Public Policy

  • June 23, 2026

    USPTO Shortens Time Period When Delays Need Justification

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says delays of more than a year in filing certain documents tied to patents need to come with an explanation, shortening the period of time that had been two years.

  • June 23, 2026

    Customs Announces Second Phase Of Tariff Refund System

    The second phase of a system for importers to claim refunds for tariffs struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court will become available June 29 for certain entries that have been subject to the reconciliation process, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday.

  • June 23, 2026

    Judge Flags Flaws In Rule Capping Health Student Loans

    A D.C. federal judge appeared to agree with health worker organizations challenging new federal student loan caps that there were problems with how the U.S. Department of Education defined "professional degrees" in a recent rulemaking, but suggested that "taking over the job" of the department would be inappropriate.

  • June 23, 2026

    Colo. Justices Say Courts Can Order Condemnation Discovery

    The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that trial courts have discretion to order discovery before immediate possession hearings in condemnation proceedings, finding a lower court erred in concluding it lacked that authority.

  • June 23, 2026

    Judicial Noms Still Say Biden Won In 2020 — Technically

    A group of judicial nominees, who earlier this month were the first of the Trump administration's nominees to say President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, reiterated in follow-up statements that Biden won the election "as a matter of law" — doubling down on what critics say is an equivocation on the election's outcome.

  • June 23, 2026

    New Mexico Tribe Says Land Suit Targets Survey, Not Title

    A New Mexico tribe is fighting attempts to dismiss its bid to block the federal government from altering the boundaries of a Lincoln-era 34,700-acre land patent, telling the court that the defendants can't frame the litigation as a quiet title action.

  • June 23, 2026

    SSA Says Court Has No Jurisdiction Over FOIA Fee Dispute

    The Social Security Administration told the D.C. federal court that the Freedom of Information Act does not authorize the court to override the fee determinations the agency made when producing public records related to its involvement with technology company Palantir.

  • June 23, 2026

    Pa. Town Wants Out Of 'Forever' Sewer Deals With Neighbor

    A Pittsburgh-area township is suing a neighboring borough and sewer authority, asking a Pennsylvania state court to declare that the township has authority to update or terminate decades-old sewer service agreements that locked in rates that no longer reflect the cost of maintaining the system.

  • June 23, 2026

    BioNTech Accused Of Firing Nurse Over Drug Trial Concerns

    A former senior clinical trial manager at BioNTech US Inc. told a North Carolina federal court Monday that she was wrongfully fired after complaining to higher-ups about an "epidemic of safety issues and protocol deviations" in clinical trials.

  • June 23, 2026

    Green Groups Drop Pipeline Permit Appeal After Stay Is Refused

    Environmental groups' challenge to a discharge permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for work on a natural gas pipeline stretching across several Eastern states was voluntarily dismissed Monday at the Fourth Circuit.

  • June 23, 2026

    Feds Tout AI's Role In $6.5B Healthcare Fraud Crackdown

    Federal authorities said Tuesday that artificial intelligence and sophisticated data analysis helped them detect and prosecute healthcare fraud as part of a national crackdown that resulted in charges against 455 defendants.

  • June 23, 2026

    Judge Who Denied Goldstein Retrial Says It Wasn't Close Case

    A Maryland federal judge has elaborated on her decision to deny SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein's bid for an acquittal or new trial, saying that the evidence presented at trial either supersedes or invalidates his claims of issues with jury instructions and insufficient or excluded evidence.

  • June 23, 2026

    Telecom Biz Sees Robust Competition, Think Tank Says

    As the Federal Communications Commission evaluates competition in the telecom sector, a think tank urged the agency not to adopt regulatory policies that treat the market as unfairly skewed toward a few large players.

  • June 23, 2026

    NC Becomes First State To Ban Outside Funding Of Civil Suits

    North Carolina has become the first state in the country to ban outside investors from funding civil litigation, after Democratic Gov. Josh Stein signed into law a bill that outlaws third parties from footing the bill for civil suits in exchange for a cut of the payout at the finish line.

  • June 23, 2026

    DC Judge Pulls Plug On Feds' Voter Citizenship Database

    A D.C. federal judge blocked the Trump administration's expansion of a database that allows states to screen voters, saying it "haphazardly combined and repurposed" information on millions of Americans, including unreliable citizenship information, and violated multiple laws.

  • June 23, 2026

    NY Rule Rewrite Drops 30-Day Pause For Atty Soliciting

    New York's Appellate Division has adopted new rules of professional conduct on attorney advertising and solicitation, deleting a ban on soliciting clients less than 30 days after an incident.

  • June 23, 2026

    FCC Spectrum Auction Pulls In More Than $3.5B

    The Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday it had raised more than $3.5 billion in gross winning bids in its recent spectrum auction, the first sale of wireless licenses by the federal government in years.

  • June 23, 2026

    Several Democrats Challenge FCC Political Ad Guidance

    Democratic candidates and officeholders, including former Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Jon Ossoff, former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, have asked the Fourth Circuit to strike down Federal Communications Commission guidance they say unlawfully expands discounted political advertising rates to party committees and joint fundraising groups.

  • June 23, 2026

    New York Mask Ban For Federal Agents Sparks Dueling Lawsuits

    New York state and the U.S. Department of Justice have filed dueling lawsuits over the state's new laws banning federal law enforcement officers from wearing face masks and seeking to rein in immigration enforcement in the Empire State.

  • June 23, 2026

    US Bars Jordan Cos.' Imports Over Forced Labor Concerns

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday announced it would bar shipments of any garments produced by a pair of Jordanian companies due to indications that they are being produced with forced labor.

  • June 23, 2026

    US Blocks WTO Appellate Body Selection Process Again

    The World Trade Organization failed again to begin the process of selecting members to the appellate body designed to settle disputes over WTO decisions, marking the 98th time that the initiative has been blocked by U.S.-led efforts, according to a news release Tuesday.

  • June 23, 2026

    Ill. Feds Drop More Charges For Grand Jury 'Irregularities'

    A third federal prosecution has unraveled over "serious irregularities" in grand jury proceedings at Chicago's federal courthouse, with U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros personally moving Monday to permanently dismiss arson charges against four defendants after improper communications between a prosecutor and grand jurors came to light.

  • June 23, 2026

    UK Aims To Modernize Tax Framework For Distributions

    The United Kingdom is aiming to modernize its tax system on distributions, including by aligning the treatment of dividends from foreign companies with domestic companies, the government said Tuesday.

  • June 23, 2026

    EU Parliament Panels Advance Mexico Trade Agreement

    Two European Parliament committees signed off Tuesday on a reworked trade deal with Mexico that would remove nearly all tariffs on European agricultural goods imported into the country, setting up a full vote by Parliament.

  • June 23, 2026

    Texas, DOJ Get Judge To End Biden Immigration Rule In 1 Day

    A Texas federal court has approved a deal between Texas and the Trump administration to vacate a Biden-era rule allowing immigration courts to temporarily close cases, the same day Texas filed a lawsuit alleging the policy had created a "de facto amnesty program."

Expert Analysis

  • A Core Weakness In The Challenge To Birthright Citizenship

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    The government’s recent oral arguments against birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara would have the Supreme Court use modern immigration classifications as markers for a constitutional boundary that is not expressed in the Fourteenth Amendment, making the theory easier to administer but weaker as a matter of text and history, says attorney Tara Kennedy.

  • Bet On Prediction Market Regulation To Accelerate

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    Watershed developments concerning prediction markets — such as the first insider trading charges, major speeches from U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission leadership, and the introduction of rulemaking and legislation — dominated the first quarter of 2026, a trend that will likely continue throughout the rest of the year, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Opinion

    Financial Meltdown Fears Don't Warrant Private Credit Regs

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    Recent withdrawals from business development companies have resurfaced theories that private credit growth poses a crisis-level risk to the financial system, but arguments that more regulation is needed should be viewed with beady and careful eyes, says James Deeken at Akin.

  • New Risks Emerge As States Push Proxy Voting Legislation

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    Recent state proxy voting laws have increasingly emphasized financial returns while intensifying scrutiny of proxy advisory firms and stewardship practices, creating new compliance challenges and risks, according to attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Suit's Dismissal Would Not Settle Gold Card Visa's Legality

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    The government’s recent assertion that the plaintiffs in American Association of University Professors v. Department of Homeland Security lack standing to challenge the Trump administration’s pay-to-play immigration program does not address whether an agency can deem a million-dollar gift evidence of eligibility for immigration benefits carefully defined by Congress, says Jun Li at Reid & Wise.

  • Enviro Ruling And A New Law Signal Shift In La. Legacy Cases

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    Together, a Louisiana state court decision in WMH Farms v. Apache Corp. and an incoming statutory regime signal a sea change for legacy litigation in Louisiana, as courts make it harder to establish proof of contamination, and lawmakers narrow available remedies once contamination is proven, says Philip Wood at Jones Walker.

  • DOJ's Stance On Antitrust And Patent Law Reflects Balance

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    Recent statements of interest in patent litigation and a speech from a key U.S. Department of Justice official communicate the view that strong patent rights and competition policy are complementary, and offer important guidance for intellectual property practitioners and businesses navigating patent enforcement, standard‑setting and licensing, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Ruling Shows How Texas Law Altered Derivative Suit Outlook

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    In the first test of S.B. 29's new ownership threshold requirement for shareholder actions, a Texas federal court recently dismissed Gusinsky v. Reynolds, a derivative action brought by a minority Southwest Airlines shareholder, offering key guidance for navigating the new Texas corporate litigation landscape, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • 2 AI Snafus Show Why Attys Can't Outsource Judgment

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    The recent incident involving Sullivan & Cromwell where citations in a filed motion were fabricated by artificial intelligence, as well as a punitive ruling from the Sixth Circuit in U.S. v. Farris, demonstrate that the obligation to supervise AI has belonged and always will belong to lawyers, says John Powell at the Kentucky School Boards Association.

  • NY Opioid Antagonist Mandate Leaves Employers Guessing

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    A recently enacted New York law will require employers that are federally mandated to maintain first-aid supplies to now include an opioid antagonist, but being that it is subject to a complicated Occupational Safety and Health Administration analysis, employers face several unanswered compliance questions, say attorneys at Conn Maciel.

  • Opinion

    Congress Must Repair USPTO's Inter Partes Review Process

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    To challenge recent changes to the inter partes review process issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Congress must establish clear statutory guardrails, transparency and meaningful judicial review so that questionable patents receive proper scrutiny, say Sean Tu at the University of Alabama, Arti Rai at Duke University and Aaron Kesselheim at Harvard.

  • Calif. Case Raises Questions For Medical Practice Investors

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    The California attorney general's amicus brief in Art Center v. WCE and the California Medical Association's response highlight how the California appeals court's ruling could significantly affect the structure and enforceability of succession arrangements in medical practice ownership, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Previewing FDA Preapproval Access In Psychedelics EO

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    The second of two pathways for psychedelic drug access outlined in President Donald Trump's recent executive order constitutes an unprecedented expansion of the Right to Try Act, which could fundamentally alter the psychedelic access landscape while presenting significant regulatory, operational and legal challenges, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • How Data Center Accounting May Draw Enforcement Scrutiny

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    As public and media scrutiny of the data center industry intensifies, regulators, enforcement authorities and Congress will likely focus on accounting judgments that rely on aggressive assumptions, opaque financing structures or rapidly evolving collateral classes, heightening the risk of investigations and inquiries, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • NY's Growing Enviro Reg Framework Will Transform Projects

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    Three closely connected environmental rulemakings in New York state — concerning greenhouse gas reporting, remediation standards and amendments to the State Environmental Quality Review Act — have reached critical stages, and taken together, they will have major impacts on business operations, construction project timelines and transactional risk, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

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