Analysis

EPA Creates A Legal Haze With Emissions Plan Rejections

By Keith Goldberg

The Trump administration is advancing a novel constitutional argument in its efforts to keep fossil fuel-fired power plants open, which, if sustained in court, could pose new challenges for states trying to hold up their end of the Clean Air Act.

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Comey Indicted Again As Feds Call Seashell Message 'Threat'

By Phillip Bantz

Former FBI director James Comey was again indicted Tuesday by the Trump administration, this time over a social media post last year of an image of seashells arranged on a North Carolina beach to form the message "86 47," which prosecutors characterized as a threat of violence against the president.

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9th Circ. Finds Section 230 Blocks Meta Genocide Claims

By Mike Curley

The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed the dismissal of claims by two women who allege that Facebook's algorithms contributed to their villages being attacked as part of the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, saying that under circuit precedent, those claims are blocked by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

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2nd Circ. Splits With 5th, 8th On Migrant Bond Detention

By Britain Eakin

A unanimous Second Circuit panel on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration's argument that noncitizens who entered the U.S. unlawfully, regardless of their length of stay, aren't eligible for bond, diverging from the Fifth and Eighth circuits.

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5th Circ. Judge 'Hung Up' On FDA Vape Denial Reasoning

By José Luis Martínez

A Fifth Circuit judge on Tuesday pressed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on how it reviews applications from flavored vape manufacturers, asking why repeatedly denying applicants on similar grounds should not be treated as a rule requiring notice-and-comment.

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Feds Say 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' Halts Ballroom

By Lauren Berg

Using language reminiscent of President Donald Trump's social media posts, the U.S. Department of Justice asked a Washington, D.C., federal judge to dissolve his order halting construction of the White House ballroom, saying the historical preservation nonprofit that won the injunction suffers from "Trump Derangement Syndrome."

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Maurene Comey Can Sue DOJ Over Firing, Judge Rules

By Phillip Bantz

Former Manhattan federal prosecutor Maurene Comey can move forward with her lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump's administration fired her because she is the daughter of ex-FBI director and Trump's perceived enemy James B. Comey, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

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Judge Weighs Extent Of Kennedy Center Rebuild

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge appeared uninterested in having to "micromanage" the Kennedy Center's renovation projects from the bench, but also suggested that conflicting accounts of the actual scale of the proposed work at the performing arts center could pose a problem for the Trump administration's plans to close the facility for renovations.

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Pa. Justices Rule Voting Data Isn't Protected From Sharing

By Matthew Santoni

An electronic database showing the outcome of a Pennsylvania county's vote is a report generated by tabulating equipment, not the "contents" of a ballot box or voting machine protected from public disclosure, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

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Dems Say Calif. Redistricting Map Isn't Racial Gerrymandering

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The campaign arm of House Democrats has asked a California federal judge to toss a challenge to the state's new voter-backed congressional districts, saying state Republicans had failed to provide direct evidence that it benefits one race more.

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Pipeline Violations Trouble 4th Circ. As Gas Co. Fights Stay

By Abigail Harrison

A Fourth Circuit panel repeatedly pressed state enforcers and counsel for Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC during oral arguments Tuesday, questioning how language baked into water quality certifications would protect local streams and wetlands given the company's history of permit violations.

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FCC's Carr Orders ABC Station Probes Amid Kimmel Dispute

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission's staff ordered an early license review of Disney-owned ABC stations Tuesday, a controversial move made just days after President Donald Trump demanded the network fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

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Australia Wants Online Cos. To Pay News Media Or Be Taxed

By Kevin Pinner

Australia has opened a second consultation on a 2.25% digital services tax that would be imposed on large social media companies and search engines if they don't pay Australian news organizations to publish their work.

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Trans Pilot Says Influencer's Defamation Countersuit Is Barred

By Zach Dupont

A former Army National Guard pilot and transgender woman is seeking to dismiss a defamation counterclaim by a conservative social media influencer who accused the pilot of causing the deadly collision over the Potomac River that killed 67 people last year, according to a motion filed in Colorado federal court.

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CFTC Sues Wisconsin In Latest Prediction Market State Battle

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday added Wisconsin to the list of states it's taking to court to assert its "exclusive jurisdiction" over prediction markets after the state accused five platforms of offering illegal bets through their event contract offerings.

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Kalshi Hit With Refer-A-Friend Text Suit In Wash.

By Nadia Dreid

Kalshi has become the latest company to be hit with a lawsuit in Washington federal court over refer-a-friend texts that recipients say violate the state's Commercial Electronic Mail Act by encouraging texts to be sent to people who never consented to receive them.

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Judge Extends Ban On 'Vague' DOT, Other Grant Conditions

By Linda Chiem

A California federal judge on Tuesday reinforced an injunction barring the Trump administration from imposing "impermissibly vague" conditions requiring cities and counties to comply with immigration and diversity, equity and inclusion policies in order to receive federal transportation and other grants.

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Brief

Paramount Seeks FCC OK For Foreign Stakes In WBD Deal

By Nadia Dreid

Paramount has asked for the Federal Communications Commission's blessing for its $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery to be completely foreign-owned, even if it only expects actual foreign ownership to come in at just under 50%.

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4th Circ. Backs SC City's Win Over Short-Term Rentals Suit

By Isaac Monterose

The Fourth Circuit backed a South Carolina city's summary judgment win over a local property owner's suit challenging the city's short-term rentals regulations, ruling that the owner lacks standing to sue.

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Kansas Gov. Nixes Second Attempt At Property Tax Protests

By Jaqueline McCool

Kansas' governor vetoed a second bill that would have allowed taxpayers to petition the property tax increases of localities under certain conditions.

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Colo. Can't Deny Grants Based On Housing Laws, Suit Says

By Nate Beck

Two Colorado cities have sued Gov. Jared Polis in state court, claiming they were deprived of state grant money after being deemed noncompliant under an executive order last year requiring local governments to follow a set of 2024 laws aimed at easing housing affordability.

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Analysis

Attys Want To See Examples In New Mental Health Parity Rule

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Trump administration's plans to promulgate new regulations governing mental health parity requirements for employee health plans are currently causing headaches for attorneys, but a rule that includes specific examples could ultimately ease compliance burdens for benefit plan sponsors.

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Booz Allen Should Defeat Retaliation Suit, Judge Says

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge has recommended granting Booz Allen Hamilton's bid to toss a whistleblower suit from a Black former senior executive after finding that his suit failed to allege his bosses knew about his complaints of time fraud before he was fired two years ago.

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Kansas Expands Tax Credits For Employer Childcare Costs

By Zak Kostro

Kansas expanded tax credits for employers' expenses related to providing childcare for employees' children under a bill signed by the governor.

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AARP, Others Back Intel Workers In High Court 401(k) Fight

By Katryna Perera

AARP and other retirement and investor advocates are supporting former Intel employees who allege their employee 401(k) savings were dragged down by underperforming investments, telling the U.S. Supreme Court the Ninth Circuit erred in requiring the plaintiffs to identify a "meaningful benchmark" for comparison to their lagging funds.

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FTC Must Face Ticketers' Challenge To Its BOTS Act Case

By Bryan Koenig

A Maryland federal judge Tuesday refused to let the Federal Trade Commission end a constitutional challenge to one of its first online ticketing cases by rejecting the agency's attempts to invoke sovereign immunity.

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Google Says EU's Android Measures Undermine Privacy

By Matthew Perlman

European enforcers are calling on Google to give competing artificial intelligence services open access to key Android features and functions, but the tech giant said the changes are unnecessary and would undermine privacy and security protections.

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EU Flags Concerns Over Paper Joint Venture

By Matthew Perlman

European enforcers launched an in-depth investigation Tuesday into a planned joint venture between paper manufacturers UPM and Sappi over concerns about the market for magazine paper and several other products.

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Illinois Panel Limits BIPA Exemption For Gov't Contractors

By Lauraann Wood

The Biometric Information Privacy Act's government contractor exclusion is not a categorical exemption and applies only to violations that occur within the scope of a vendor's government-contracted work, an Illinois state appellate panel said Tuesday.

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Brief

Chinese Man Extradited From Italy Over COVID Data Theft

By Madeline Lyskawa

A Chinese citizen has appeared before a Houston federal court after being extradited from Italy to face charges for his alleged role in the Microsoft "HAFNIUM" cyberattack that was allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese government to target U.S. COVID-19 research.

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9th Circ. Says Constitution 'Not A NIMBY Charter' In Portland

By Tom Lotshaw

A split Ninth Circuit panel granted the Trump administration's request to stay orders two Oregon federal judges issued to rein in federal agents' use of tear gas and other crowd-control munitions around a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland.

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10th Circ. Says Colo. Suit Against Officer On Leave Fell Short

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado woman did not plausibly allege an Aurora policeman who attacked her had actual authority to use force or conduct arrests as a sworn officer on administrative leave, the Tenth Circuit held.

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Boston To Pay $850K In Settlement With 2020 Protesters

By Carolyn Muyskens

Attorneys representing four protesters said Tuesday that the city of Boston has agreed to pay $850,000 to settle claims that police officers used excessive force on demonstrators protesting the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

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Ex-Fauci Adviser Charged With Concealing COVID Records

By Danielle Ferguson

Federal prosecutors have charged a former adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci with deleting government emails and using his personal email account to dodge public records requests about the origins of the COVID-19 virus.

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DOJ Says Sen. Kelly Not Immune From Military Discipline

By Madeline Lyskawa

The Trump administration urged the D.C. Circuit to lift an injunction blocking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from reducing Sen. Mark Kelly's U.S. Navy rank, arguing there's no reason retired officers should be exempt from military discipline. 

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Over 11 Million Imports Entered For Tariff Refunds, CBP Says

By Dylan Moroses

Importers have successfully submitted more than 11.2 million entries to Customs and Border Protection's tariff refund system, and more than 1.7 million imports have been validated and are ready for refunds, a CBP official told the U.S. Court of International Trade on Tuesday.

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EU Parliament OKs Trade Rules With Immigration Measure

By Jack McLoone

The European Parliament approved updated qualification guidelines Tuesday for developing countries looking to take advantage of an instrument that allows them to import goods to the European Union with little to no tariffs, including a controversial immigration-related measure.

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Human Rights Groups Warn USTR On Punitive Tariffs

By Courtney Bublé

Human rights groups raised concerns Tuesday about forced labor in the supply chain but cautioned the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative against punitive tariffs.

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Brief

USTR Seeks Input On Modernizing African Trade Agreement

By Jack McLoone

The U.S. government is accepting comments related to plans to modernize a trade agreement between the U.S. and African countries, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Tuesday.

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Calif. Billionaire Tax Backers Say They Have 1.6M Signatures

By Maria Koklanaris

Supporters of a referendum that calls for a 5% tax to be levied once on the wealth of California billionaires said they are closer to getting their measure on the November ballot as they are ready to turn in nearly twice the number of required signatures.

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Korean Court Cancels $46.6M Of Netflix's Tax Bill, Report Says

By Kevin Pinner

Netflix on Tuesday secured the cancellation of 68.7 billion won ($46.6 million) in taxes imposed by the Korean government in a dispute over the characterization of payments to a Dutch subsidiary, in a partial victory at a Seoul court, according to a news report.

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Philly Courts, City Legal Depts. Pitch Council For Funding OK

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The president judge of Philadelphia's judiciary asked the City Council Tuesday for an increase in staff salaries for 800 nonunion employees to match those of unionized workers who recently secured a contract, urging council members to help the court system stave off wage compression.

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GEO Still Not Letting Inspectors Into ICE Facility, Wash. Says

By Rae Ann Varona

Washington state on Tuesday urged a federal judge to make The GEO Group let health officials inspect an immigration detention facility the private prison giant owns, saying GEO is "openly defying" a state law the Ninth Circuit allowed enforcement of.

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Brief

DHS Rule Ties Unpaid Asylum Fees To Denials, Removal

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday rolled out new rules for immigration filing fees and consequences for failure to pay them that include automatic denial of pending asylum cases, loss of work permits and potential removal.

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Ex-Rep.'s Anti-Maduro Stance Was 'Facade,' Jury Hears

By Carolina Bolado

Former U.S. Rep. David Rivera's public opposition to the regime of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was just a "facade" as he secretly worked on behalf of the government under a $50 million contract with a unit of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, federal prosecutors told jurors on Tuesday.

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Nadine Menendez Says Feds Need To 'Look Into The Mirror'

By George Woolston

Nadine Menendez dug into her bid for bail while she appeals her conviction on a bribery scheme carried out with her ex-politician husband, telling a New York federal court that prosecutors refuse to own up to their handling of the "forced withdrawal" of her counsel.

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Choctaw Freedmen Band Seeks Federal Tribal Recognition

By Crystal Owens

Descendants of those once enslaved by the Choctaw Nation are asking for federal recognition, arguing that constitutional and international law, and an 1866 treaty between the U.S. and the Five Civilized Tribes that abolished slavery post-Civil War give them the right to the status.

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9th Circ. Asked To Pause Idaho Tribal Land Swap Ruling

By Crystal Owens

J.R. Simplot Co. is asking the Ninth Circuit to stay pending U.S. Supreme Court review of its decision to invalidate an Idaho land transfer by the U.S. Department of the Interior that would have allowed it to expand its phosphogypsum plant near tribal lands, saying the issue has already caused "robust debate" in the appellate court.

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FCC Floats 'Know Your Customer' Regs Against Robocalls

By Christopher Cole

The Federal Communications Commission will vote next month on a plan to require telecoms that originate voice traffic to follow "know your customer" standards before allowing robocall campaigns on their networks.

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Fla. Utility Says NextNav's GPS Backup Would Be Disastrous

By Nadia Dreid

Florida Power & Light Co. is not a fan of geolocation service provider NextNav's plan to use a chunk of the lower 900 megahertz band to launch a spectrum-based alternative to GPS, meeting with Federal Communications Commission officials to warn of its "strong opposition."

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Deutsche Telekom Says $156M India Award Should Be OK'd

By Joyce Hanson

Deutsche Telekom AG has asked a D.C. federal judge to enforce a nearly $156 million arbitral award it won against India in a dispute over a scrapped satellite lease and telecommunications deal, opposing the country's arguments in favor of vacatur.

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Anti-Pot Group Says CMS Violated APA With Hemp Program

By Mike Curley

A group of advocates opposed to legal cannabis, as well as a cannabinoid company and two individuals, are fighting the government's bid to halt their challenge to a program to give Medicare beneficiaries access to federally legal hemp products, saying the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services violated federal law by instituting the program without notice or comment.

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Smoke Shop Blames Vape Co. For Raids And Frozen $5M

By Jonathan Capriel

Two Texas smoke shop owners claim they suffered police raids, arrests and nearly $5 million of their business funds being frozen, all because one of their vape suppliers, Delta Munchies LLC, sold them products containing illicit levels of THC despite marketing them as legal hemp, according to a lawsuit filed in Texas state court.

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PFAS OUT Cannot Replace Broad Drinking Water Protections

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's PFAS OUT initiative may help water systems deal with two specific per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances before federal compliance deadlines arrive, but it is no substitute for broader protections the EPA is withdrawing — and in PFAS litigation, that distinction could be important, says David Meldofsky at Lawsuit Informer.

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Opinion

Proposed Pro Codes Act Raises Constitutional Concerns

If passed, the Pro Codes Act being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives would fundamentally alter how technical standards are treated under U.S. law, and potentially conflict with the Fifth Amendment's takings clause, says Paul Taylor at George Mason University.

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8 Reasons To Consider Maryland As A 'DExit' Option

While Nevada and Texas have garnered the most attention as alternative states of incorporation for companies considering leaving Delaware, Maryland offers considerable benefits too, including a predictable statutory framework, robust anti-takeover protections, sophisticated business courts with decades of experience, and more, say attorneys at Miles & Stockbridge.

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Mapping Philly US Atty's White Collar Enforcement Push

Attorneys at Blank Rome discuss the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania David Metcalf’s commitments and priorities, survey early results from his first year, and suggest practical action items for companies operating under the office's jurisdiction.

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Opinion

Exxon's Retail Voting Program Is A Trap For Retail Investors

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved Exxon Mobil's first-of-its-kind proxy voting program last September, but ahead of the company's annual shareholder meeting next month, it's clear that retail shareholders have delegated their voice to the entity their vote exists to check, says Christina Sautter at Southern Methodist University.

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GrayRobinson Sued Over 'Reckless' Data Security Measures

By Adrian Cruz

GrayRobinson PA has been hit with a proposed class action accusing the Florida-based firm of negligence following the revelation of a March 2025 data breach that exposed the personal data of around 65,000 people.

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Judge Publicly Scolds 'Disgraced' Ex-Prosecutor For AI Errors

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina federal judge has eviscerated a former federal prosecutor in a public reprimand for his use of artificial intelligence to draft a response brief that was riddled with hallucinations, calling out the prosecutor's "lack of candor" and saying he "disgraced not only himself, but also the entire office he formerly served."

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ADT Blasts 'Speculative' Bid To DQ Ogletree From Bias Case

By Gina Kim

ADT LLC urged a Georgia federal judge on Monday to reject an attorney's motion to disqualify Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC from defending it against discrimination claims while concurrently defending Microsoft Corp. in the attorney's own pregnancy bias suit, arguing the two matters are wholly separate and unrelated so there's no conflict. 

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Brief

Teleflex Settles Catheter Patent Case Against Medtronic

By Elliot Weld

Medical device company Teleflex and Medtronic have reached a settlement to end a catheter patent dispute from which a judge recused himself after explaining he was "at a loss" on how to proceed.

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