Analysis

Can State Courts Tame The 'Wild West' Of Judicial Security?

By Cara Bayles

As threats against local judges continue to ramp up, protection and incident tracking varies not only from state to state but county to county, making it difficult to draw the national judicial security landscape. Now, lawmakers are looking to use federal resources to even out disparities.

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8th Circ. Lifts Block On Iowa Law Restricting Gender Lessons

By Grace Elletson

The Eighth Circuit reversed an order Monday that blocked an Iowa law preventing educators from teaching K-6 students about gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom, ruling the lower court's concerns about free speech restrictions rested on a "flawed analysis" of the statute's text.

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Justices To Mull Courts' Authority To Hear Vets' Benefits Suits

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review a U.S. Army veteran's suit challenging the limit on disability benefits available to him as someone convicted of a felony and sentenced to a lengthy prison term, after the Eleventh Circuit dismissed his claims.

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Justices Clear Path For DOJ To Dismiss Bannon's Conviction

By Cara Salvatore

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated an appeals court's order upholding Steve Bannon's conviction over his nonresponse to a congressional subpoena investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, clearing the way for the Justice Department to dismiss his indictment.

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Trump Orders Could Chill US Arbitration, Group Warns

By Caroline Simson

The College of Commercial Arbitrators has urged the D.C. Circuit to reject the Trump administration's consolidated D.C. Circuit appeal seeking to revive executive orders yanking the security clearances of four BigLaw firms, arguing a contrary ruling would "imperil" arbitration in the U.S.

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LSC Seeks $2.14B As White House Pushes To Slash Funding

By Marco Poggio

The Legal Services Corp. is asking Congress for $2.14 billion in fiscal year 2027 to fund civil legal services for low-income Americans who cannot afford an attorney.

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3rd Circ. Backs Kalshi In Prediction Markets Battle With NJ

By George Woolston

A split Third Circuit panel on Monday backed a lower court's order blocking New Jersey from enforcing a sports gambling ban on trading platform KalshiEx, with the dissenting judge calling Kalshi's actions a "performative sleight" meant to hide that its products are sports gambling.

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Canvassing Claims Are Moot After Definition Is Nixed, Fla. Says

By Jonathan Capriel

Florida state officials are asking a federal judge to trim a lawsuit seeking to upend a state law imposing residency and citizenship restrictions on paid canvassers affiliated with some sponsors and supporters of ballot initiatives, saying the underlying law has been changed.

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Trump Admin Seeks $25M FinCEN Budget Boost

By Sarah Jarvis

The Trump administration's latest budget plan calls for a more than 13% increase in spending for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, with nearly half of its total requested staffing increase for the agency slated for positions focused on deregulation related to the Bank Secrecy Act.

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JPMorgan's Dimon Has 'Mixed' Feelings On Capital Revamp

By Jon Hill

The head of the nation's largest bank on Monday raised doubts about the Trump administration's plan to overhaul bank capital rules, casting it as an improvement on a Biden-era draft while saying it still includes some "frankly nonsensical" aspects.

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BNY, Robinhood To Help Roll Out Trump Accounts

By Anna Scott Farrell

The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. will be the federal government's financial agent in helping implement the new tax-advantaged brokerage accounts for children called Trump accounts, the U.S. Treasury Department said Monday.

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Crypto Lobby Pushes Back On Call For Rules, Not Exemptions

By Aislinn Keely

The Blockchain Association on Monday urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to stay the course on its plans to issue exemptions for crypto projects, firing back at Citadel Securities' assertions that decentralized projects should broadly face the same obligations as traditional SEC-regulated intermediaries.

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Ill. AG Urges 7th Circ. To Uphold Landmark Swipe-Fee Law

By Jon Hill

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has urged the Seventh Circuit to rule that his state may fully enforce its Interchange Fee Prohibition Act against national banks and other financial institutions, defending its ban on tax-and-tip swipe fees amid a banking industry appeal.

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Interior Dept. Will Reunite Offshore Permitting, Safety Arms

By Keith Goldberg

The U.S. Department of the Interior plans to reunite its offshore energy permitting and offshore energy safety agencies, 15 years after they were split apart in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

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FERC Unlawfully Revived Pipeline Project, DC Circ. Told

By Keith Goldberg

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission flouted the Natural Gas Act and National Environmental Policy Act when it reauthorized a previously abandoned pipeline upgrade project in the Northeast, environmental and homeowner groups have told the D.C. Circuit.

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RFK Jr. Tweaks HHS Vaccine Policy Panel Membership Criteria

By Lauren Berg

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making changes to a key federal vaccine advisory panel's charter, according to a renewal notice the agency published Monday, after a Massachusetts federal judge last month declared Kennedy's committee picks "appear distinctly unqualified."

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Feds Seek To Enforce Trans Healthcare Orders During Appeal

By Patrick Hoff

The Trump administration has asked the Fourth Circuit to let it enforce executive orders that ban federal funding for gender-affirming care for patients under age 19 while its appeal of a nationwide injunction is pending, arguing it's likely to succeed in its bid to overturn the trial court's order.

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Justices Vacate Grande ISP Case After Cox Copyright Ruling

By Ivan Moreno

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday directed the Fifth Circuit to reconsider a copyright verdict against Grande Communications Networks, vacating the lower court's ruling and sending the case back for further review following the justices' decision last month sparing another internet service provider from liability for its customers' music piracy.

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High Court Passes On Challenge To Illinois Transit Gun Ban

By Elizabeth Daley

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied plaintiffs' request to consider whether they had the right to bear arms on public Illinois transit, leaving a Seventh Circuit decision denying them this right intact.

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Public Had Right To Access Fla. Beach, Police Chief Testifies

By David Minsky

A police chief testified in Florida federal court on Monday there was a "strong argument" that the public could use a beach for recreational purposes in a landowner's lawsuit over access rights, telling a judge that he sought legal advice on whether his department can enforce trespassing complaints.

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Denver Property Managers Sued Over Eviction Fee Collection

By Zach Dupont

Two property management companies are using eviction proceedings to siphon illegal attorney fees and costs from former tenants according to two proposed class actions filed in Colorado state court Friday.

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States, AEG Say Live Nation Sanctions Bid Is Nonsense

By Stewart Bishop

A coalition of state-level enforcers and AEG Worldwide on Monday separately pushed back against accusations of witness tampering from Live Nation Entertainment Inc. amid a trial accusing the live entertainment giant and its Ticketmaster subsidiary of anticompetitive conduct, saying the defense allegations of undue influence are false.

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Apple Gets App Store Ruling Paused For High Court Appeal

By Dorothy Atkins

The Ninth Circuit granted Apple's request Monday to pause a panel decision in Epic Games Inc.'s favor while it petitions the U.S. Supreme Court to review the ruling, which largely affirmed an injunction barring Apple from charging developers "prohibitive" commissions on certain iPhone app purchases made outside its payment systems.

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RealPage Flags Justices' Therapy Ruling In NY Law Challenge

By Grace Dixon

RealPage Inc. alerted a New York federal court to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling against Colorado's conversion therapy ban, saying the decision clarifies which standard should be applied in its First Amendment challenge to a state ban on certain rental software.

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Fertilizer-Makers Face More Price-Fixing Accusations

By Lauraann Wood

The nation's leading fertilizer producers have been hit with more federal antitrust claims targeting an allegedly "secret" conspiracy to inflate prices for their nitrogen, phosphate and potassium products.

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Nude Security Cam Appeal Befuddles Mass. High Court

By Julie Manganis

Justices of Massachusetts' highest court seemed inclined Monday to uphold a Martha's Vineyard resident's conviction for secretly recording a sexual encounter on a home security camera, but questioned whether sending a still image to only the victim could support a second conviction for "dissemination."  

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Colo. Gun Group Says Semi-Auto Gun Law Challenge Is Ripe

By Rachel Konieczny

Colorado's official branch of the National Rifle Association asked a Colorado federal judge to find it and individual gun owners have standing and that their Second Amendment challenge to the state's semiautomatic firearm licensing law is ripe for review.

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Research Group Seeks To Block Fed's Divestment Efforts

By Rachel Konieczny

Federal actions threaten the National Center for Atmospheric Research's ability to forecast and prepare for weather disasters, a nonprofit research consortium said, urging a Colorado federal judge to block federal agencies and their leadership from taking further steps to dismantle the center.

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Germany, Italy Ask EU For Windfall Tax On Energy Companies

By Kevin Pinner

Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria and Portugal have asked the European Union to create a windfall profits tax on energy companies so governments can finance relief for spiking oil prices fueled by the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran, the EU and three finance ministries told Law360 on Monday.

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Wash. Activist Seeks To Force Vote On 'Millionaire Tax'

By Ben Adlin

A conservative activist urged Washington's highest court to allow voters to weigh in on a newly enacted state income tax on earnings above $1 million, seeking to challenge the secretary of state's position that the new tax isn't eligible to be overturned through a citizen referendum.

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DOJ Rips Challenge To Anti-DEI Rule For Child Safety Grants

By Gina Kim

The federal government has moved to end San Diego and San Jose's challenge to Internet Crimes Against Children grants requiring recipients to certify they don't operate DEI programs that violate nondiscrimination laws, arguing they aren't required to sign onto the Trump administration's viewpoints on DEI, only to follow existing federal laws. 

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Feds Still Not Reimbursing Shelter Program Costs, Court Told

By Ganesh Setty

Chicago and other municipalities again urged an Illinois federal court to enforce its preliminary injunction stopping the federal government from freezing and withholding funding for a U.S. Department of Homeland Security shelter program, saying they're still awaiting reimbursement for certain costs incurred before the government's grant terminations.

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Top Court Paves Way To Wipe Out Pol's Bribery Conviction

By Cara Salvatore

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated an appeals court's decision to uphold the conviction of a pardoned former Cincinnati council member for bribery and attempted extortion, effectively greenlighting federal prosecutors' motion to toss the case.

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Justices Pass On Oklahoma Tribal Tax Case

By Maria Koklanaris and Paul Williams

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to review an Oklahoma high court ruling that denied tax-exempt status to a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation.

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Ute Tribe To Appeal Split-Estate Lands Ruling To 10th Circ.

By Crystal Owens

The Ute Indian Tribe says it will appeal a Utah federal court's determination that split estate lands within the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation are not Indian Country, by arguing the same issue the Tenth Circuit resolved in its favor more than four decades ago.

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Prison Phone Co. Given More Time On Video Call Rate Cap

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission exempted a prison phone service provider for now from a per-minute cap on video call rates under the Martha Wright-Reed Act.

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SpaceX Seeks C-Band Airwaves For Next-Gen Satellite

By Christopher Cole

SpaceX called on the Federal Communications Commission to make sure an upcoming auction of airwaves in the upper C-band allows next-generation satellite services to flourish alongside terrestrial wireless.

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Ayahuasca Church Urges Judge To Halt DEA Enforcement

By Jonathan Capriel

A Florida church that has used a federally prohibited psychedelic as part of its rites is asking a federal court to block raids on it after filing suit against the government in February over claims that law enforcement ransacked its Orlando-area sanctuary and detained its members in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

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Senior DOJ, White House Nat'l Security Pro Joins Covington

By Tracey Read

Covington & Burling LLP has hired the former chief of the Foreign Investment Review Section in the U.S. Department of Justice's National Security Division as a partner in the firm's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States practice.

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How SEC And CFTC Are Attempting To End Their 'Turf War'

Through coordinated examinations and a shared aim to end duplicative regulation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent memorandum of understanding could represent a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for market participants subject to the jurisdiction of both agencies, say attorneys at Jenner.

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FTC Focus: Growing Emphasis On Competition In AI

The Federal Trade Commission's leadership has continued to highlight that competitive risks in artificial intelligence markets may arise at multiple levels simultaneously, considering not only who controls the resources necessary to build AI systems, but also how those systems function and yield outputs, say attorneys at Proskauer.

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PTAB Memo Recenters Discretion On US Manufacturing

Read alongside recent Federal Circuit decisions, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires' memo on patent denial considerations emphasizes domestic manufacturing in a way that the International Trade Commission does not require, says Brandon Theiss at Volpe Koenig.

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Regulators' Basel Pitch May Bring Banks Capital Relief

The prudential banking agencies' new proposals to implement the so-called Basel III endgame rules — which would modify the approach to risk-based capital, among other notable changes — represent a fundamental directional shift in bank capital requirements aimed at increasing lending capacity, says Chen Xu at Debevoise.

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Why MDLs Slow Down — And How To Speed Them Up

Multidistrict litigation has become central to mass tort practice, but as MDLs grow in size and complexity, so do delays and costs — so tools like the new federal rule governing MDLs, targeted use of special masters and strategically deployed Lone Pine orders are more essential than ever, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

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What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

My audit of 1,522 court documents from last month found that over 95% contained at least one verifiable error, with fewer than 1% showing clear indicators of artificial intelligence use — highlighting above all else that lawyers may want to focus most on strengthening their review processes, says Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich.

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Pregnant DLA Piper Atty Recounts Firing: 'This Feels Wrong'

By Pete Brush

A former associate who claims DLA Piper unlawfully fired her after she announced she was pregnant told a Manhattan federal jury Tuesday that she got positive feedback as she worked with large corporate clients and was "shocked" when she was terminated.

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Blanche Says Only Trump Knows Why Bondi's Leaving DOJ

By Courtney Bublé

Todd Blanche said on Tuesday he is now acting attorney general and no one, beyond the president, knows why Pam Bondi is out and he is in.

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Calif. Lawmakers Advance Bill To Curtail PE Role In Litigation

By Emily Sawicki

A California bill to ban corporate investors from influencing litigation strategy is heading to the state Senate, backed by bipartisan support from the Assembly.

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Top DOJ Immigration Atty Faces Ethics Complaint

By Jack Karp

The head of the U.S. Department of Justice's immigration litigation office has lied to judges, disobeyed court orders and failed to stop attorneys he supervises from engaging in misconduct in high-profile immigration cases, according to an ethics complaint filed Tuesday.

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Analysis

Habeas Orders Sharpen As Due Process Concerns Mount

By Britain Eakin

Federal judges are issuing increasingly detailed, critical and decisive orders for habeas relief in immigration cases, stepping in as what immigration experts say is a last resort check on a system viewed as having crumbling due process safeguards.

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DOJ Pushes To End Former Immigration Judge's Bias Suit

By Jake Maher

The U.S. Department of Justice moved to dismiss a former Ohio immigration judge's discrimination suit in D.C. federal court this week, calling the complaint "heavy on conclusory statements and speculation and light on allegations of fact."

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Calif. Atty Apologizes, Blames OpenCase For False Citations

By Matt Perez

A California attorney has filed a response to an order for potential sanctions over his alleged use of artificial intelligence, which resulted in false citations, saying the hallucinations appeared in a later draft after using OpenCase to perform a cite check.

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Audio

Approach The Bench: Judge Robinson On Community Court

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

Judge Devin Robinson's courtroom at the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn looks and feels very different from the courthouse archetype.

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States, DC Back NY AG James In DOJ Probe Appeal

By Emily Sawicki

Backed by amici including the attorneys general of 20 states and the District of Columbia, New York Attorney General Letitia James is fighting the U.S. Department of Justice's bid to reopen an investigation into her office launched by a federal prosecutor found to have been serving unlawfully.

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