Public Policy

  • September 11, 2026

    DC Circ. Nixes Energy Dept.'s Order To Keep Coal Plant Open

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday wiped out a U.S. Department of Energy order to keep open a Michigan coal-fired power plant slated for retirement, saying it represents an unjustified expansion of the agency's emergency authority under the Federal Power Act.

  • September 10, 2026

    Zuckerberg Testifies List Of Kid-Glove Users Not A Problem

    Mark Zuckerberg strenuously disputed in testimony seen Thursday by a New Mexico jury that Facebook's internal list of parties whose content receives special treatment undercuts the company's public declarations that policy-violating content must be taken down without exception.

  • September 10, 2026

    Feds Sued To Block Armed ICE Agents From Polling Locations

    Advocacy groups Thursday sued the Trump administration in D.C. federal court to stop the deployment of armed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling locations during the midterm elections, arguing the government cannot "cast the pall of federal force over the ballot box" to intimidate voters or disrupt the elections.

  • September 10, 2026

    Senate Panel To Consider Nominee For 3rd FCC Republican

    U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, announced Thursday that a hearing will be held Sept. 17 for the nomination of Danielle Thumann Severs to the Federal Communications Commission.

  • September 10, 2026

    9/11 Guantánamo Detentions Mirror Mass Deportation Agenda

    On the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, legal experts examine how the Trump administration’s approach to detaining migrants at Guantánamo Bay rises from the same legal structures and rhetoric that allowed the detention of suspected terrorists there.

  • September 10, 2026

    SpaceXAI Says Alleged Grok Child Porn Maker Must Indemnify It

    SpaceXAI LLC on Thursday accused a Pennsylvania man of using its artificial intelligence tool Grok to generate child sexual abuse material, telling a Texas federal court that the man breached the terms of service agreement and must indemnify the company.

  • September 10, 2026

    Calif. Enacts Laws To Curb Addictive Feeds, AI Risks For Kids

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed more than a dozen kids online safety bills into law Thursday, expanding student data privacy laws while barring social media companies from offering teens personalized accounts with addictive features and requiring artificial intelligence companies to implement guardrails to prevent teen suicide and self-harm.

  • September 10, 2026

    24 States Ink Deal With Feds In AmeriCorps Budget Cuts Case

    Two dozen states and the District of Columbia have reached a settlement with the Trump administration to stop the federal government from abruptly slashing funding for the national volunteer agency AmeriCorps in the future, the coalition of states announced Thursday.

  • September 10, 2026

    DOL Rule Opens Job Services To Outsourcing, Union Says

    The U.S. Department of Labor misread a Depression-era law when it began allowing private contractors to run a network of public employment offices, a civil servants' union argued in a lawsuit filed Thursday, asking the D.C. federal court to strike down the agency's change in protocol.

  • September 10, 2026

    FERC Chair Maintains Push To Fast-Track Gas Pipeline Work

    Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Laura Swett on Thursday lauded the agency's efforts to speed up permitting of gas infrastructure, and emphasized that projects that won't have major impacts on pipeline operations or ratepayers shouldn't be subject to unnecessary additional scrutiny.

  • September 10, 2026

    RJ Reynolds Wants In On Suit Over FDA Vape Review Rule

    Vape and nicotine pouch subsidiaries owned by Altria and R.J. Reynolds are looking to upend the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's premarket authorization rule, claiming the agency is breaking the law by dragging out product reviews well past the statutory deadline, which delays their goods by years while illegal Chinese products flood the market.

  • September 10, 2026

    Regulators Expand Examination Cycle For More Banks

    Nearly 200 banks may receive some relief from annual regulatory exams under a new interagency rule published Thursday that amends the eligibility requirements for an 18-month on-site examination cycle, instead of 12 months.

  • September 10, 2026

    Feds' Cut To NY Funding In CDL Fight Justified, 2nd Circ. Told

    The Trump administration has told the Second Circuit that it's well within its rights to penalize New York by withholding $74 million in highway funds over the state's failure to revoke commercial driver's licenses that were issued to ineligible foreign drivers.

  • September 10, 2026

    OpenAI Faces Senate Probe Into Hugging Face Breach

    Members of a U.S. Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs subcommittee Wednesday sent letters to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman seeking answers about the company's artificial intelligence models breaching Hugging Face's security. 

  • September 10, 2026

    DC Circ. Upholds SEC Denial Of Whistleblower Award

    The D.C. Circuit ruled Wednesday that a man who tipped off a journalist about a possible foreign bribery scheme is not entitled to a whistleblower award because he waited until a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation was well under way to present the same information to the agency.

  • September 10, 2026

    Mich. Tribes, Enviro Groups Challenge Line 5 Tunnel Permits

    Four Michigan Tribal Nations and four environmental groups on Thursday separately challenged state permits for Enbridge Energy LP's proposed Line 5 tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac, seeking to overturn approvals facing renewed scrutiny after a Michigan Supreme Court ruling required broader environmental review of the project.

  • September 10, 2026

    6 Major Insurance Bills On Newsom's Desk In Calif. 

    California lawmakers approved significant insurance bills in recent weeks, including legislation designed to establish standards for insurers handling smoke damage claims, increase claims handling transparency, and penalize insurers for untimely payments. Here, Law360 overviews six of the biggest insurance-related bills this session.

  • September 10, 2026

    6th Circ. Nixes $31.8M Pot Farm Judgment Against Curaleaf

    The Sixth Circuit on Thursday reversed a $31.8 million jury judgment against cannabis giant Curaleaf, saying the federal illegality of cannabis precluded federal courts from enforcing contracts that require parties to commit federal crimes.

  • September 10, 2026

    DOJ Says Records Act Chills 'Candid' White House Advice

    The Justice Department urged the D.C. Circuit to vacate a lower court's order requiring the White House to comply with the Presidential Records Act, arguing in a new brief that the 1978 statute intrudes on executive power by requiring preservation of a wide range of documents.

  • September 10, 2026

    Latest Crypto Bill Draft Updates DeFi Rules But Not Ethics

    Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., on Thursday shared an updated draft of the Clarity Act that tweaked the crypto market structure bill's provisions around decentralized finance but left unaltered ethics language critical to winning Democrat support ahead of next week's cloture vote.

  • September 10, 2026

    Fed Colluded With Wall Street On New Capital Rules, Suit Says

    The Federal Reserve Board and its vice chair for supervision, Michelle Bowman, were sued on Thursday by Wall Street reform group Better Markets Inc., which alleges Bowman secretly met with the heads of Wall Street giants to manipulate the newly proposed U.S. bank capital rules.

  • September 10, 2026

    4th Circ. Calls No-Bond Detention Policy 'Stain' On The Nation

    The Fourth Circuit on Thursday became the ninth appellate court to declare illegal the Trump administration's detention of immigrants without bond, calling the mass detention a "stain" on the nation and comparing it to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

  • September 10, 2026

    SEC Must Police Some Event Contracts: Citadel Securities

    Citadel Securities told federal derivatives and securities regulators that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should take the lead on oversight of event contracts and other wagers when they're linked to public companies or equities.

  • September 10, 2026

    Catholic Charity Fights Bid To Toss Funding Cut Suit

    A Catholic charity said its opposition to abortion and contraception led Michigan to unconstitutionally terminate its decade-long role as a state-designated service provider for women suffering from substance abuse, and it urged a federal judge to reject the state's request to dismiss a civil rights suit filed by the organization.

  • September 10, 2026

    Biosimilars Boast Big Savings But Face IP Risks, Report Says

    There are no biosimilar drugs in development for 90% of biologic products set to lose their patent exclusivity by 2034, according to a report released Thursday by the Association for Accessible Medicines, which warned that current patent policy threatens generic-drug development. 

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Being A Singer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Before law school, I spent seven years trying to make it as a professional singer in Los Angeles, and nearly everything I learned about preparation, humility, confidence and more has followed me into my legal practice, says Jessica Caterina at Moses & Singer.

  • EEOC Enforcement Plan Signals DEI, Religious Bias Scrutiny

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    In light of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently publishing its national enforcement plan covering through fiscal year 2029, employers should expect increased scrutiny of practices that conflict with the administration's positions on diversity, equity and inclusion, national origin discrimination, and religious accommodations, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Immigration Order Raises Customer ID Stakes For Banks

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    Following a recently issued immigration-related executive order, financial institutions should expect and prepare for increased scrutiny of customer due diligence and identification, suspicious activity monitoring, and consumer lending, as well as accompanying supervisory shifts and rising fair lending risks, says Douglas Weissinger at Butler Snow.

  • Trade Secret Practice Tips From The 1st Half Of 2026

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    Intellectual property attorneys should consider what several significant developments in 2026 thus far mean for how they protect, litigate and value trade secrets, focusing on new state noncompete bans, cases scrutinizing how plaintiffs identify trade secrets and federal rulings on damages doctrines, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • High Court Rulings Could Alter Agency Strategy For Cos.

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook mark major turning points in the law of independent agencies and in how regulated companies should think about federal enforcement, rulemaking and agency-facing strategy, say attorneys at Holtzman Vogel.

  • How CME Suit May Reshape CFTC's Crypto Derivatives Rules

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    CME Group's recent lawsuit over the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's approval of a Kalshi application to offer a bitcoin perpetual contract as a futures product could have cascading consequences for crypto derivatives regulation, highlighting why policy ambitions do not override statutory text or substitute for reasoned decision-making, says attorney Tamara de Silva.

  • Opinion

    Justices' Parole Ruling Degrades Green Card Holders' Rights

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Blanche v. Lau, holding that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers can parole a returning lawful permanent resident without clear and convincing evidence of a crime, weakens the statutory and practical protections Congress intended, say attorneys at Cyrus D. Mehta & Partners.

  • NEPA Reforms Can Fix Permitting Without Weakening Review

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    Recent National Environmental Policy Act reforms, in tandem with a Senate bill proposing faster permitting reviews and greater agency coordination, mark a long overdue move toward more efficient energy and infrastructure permitting that does not sacrifice environmental assessment, say attorneys at GableGotwals.

  • 2 Microsoft Matters Could Help Shape AI Antitrust Outlook

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    A pending federal court case and investigation focusing on Microsoft's allegedly anticompetitive conduct in the deployment of artificial intelligence tools are testing whether antitrust law can distinguish ordinary competition to supply the AI ecosystem from conduct that distorts how that competition unfolds, says Kylie Kim at Massey & Gail.

  • Preparing For Next Congress With Eye On Investigation Risk

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    Rod Rosenstein, Brian Whisler and Bruce Linskens at Baker McKenzie offer advice for organizations seeking to build a proactive response plan to potential congressional oversight as the election looms.

  • Asylum Ruling Signals Larger Separation Of Powers Battle

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado that border officials may turn away asylum-seekers without inspection is part of a broader conversation about the reach of institutional safeguards that subject governmental authority to legal constraint, says Dree Collopy at American University's Washington College of Law.

  • Solar's Momentum At Mid-2026 Will Help It Overcome Snags

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    The rapid expansion of U.S. solar development in the first half of 2026 is likely to continue its pace, even amid ongoing shifts in federal trade policy and supply chain regulations, obstacles to permitting reform, and an increasing divide between states enacting policies to encourage or stymie project development, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.

  • The Debanking Minefield: Navigating Fair Access In 2026

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    Federal regulators' recent elimination of reputational risk from bank supervision, alongside a growing patchwork of state fair access laws, is reshaping how banks make account and service decisions and ushering in a new compliance era requiring individualized, objective and risk-based access determinations, say attorneys at Spencer Fane.

  • Carbon Health Settlement Highlights Why Evidence Is Key

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    The California Attorney General's Office's first-of-its-kind settlement with Carbon Health, imposing penalties for alleged corporate practice of medicine violations, shows that friendly professional corporation challenges usually hinge not on the parties' management services agreement, but on whether the operational record matches it, says Ben Dubin at VC Expert Services.

  • What PE Practitioners Need To Know About New Del. ABC Act

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    Delaware's new Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors statute represents a structural shift in how companies backed by private equity can be wound down and provides a more streamlined tool for managing sponsor liability without the public visibility of a bankruptcy proceeding, says Evelyn Meltzer at Troutman Pepper.

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