Public Policy

  • 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.

  • September 15, 2026

    Mich. AG Says PBMs Put Opioid Profits Before Patient Safety

    Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has asked a federal court not to dismiss the state's lawsuit accusing pharmacy benefit managers including Express Scripts and Optum of abetting the opioid epidemic, arguing the PBMs are not passive administrators, but profit-driven architects of the crisis.

  • September 15, 2026

    Cruz Delays FCC Nom's Hearing Amid Calls To Add Dem Pick

    A bevy of civil rights organizations said Tuesday the U.S. Senate should hold off on confirming another Republican to the Federal Communications Commission unless a sitting FCC Democrat is renominated to her post.

  • September 15, 2026

    7th Circ. Debates Federalism, Bad-Faith Prosecution Limits

    A case deemed moot by the Seventh Circuit nonetheless drew commentary Monday from several judges on the court, with four calling an injunction that blocked Florida from pursuing a state court suit over youth gender-affirming care a "grievous blow" to federalism, while others said federal intervention is a "constitutional safety valve" against bad-faith prosecutions.

  • September 15, 2026

    TikTok Pay Scale Suit On Pause Pending Wash. Appeal

    A Washington state court has extended a stay in a proposed class action accusing TikTok of omitting salary information from job postings, keeping the case paused while an appeals court considers whether a key provision of the state's pay transparency law applies retroactively.

  • September 15, 2026

    Mich. Man Sues City Over Removal From Public Forum

    A Palestinian American man has sued the city of Eastpointe, Michigan, alleging its officials violated his First Amendment and civil rights by removing him from a public forum after he silently displayed a sign accusing the city council of complicity in the war in Gaza.

  • September 15, 2026

    FDA Seeks Applications For Project To Speed Up Human Trials

    Federal regulators on Tuesday launched a pilot program that will pair pharmaceutical companies with research institutions in an effort to make it faster and easier to conduct clinical trials on humans in the United States.

  • September 15, 2026

    Bessent Teases Higher AML Reporting Thresholds For Banks

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a U.S. House panel on Tuesday that the Trump administration is moving toward relaxing longstanding transaction reporting requirements for banks as part of its broader push to overhaul federal anti-money laundering rules.

  • September 15, 2026

    Next Tariff Refund Phase To Deploy Next Month, CBP Says

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection's next phase for its system administering tariff refunds for duties struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court will deploy Oct. 6, according to a declaration filed Tuesday in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

  • September 15, 2026

    Judge Bars Oregon Steelhead Stocking In North Santiam River

    A federal judge has ordered Oregon to stop releasing non-native summer steelhead into the North Santiam River for recreational fishing until the National Marine Fisheries Service updates a flawed opinion on the harms the hatchery-raised fish may pose to native winter steelhead.

Expert Analysis

  • The Deep Split Over Mandatory Detention, And What's Next

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    The government’s mandatory detention policy for noncitizens who entered the U.S. without inspection has led to a spate of decisions this year, with nine circuits rejecting the government's reading of the Immigration and Nationality Act against two that have accepted it, making the issue ripe for U.S. Supreme Court review, says attorney Kemal Hepsen.

  • Intersecting Investigation Risks Loom In Next Congress

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    Taken together, two July D.C. Circuit decisions and a recent U.S. Department of Justice opinion on executive privilege may affect the procedural defenses and privilege protections available to targets of oversight in the upcoming Congress, and companies should begin preparing now, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

  • FTC Focus: A Shift In The Pricing Disclosure Terrain

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    Recent state and Federal Trade Commission developments spotlight materially different ways in which personalized pricing might be addressed, which could result in an increasingly fragmented regulatory landscape in which businesses face differing disclosure obligations and substantive restrictions depending upon the jurisdiction, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Attorneys Using AI May Have Ethical Duty To Redact Docs

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    The trajectory of legal ethics guidance in recent years strongly suggests that as redaction technology becomes more accessible, the failure to use it when uploading highly confidential materials into artificial intelligence tools will become increasingly difficult to defend as reasonable, say attorneys at Lewis Brisbois.

  • Compliance Lessons From Agriculture Co. Mexican Bribe DPA

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    Agricultural company Scoular’s recently announced deferred prosecution agreement over alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations at the U.S.-Mexico border reinforces the U.S. Department of Justice’s focus on cartels, and companies must accordingly ensure they address risks associated with the use of customs brokers, says Adam Safwat at Foley Hoag.

  • OpenAI Deal Highlights AI Hiring Risks In PERM Process

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent settlement of allegations that OpenAI discriminated against U.S. applicants for positions connected to the permanent labor certification process underscores that employers providing or using artificial intelligence must align their recruitment practices with their overlapping compliance obligations, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • 5 Practice Tips After DOJ's Healthcare Fraud Declination

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    In light of the U.S. Department of Justice's decision to not prosecute Campus Eye Management under the agency's new corporate enforcement and voluntary self-disclosure policy, healthcare companies should keep several considerations in mind when weighing their risk and self-disclosure strategy, including the distinctions between reporting to the DOJ versus other government agencies, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • What Bulk-Power Gear Import EO Means For US Energy Cos.

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    Though President Donald Trump's recent executive order restricting imports of foreign-produced bulk-power system electrical equipment imposes no immediate obligations on private parties, stakeholders can take near-term steps to mitigate supply chain and contractual risks, as much of the order's ultimate impact will depend on implementing regulations, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • Assessing The Early Days Of Woodcock's SEC Tenure

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    Since David Woodcock took over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement four months ago, the division has pursued a scaled-back caseload centered on fraud and manipulative conduct, largely following the enforcement outlook that emerged under SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • AI And AML: Rulemakings Lean Into Responsible Innovation

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    Recent federal rulemaking increasingly supports deployment of artificial intelligence tools for anti-money laundering compliance purposes, and institutions that build clear use and governance frameworks will be best positioned to defend programs when AI systems err, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • Series

    Juggling And Unicycling Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    Because I juggle (sometimes with fire) and ride the unicycle, friends and family used to joke that I should join the circus, but I pursued the practice of law instead and learned that my hobbies benefit my profession in several important ways, says Morgan Eddy at Smith Currie.

  • Unpacking Texas' New Grid Reliability Rules For Data Centers

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    The Electric Reliability Council of Texas’ recently effective technical and compliance obligations, designed to prevent data centers and other large energy customers from causing cascading outages when they go offline, will challenge facilities to develop equipment and protocols to help protect the grid, says Casey Bell at Balch & Bingham.

  • Opinion

    Md. Court Got Ad Tax Similarity Analysis Wrong

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    Decisions striking Maryland’s digital advertising tax are fundamentally flawed because the Maryland Tax Court found similarity between digital ads and other ads without considering deep market distinctions, says Darien Shanske at UC Davis School of Law.

  • Opinion

    NC Litigation Funding Ban Sets Model For Other States

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    States worried about rising liability costs and the commercialization of their courts should treat North Carolina's recently enacted litigation funding ban as a model because a prohibition adequately addresses the distortion that disclosure only documents, say attorneys at McAngus Goudelock.

  • The Future Of DOL Judge Removal Challenges After Slaughter

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Trump v. Slaughter calls into question whether U.S. Department of Labor administrative law judges exercising significant governmental authority remain insulated from presidential removal, but the answer depends on the governing statute, its severability provisions and other factors, says Mark Ishu at Conn Maciel.

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