Public Policy

  • May 16, 2025

    Oakland Cops Denied Immunity In Deadly High-Speed Chase

    The Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that two Oakland police officers violated the rights of innocent bystanders and are not entitled to qualified immunity following a high-speed pursuit that left one person dead and several others injured.

  • May 16, 2025

    FCC Aims To Push China Out Of Telecom Certification Process

    The Federal Communications Commission has announced its plan to ban Chinese test labs and telecommunications certification bodies from being used on devices destined for the United States, and industry stakeholders have opinions on whether they think that's a good idea.

  • May 16, 2025

    Trump Calls On Justices To Stay Block Of Gov't Restructuring

    President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to pause a California federal judge's order temporarily halting agencies from implementing an executive order to plan reorganizations and reductions in force, claiming the lower court's decision has caused confusion and wasted taxpayer dollars.

  • May 16, 2025

    Live Nation Denies Colluding Over Pandemic Response

    Live Nation denied any wrongdoing while appearing to acknowledge a U.S. Department of Justice criminal probe into potential collusion with fellow ticketing and entertainment company Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc. in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • May 16, 2025

    11th Circ. Troubled By Feds' Reversal On ALJ Removal Law

    Eleventh Circuit arguments on whether Walmart Inc. must face an administrative law judge over alleged immigration recordkeeping violations were derailed Friday by the court's concerns about the Trump administration's decision to no longer defend the statute protecting such judges from removal by the executive branch.

  • May 16, 2025

    DC Circ. Probes Agency Power In Labor Firings Appeal

    A D.C. Circuit panel grappled Friday with the extent of the president's power to fire federal officials with the U.S. Supreme Court's views in flux, with two judges straining to pin the government's attorney down on what divides agencies Congress can insulate and those it can't.

  • May 16, 2025

    Mich. Judge Gives Final OK To $55M Pandemic Aid Deal

    A Michigan state judge has granted final approval to a $55 million settlement between the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency and people who allege their benefits were improperly clawed back without notice during the pandemic.

  • May 16, 2025

    DHS Illegally Freezing Counterterrorism Funds, Chicago Says

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has unconstitutionally frozen funding from a federal program intended to aid counterterrorism efforts by refusing preapproved reimbursement claims, the city of Chicago said Friday in a federal suit looking to force repayment.

  • May 16, 2025

    Despite US-China Tariff Pause, Business Pressures Persist

    U.S. importers dodged an effective ban on Chinese imports for now following the U.S. and China suspending higher tariff rates, but companies still foresee higher prices and supply-chain disruptions that will continue to stoke economic anxiety.

  • May 16, 2025

    Pot Farm Can't Challenge Colo. Regulators' Alleged Inaction

    A Colorado state judge has dismissed a cannabis farm's suit alleging that state regulators haven't sufficiently cracked down on illegal operators, saying the farm isn't challenging a final agency action that is subject to judicial review.

  • May 16, 2025

    Ala. Medical Pot Co. Claims Regulator Retaliation Over Suits

    A prospective Alabama medical cannabis business has filed a federal lawsuit against state medical marijuana regulators, alleging that officials violated the company's First Amendment rights by refusing to award it a license after it raised the alarm about irregularities and delays.

  • May 16, 2025

    Feds Say Con Man Galanis Can't Recoup $2M Despite Clemency

    Prosecutors have asked a New York federal judge to deny a request from convicted fraudster Jason Galanis to recoup $2.17 million he paid in criminal fines, after his nearly 16-year prison sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump.

  • May 16, 2025

    Appellate Ruling Merits New Shot At Sales Regs, Distiller Says

    A New York distillery and two Washington whiskey drinkers are asking a federal judge to reconsider the Washington state liquor board's win in a challenge to rules requiring a physical in-state presence to sell online, saying they never got to analyze the circuit ruling on which the decision was based.

  • May 16, 2025

    Refocus Global Tax Policy On Bilateral Treaties, Attys Say

    Global tax policymakers at the OECD and United Nations should return to their original focus of advancing bilateral tax treaties among the countries they cater toward, attorneys said Friday.

  • May 16, 2025

    NJ, DuPont To Face Off In Landmark PFAS Trial Series

    New Jersey and chemical manufacturing giant E.I. DuPont de Nemours will square off Monday over the contamination at a former Salem County manufacturing facility in a first-of-a-kind series of trials that environmental attorneys expect will impact "forever chemicals" litigation across the country.

  • May 16, 2025

    Holland & Hart Hires DOJ Environmental Appellate Chief In DC

    Holland & Hart LLP has added the former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's Environmental and Natural Resources Division, who joins the firm's Washington, D.C., office alongside her longtime DOJ colleague.

  • May 16, 2025

    Justices Keep Pause On Some Venezuelan Removals

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday reasserted that the Trump administration cannot remove from the country alleged Venezuelan gang members who are currently detained in northern Texas under the Alien Enemies Act while they challenge the president's invocation of the 1798 wartime law.

  • May 16, 2025

    Nadine Menendez Gets 3-Month Delay Of Bribery Sentencing

    A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday granted Nadine Menendez's bid for a three-month delay of her sentencing on bribery charges, but he said he would not postpone it any further.

  • May 16, 2025

    DC Circ. Says Vt. Didn't Waive Hydro Dam Review Authority

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday nixed a Vermont village's lawsuit claiming the state waived its role in the federal relicensing of the village's hydroelectric project, saying it was the village's own actions that caused the state to miss a statutory deadline to act.

  • May 16, 2025

    5th Circ. Reverses Intervention Denial For Border Wall Cos.

    A Texas federal judge erred when he refused to let several government contractors and the Sierra Club intervene in a lawsuit that blocked the use of border wall funding for anything other than new barrier construction, the Fifth Circuit ruled Thursday.

  • May 16, 2025

    23 States Win Order Halting Billions In HHS Public Health Cuts

    A Rhode Island federal judge on Friday barred the Trump administration from cutting off billions of dollars in funding to state public health programs, determining the abrupt grant terminations likely violated congressional authority over spending.

  • May 16, 2025

    Judge Blocks Energy Department's Cap On Research Costs

    A Boston federal judge blocked a U.S. Department of Energy policy capping research costs, saying the suit was "far from identical" to another case in which the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to education grant cuts.

  • May 16, 2025

    EEOC's Take On Trans Rights Conflicts With Law, Judge Says

    The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission exceeded its authority when it laid out its worker-friendly take on the U.S. Supreme Court's Bostock opinion, a Texas federal judge found, striking down parts of agency anti-harassment guidance that interpreted the landmark ruling's implications for gay and transgender workers.

  • May 16, 2025

    DC Circ. Orders Closer Look At FTC's $5B Meta Privacy Deal

    A D.C. Circuit panel ordered a lower court on Friday to take another look at the Federal Trade Commission's bid to modify a $5 billion privacy deal with Meta after the court found it lacked jurisdiction to review the changes the first time around.

  • May 16, 2025

    Ex-Labor Secretary Tom Perez Joins Mayer Brown In DC

    Tom Perez, a former secretary of labor and assistant U.S. attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division under President Barack Obama, has joined Mayer Brown LLP's public policy, regulatory and government affairs practice in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Friday.

Expert Analysis

  • Foreign Countries Have Strong Foundation To Fill FCPA Void

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    Though the U.S. has paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, liberal democracies across the globe are well equipped to reverse any setback in anti-corruption enforcement, potentially heightening prosecution risk for companies headquartered in the U.S., says Stephen Kohn at Kohn Kohn.

  • How Attys Can Use A Therapy Model To Help Triggered Clients

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    Attorneys can lean on key principles from a psychotherapeutic paradigm known as the "Internal Family Systems" model to help manage triggered clients and get settlement negotiations back on track, says Jennifer Gibbs at Zelle.

  • A Tale Of Two Admins: Parsing 1st Half Of SEC's FY 2025

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    The first half of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's fiscal year 2025, which ended March 31, was unusually eventful, marked by a flurry of enforcement actions in the last three months of former Chair Gary Gensler's tenure and a prompt pivot after Inauguration Day, say attorneys at Jones Day.

  • A Closer Look At Amendments To Virginia Noncompete Ban

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    Recently passed amendments in Virignia will prohibit noncompetes for all employees who are eligible for overtime pay under federal law, and though the changes could simplify employers’ analyses as to restrictive covenant enforceability, it may require them to reassess and potentially adjust their use of noncompetes with some workers, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • What Bank Regulator Consolidation Would Mean For Industry

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    Speculation over the Trump administration’s potential plans to consolidate financial service regulators is intensifying uncertainty, but no matter the outcome for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the industry should expect continued policy changes, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • Getting Ahead Of The SEC's Continued Focus On Cyber, AI

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is showing it will continue to scrutinize actions involving cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, but there are proactive measures that companies and financial institutions can take to avoid regulatory scrutiny going forward, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Navigating Florida's Bad Faith Reforms After Appellate Ruling

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    A Florida appellate court's recent decision is among the first to interpret two significant amendments to the state's insurance bad faith law, and its holding that one of the statutes could not apply retroactively may affect insurers' interpretation of the other statute, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 3 Steps For In-House Counsel To Assess Litigation Claims

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    Before a potential economic downturn, in-house attorneys should investigate whether their company is sitting on hidden litigation claims that could unlock large recoveries to help the business withstand tough times, says Will Burgess at Hilgers Graben.

  • IRS And ICE Info Sharing Could Drive Payroll Tax Enforcement

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    Tax crimes are historically difficult to prosecute, but the Internal Revenue Services’ recent agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to share taxpayer records of non-U.S. citizens could be used to enhance payroll tax-related enforcement against their employers, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Breaking Down Ill. Bellwether Case For Bank Preemption

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    The banking industry's pending lawsuit against the state of Illinois stands to permanently enjoin state regulation of bank card processing, as well as clarify the outstanding and consequential issue of whether conflict preemption continues to cover third parties in certain circumstances, says Tom Witherspoon at Stinson.

  • Despite SEC Climate Pause, Cos. Must Still Heed State Regs

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    While businesses may have been given a reprieve from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's rules aimed at standardizing climate-related disclosures, they must still track evolving requirements in states including California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York that will soon require reporting of direct and indirect carbon emissions, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • A Primer On The Trading And Clearing Of Perpetual Contracts

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently released a request for comment on the trading and clearing of perpetual-style derivatives, most common in the cryptocurrency market, necessitating a deep look at how these contracts operate and their associated risks, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Teaching College Students Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Serving as an adjunct college professor has taught me the importance of building rapport, communicating effectively, and persuading individuals to critically analyze the difference between what they think and what they know — principles that have helped to improve my practice of law, says Sheria Clarke at Nelson Mullins.

  • 5 Areas Contractors Should Watch After 1st 100 Days

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    Federal agencies and contractors face challenges from staff reductions, contract terminations, pending regulatory reform and other actions from the second Trump administration's first 100 days, but other areas stand to become more efficient and cost-effective, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Planning For Open Banking Despite CFPB Uncertainty

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    Though pending litigation or new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau leadership may reshape the Biden-era regulation governing access to consumer financial data, companies can use this uncertain period to take practical steps toward an open banking strategy that will work regardless of the rule’s ultimate form, says Adam Maarec at McGlinchey Stafford.

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