Public Policy

  • July 16, 2025

    USTR To Probe Brazil's Trade Practices For Possible Tariffs

    The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Tuesday evening it will launch an investigation into Brazil's trade practices to determine whether tariff actions could be necessary after a request by President Donald Trump and prior tariff threats.

  • July 16, 2025

    Calif. Tribe Opposes Dismissal Of Suit Over Cannabis Raids

    The Round Valley Indian Tribes urged a California federal court not to dismiss their claims against Mendocino County and its sheriff alleging they illegally raided cannabis growers on tribal lands, saying the complaint sufficiently contends that the sheriff and county have an ongoing policy of continuing the raids.

  • July 15, 2025

    GTCR Seeks Rival's Sales Data To Counter FTC Challenge

    The private equity firm looking to buy medical device coating company Surmodics is seeking Salesforce data from another competitor in the space, saying the information is crucial to showing that the industry will still be competitive if its acquisition is cleared.

  • July 15, 2025

    Trump Admin Seeks Win In Harvard $2B Funding Freeze Case

    The Trump administration urged a Massachusetts federal judge Monday to grant it summary judgment in Harvard University's lawsuit challenging the government's effort to freeze $2.2 billion in funding, arguing the dispute is a contract fight that belongs in the Federal Claims Court and the allegations fail on the merits.

  • July 15, 2025

    Ariz. Justices Clear School In Suit By Teen Hit By Car

    The Arizona Supreme Court tossed a suit Tuesday accusing a Phoenix school district of knowingly allowing students to jaywalk just outside the school which purportedly caused a 14-year-old boy to get hit by a car and suffer severe injuries, saying the school had no duty of care outside school grounds.

  • July 15, 2025

    EXIM Bank Sued For 'Unconscionable' LNG Project Funding

    Friends of the Earth is asking a D.C. federal judge to block $4.7 billion in financing the Export-Import Bank of the United States has authorized for a massive liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique led by TotalEnergies SE.

  • July 15, 2025

    IP Owner Orgs Urge Fed. Circ. To Reject Fintiv Memo Appeal

    Organizations representing startups and other intellectual property owners have urged the Federal Circuit to reject SAP America Inc.'s mandamus petition challenging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office leader's handling of a discretionary denials policy, arguing she acted within the powers of her role.

  • July 15, 2025

    Ga. Judge Sends Online Casino Suit To Arbitration

    A Georgia federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit over money lost on casino-style gambling websites like Luckyland Slots and Global Poker, saying the case can't move forward in the Peach State and must go to arbitration instead. 

  • July 15, 2025

    'NJ Weedman' Can Proceed With Suit Over City Hall Protest

    The city of Trenton, New Jersey, can't escape a lawsuit filed by a cannabis advocate known as NJWeedman who claims the municipality violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him after he projected a "Batman-like" protest message on City Hall, a federal judge ruled, saying it might be "annoying" but it is protected speech.

  • July 15, 2025

    Patent Fight Over Xtandi Erupts Anew Before RFK Jr.

    A new dispute is playing out over the price of a prostate cancer drug that was developed at University of California, Los Angeles, and is being sold by Pfizer, with the federal government being pushed on the issue of using its authority to allow early entry of generics.

  • July 15, 2025

    FTC Says Merger Penalty Deal In The Works With 7-Eleven

    The Federal Trade Commission is inching closer to a settlement with 7-Eleven in its suit seeking to slap the convenience store chain with a $77.5 million penalty for violating a settlement that it inked with the agency in order to get a merger approved back in 2018.

  • July 15, 2025

    Miami Candidate Sues To Undo Postponed Elections

    A Miami businesswoman running for city office has sued to undo the postponement of the November municipal elections, alleging that an ordinance passed by elected officials to delay the elections for up to a year violates the Florida Constitution. 

  • July 15, 2025

    PCAOB Chief Erica Williams Has Resigned, SEC Chair Says

    Erica Y. Williams has resigned as chair and a board member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board after more than three years in the position, according to a statement issued Tuesday by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul S. Atkins.

  • July 15, 2025

    Convicted Ill. Speaker Seeks Release Pending Bribery Appeal

    Former Illinois speaker Michael Madigan asked a federal judge Monday to let him stay out of prison after his recent public corruption conviction, arguing that the Seventh Circuit's input on several legal issues could require a new trial.

  • July 15, 2025

    House Passes Bill To Codify FCC Network Security Council

    The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would cement into law a federal advisory panel on network security.

  • July 15, 2025

    The Biggest IP Agency Developments Of 2025: Midyear Report

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Copyright Office have not been spared from the Trump administration's shake-ups and changes across the federal government in the first half of the year.

  • July 15, 2025

    Gould Sworn In As Comptroller Of Currency

    Former Jones Day partner Jonathan Gould on Tuesday was sworn in as the next leader of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, marking his return to the agency where he spent more than two years as chief counsel.

  • July 15, 2025

    Split 4th Circ. Rejects GenBioPro Abortion Ban Challenge

    A split Fourth Circuit panel on Tuesday rejected GenBioPro's challenge to a West Virginia law banning medication abortion with narrow exceptions, with the majority finding the ban does not conflict with federal regulators' statutory authority to impose safety requirements on drug manufacturers.

  • July 15, 2025

    3rd Circ. Backs FAA's Civil Penalty Actions Post-Jarkesy

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday backed the Federal Aviation Administration's adjudicatory authority to impose civil penalties for air safety rules violations, saying in a precedential ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court's Jarkesy decision doesn't entitle a paint supplier to a jury trial in a case stemming from a leaky paint can on a FedEx plane.

  • July 15, 2025

    FCC Hunts For Customer Info On Cellcom Network Outage

    Regional wireless service provider Cellcom's mid-May network outage has prompted a public inquiry by federal regulators who want to know how customers handled their inability to make or receive texts and calls.

  • July 15, 2025

    House Lawmakers OK Bill To Block DOJ Rescheduling Pot

    A Republican-led House subcommittee approved language Tuesday that would stop the U.S. Department of Justice from loosening federal restrictions on marijuana through the administrative process.

  • July 15, 2025

    FDIC Floats Rule 'Indexing' Plan In Deregulatory Blitz

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has unveiled plans to begin automatically raising dollar thresholds used to determine which compliance requirements apply to banks, part of a broader raft of deregulatory measures that agency leaders advanced on Tuesday.

  • July 15, 2025

    EPA Defends Ending Enviro Justice Grants

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked a federal judge to dismiss a proposed class action filed by environmental groups, a Native American village and other local governments, alleging the EPA unlawfully stopped $3 billion in climate grant funding.

  • July 15, 2025

    Feds Urge Calif. Judge To End Suit Over Border Patrol Sweep

    The U.S. government moved Tuesday to end a proposed class action alleging Border Patrol agents conducted race-based stops and warrantless arrests of people who appear to be farmworkers, arguing the government has required agents to evaluate flight risks and reasonable suspicion for stops, which renders the suit's claims moot.

  • July 15, 2025

    FTC Still Bans Ex-Pioneer CEO From Exxon Board, For Now

    If the current Federal Trade Commission upends Biden-era Democrats' ban on the former CEO of Pioneer from serving on Exxon's board, it will be on the now-Republican-led commission's own volition rather than through a petition by the executive.

Expert Analysis

  • Policy Shifts Bring New Anti-Money Laundering Challenges

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    In the second half of 2025, the U.S. anti-money laundering regulatory landscape is poised for decisive shifts in enforcement priorities, compliance expectations and legislative developments — so investment advisers and other financial institutions should take steps to prepare for potential new obligations and areas of risk, say attorneys at Linklaters.

  • 8 Ways Lawyers Can Protect The Rule Of Law In Their Work

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    Whether they are concerned with judicial independence, regulatory predictability or client confidence, lawyers can take specific meaningful actions on their own when traditional structures are too slow or too compromised to respond, says Angeli Patel at the Berkeley Center of Law and Business.

  • Kousisis Concurrence Maps FCA Defense To Anti-DEI Suits

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    Justice Clarence Thomas' recent concurrence in Kousisis v. U.S. lays out how federal funding recipients could use the high standard for materiality in government fraud cases to fight the U.S. Justice Department’s threatened False Claims Act suits against payees deviating from the administration’s anti-DEI policies, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.

  • Despite Dark Clouds, Outlook For US Solar Has Bright Spots

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    While tariff, tax policy and bankruptcy news seemingly portends unending challenges for the U.S. solar energy industry, signs of continued growth in solar generating capacity and domestic solar manufacturing suggest that there is a path forward, say attorneys at Beveridge & Diamond.

  • Assessing New Changes To Texas Officer Exculpation Law

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    Consistent with Texas' recent modernization of its corporate law, the recently passed S.B. 2411 allows officer exculpation, streamlines certificate of formation amendments, authorizes representatives to act on shareholders' behalf in mergers and makes other changes aimed toward companies seeking a more codified, statutory model of corporate governance, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • How Ending OFCCP Will Affect Affirmative Action Obligations

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    As President Donald Trump's administration plans to eliminate the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which enforces federal contractor antidiscrimination compliance and affirmative action program obligations, contractors should consider the best compliance approaches available to them, especially given the False Claims Act implications, say attorneys at Ogletree.

  • Rising Enforcement Stakes For Pharma Telehealth Platforms

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    Two pieces of legislation recently introduced in Congress could transform the structure and promotion of telehealth arrangements as legislators increasingly scrutinize direct-to-consumer advertising platforms, potentially paving the way for a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy with bipartisan support, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Communicating With Clients

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    Law school curricula often overlook client communication procedures, and those who actively teach this crucial facet of the practice can create exceptional client satisfaction and success, says Patrick Hanson at Wiggam Law.

  • One Year On, Davidson Holds Lessons On 'Health Halo' Claims

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    A year after the Ninth Circuit's Davidson v. Sprout Foods decision — which raised the bar for so-called health halo claims — food and beverage companies can draw insights from its finding, subsequently expanded on by other courts, that plaintiffs must be specific when alleging fraud in healthfulness marketing, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Justices' NRC Ruling Raises New Regulatory Questions

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    In Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided ruling on the NRC's authority to license private, temporary nuclear waste storage facilities — and this failure to reach the merits question creates new regulatory uncertainty where none had existed for decades, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • 3 Judicial Approaches To Applying Loper Bright, 1 Year Later

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    In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in its Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision, a few patterns have emerged in lower courts’ application of the precedent to determine whether agency actions are lawful, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • Navigating Antitrust Risks When Responding To Tariffs

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    Companies should assess competitive perils, implement compliance safeguards and document independent decision-making as they consider their responses to recent tariff pressures, say attorneys at White & Case.

  • Breaking Down Part 3 Of The Copyright Office's AI Report

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    On May 9, the U.S. Copyright Office published a prepublication version of the third and final part of its three-part report on artificial intelligence, offering key insights on the unauthorized use of copyrighted material by AI systems, says Courtney Sarnow at CM Law.

  • 8 Insurer Takeaways From Sweeping Georgia Tort Reform

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    Insurers should take note of several critical components of Georgia's tort litigation overhaul — including limitations on damages anchoring, procedural rules governing dismissals, and liability standards in negligent security cases — and adapt claims-handling strategies to reduce litigation risk, says Lucy Aquino at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Bill Leaves Renewable Cos. In Dark On Farmland Reporting

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    A U.S. Senate bill to update disclosure requirements for foreign control of U.S. farmland does not provide much-needed guidance on how to report renewable energy development on agricultural property, leaving significant compliance risks for project developers, say attorneys at Hodgson Russ.

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