Gain Ground In Energy Permit Turf War With States

    A federal judge's endorsement earlier this month of the Trump administration's restart of a pipeline over California's objections will likely embolden the federal government to override state opposition to energy project development, but the ruling won't be the last word on the legality of such moves.

  • August 28, 2026

    Mass. Coke Bottler Misclassified Worker To Save OT, Suit Says

    A regional Coca-Cola bottler misclassified a worker as an exempt employee to avoid paying overtime, a new lawsuit in Massachusetts state court alleges.

  • August 28, 2026

    DOJ Cites National Security In $173M Ukraine Award Suit

    The Trump administration Thursday backed Ukraine as it fights efforts by one of Russia's largest oil companies to unpause litigation aimed at enforcing a confirmed $173 million arbitral award, pointing to Russia's increasing reputation as a "surveillance state with severely eroded rule-of-law protections."

  • August 28, 2026

    Ariz. Tribe Seeks To Pause Border Wall Work During Appeal

    The Tohono O'odham Nation is asking a district court to pause an order that denied its bid to block construction of a border wall near its Arizona reservation while it appeals the ruling to the D.C. Circuit, saying the federal government "plainly feels emboldened" by the decision.

  • August 28, 2026

    2 Men Sentenced For Car Crash Insurance Scam In NY

    Two men have been sentenced to prison over an insurance fraud conspiracy in which they staged car crashes on local highways — including one captured in a video that went viral on social media — New York City and state officials announced.

  • August 28, 2026

    FCC Creates New Innovation Zone In Iowa, Expands Old Ones

    For the first time in five years, the Federal Communications Commission has greenlit the creation of a new "innovation zone," which will give a university an experimental spectrum license that allows it to conduct wireless research, this time at Iowa State University.

  • August 28, 2026

    Circuit Split Raises Stakes For Timing Of Detention Review

    An emerging circuit split on whether district courts can hear habeas claims from noncitizens who say the government wants to deport them for their political speech raises questions about how quickly they can challenge the constitutionality of their detention before an independent judge.

  • August 28, 2026

    FCC Urged To Act On 5G Broadcast Petition

    Low power TV station operator HC2 Broadcasting wants the Federal Communications Commission to allow low-power broadcasters to transmit local programming via 5G signals if they want to.

  • August 28, 2026

    DOJ Says KKR's $250M Deal Will Deter HSR Violations

    The U.S. Department of Justice has issued its formal defense of a $250 million settlement with KKR & Co. and affiliated entities resolving allegations that the private equity firm repeatedly violated the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act's premerger notification and waiting period rules.

  • August 28, 2026

    Boston Eyes Liquor License Sold By Celebrity Chef

    The city of Boston asked a judge on Friday to block the anticipated transfer of a liquor license once held by celebrity chef Barbara Lynch, contending that Lynch's original sale of the license to its current holder was a fraudulent effort at evading what ultimately became a nearly $1 million judgment over unpaid property taxes.

  • August 28, 2026

    3rd Circ. Rejects Trump Admin's No-Bond Policy

    The Third Circuit has added to the circuit split over the Trump administration's detention without bond of unauthorized noncitizens apprehended inside the U.S., finding the policy runs afoul of the Immigration and Nationality Act and violates their due process rights.

  • August 28, 2026

    Consumer Groups Back Ore. In Fight Over Rate Opt-Out Law

    Consumer advocacy groups have rallied to Oregon's defense in litigation over its new law aimed at capping interest rates on loans from out-of-state banks, arguing the state's financial industry challengers don't have history or federal law on their side.

  • August 28, 2026

    DOL Scraps 1980s Farmworker Protection Coordination Rule

    The U.S. Department of Labor is repealing longtime regulations that required federal agencies to coordinate protections for migrant and seasonal workers, saying they are obsolete and have not been used for decades.

  • August 28, 2026

    ITC Finds Pipes From 3 Countries May Harm US Industry

    Stainless line and pressure pipes from India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates that are allegedly being sold at unfair prices appear to be harming domestic U.S. industry, the U.S. International Trade Commission preliminarily found Friday.

  • August 28, 2026

    Medical Marijuana Industry Grapples With DEA's New Role

    After years of allowing the state-sanctioned medical marijuana industry to operate without interference, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is stepping in to regulate a drug it once treated exclusively as contraband, but attorneys and regulators say the cannabis industry's interactions with the agency are off to a rocky start.

  • August 28, 2026

    Trump Admin Wants Oklahoma Smelter Suit Thrown Out

    The U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge to dismiss Oklahoma's challenge of a massive aluminum smelter project the Trump administration has backed with a $500 million grant, arguing that the case is premature and that the facility is vital to national security.

  • August 28, 2026

    Fla. Says PBMs Fixed Prices For Prescription Drugs

    Florida's attorney general on Thursday sued two competing pharmacy benefit managers for allegedly colluding to fix prescription drug reimbursement rates to pharmacies, which the state said threatens Floridians' access to affordable medications.

  • August 28, 2026

    NJ Law Requires Data Centers To Report Utility Usage

    New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a bill into law on Aug. 27 that requires data centers in the state to provide the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities with semiannual water and energy usage reports.

  • August 28, 2026

    Trump Denied New Bid To Federalize Hush Money Prosecution

    A New York federal judge on Friday again denied President Donald Trump's bid to move his criminal hush money conviction out of state court, finding as he did earlier that a federal law defense that Trump was operating in his official capacity would be meritless.

  • August 28, 2026

    IRS Corrects Proposed Regs On Foreign Tax Rules

    The Internal Revenue Service issued a notice Friday to correct several aspects of proposed regulations issued this month that relate to allocating foreign taxes following the repeal of a deferral election and the disallowance of foreign tax credits on certain distributions of previously taxed earnings.

  • August 28, 2026

    House Eyes Vote To Lock Supreme Court At 9 Justices

    The House returns from recess on Monday, and its agenda could include a vote to keep the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices at nine.

  • August 28, 2026

    Minnesota Urges Justices To Reject Foster Parents' ICWA Bid

    The Minnesota Attorney General's Office said two foster parents' challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act is far from over, because even if they could clear a jurisdictional bar, the Supreme Court will likely remand the dispute and leave the couple's equal protection question to be litigated another day.

  • August 28, 2026

    4 Arguments For Benefits Attys To Watch In September

    The Fifth Circuit will weigh Louisiana's bid to block telehealth access to the abortion drug mifepristone, while the Fourth Circuit will hear Lockheed Martin's challenge to a trial court decision that kept a pension de-risking suit alive. Here's a look at these and other argument sessions that should be on benefits attorneys' radar next month.

  • August 27, 2026

    Anthropic Judge Rejects Trump's Nat'l Security 'Blank Check'

    The U.S. Department of Defense's designation of Anthropic PBC as a supply chain risk to national security was not based on a credible threat, but rather was retaliation for the company's public criticism of the Trump administration's position in contract negotiations, a California federal judge ruled Thursday.

  • August 27, 2026

    Mass. Judge Halts USPS Mail Ballot Rule Before Midterms

    A Massachusetts federal judge late Thursday temporarily blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing a new rule allowing it to deny delivery of mail-in ballots from voters whose names are not on citizenship lists the Trump administration is compiling ahead of November's midterms.

Expert Analysis

  • Assessing The Benefits Of Fla.'s Newest Business Structure

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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.

  • High Court, SEC Proposals Set Stage For Further Fund Reform

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in FS Credit Opportunities v. Saba Capital Master Fund and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed rulemaking packages aimed at public market reforms provide a constructive backdrop for considering additional innovations to the listed fund structure, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • AG Watch: Minn. Defends Prediction Markets Ban

    Author Photo

    Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has aggressively defended the state's landmark statute banning prediction markets, but the court's July 27 temporary injunction in U.S. v. Minnesota blocking the law from taking effect could set the template for state authority across the country, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: Examining Administrative, Organizational Uses

    Author Photo

    U.S. District Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas examines how artificial intelligence could transform a court's ability to deal with administrative work and organize materials when preparing for hearings or drafting opinions, thereby affording judges more time to resolve contested issues.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Public Policy archive.