Analysis

Justices Cast Constitutional Clouds Over Trump's Tariffs

By Dylan Moroses

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of the government's arguments seeking to salvage President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs, signaling that the high court may come down with a ruling that reinforces Congress' constitutional authority to impose tariffs.

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Analysis

Trump's H-1B Moves Have Tech Cos. Making Backup Plans

By Britain Eakin

U.S. tech companies are scrambling to respond to President Donald Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee and weighted lottery proposal, with some weighing alternative visa options, scaling back their use of the program or shifting work abroad.

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Analysis

New Govs. Will Keep Heat On Grid Operator Over Power Costs

By Keith Goldberg

The nation's largest regional grid operator, which has come under fire for limiting state involvement in its policymaking, will continue to face pressure following the election victories of New Jersey and Virginia governors who campaigned on lowering utility bills.

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Roundup

Up Next At High Court: Religious Rights & Gov't Contracts

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will return Monday for a short week of arguments, in which the justices will consider whether state and local government officials can be held personally liable for alleged religious rights violations, and whether government contractors are entitled to immediately appeal denials of derivative sovereign immunity.

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Shutdown, Funding Crisis Leave Federal Defenders Unpaid

By Courtney Bublé

The record-long government shutdown has hindered an already dire funding situation for the federal defense community, but now the judiciary is working on requests to Congress to alleviate that.

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Supreme Court Temporarily Pauses Full SNAP Payments

By Rae Ann Varona and Rachel Riley

The U.S. Supreme Court Friday evening temporarily paused a Rhode Island federal judge's orders compelling the Trump administration to fully fund November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and transfer roughly $4 billion by the end of the day, hours after the First Circuit denied the administration's emergency request.

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DOJ Backs Trump In NY False-Records Conviction Appeal

By Emily Sawicki

The U.S. Department of Justice is throwing its support behind President Donald Trump's effort to overturn his New York criminal conviction for falsifying business records, filing a proposed amicus brief on Friday citing the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 2024 decision "defining the contours of a president's federal constitutional immunity from criminal prosecution."

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Del. Federal Court Won't Keep Trump's Interim US Atty In Role

By Jack Karp

Delaware's federal court will not appoint the district's current interim U.S. attorney and President Donald Trump's choice for that position to remain in the role, according to a notice from the district's chief judge.

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Letitia James Rips 'Unconstitutional Vindictive' Indictment

By Hailey Konnath

New York Attorney General Letitia James has asked a Virginia federal court to dismiss the indictment accusing her of mortgage fraud, slamming the federal charges as "unconstitutional vindictive and selective prosecution" ordered by Donald Trump in response to her successful civil litigation against the president and her outspoken criticism of him.

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DC Circ. Airs Doubts About USPS Args In 2020 Mail Delay Row

By Nadia Dreid

The D.C. Circuit has doubts that the U.S. Postal Service can kibosh a permanent injunction in a case that aimed to ward off delivery delays ahead of the 2020 election because the plaintiffs had an administrative route open to them — not at the time they filed their suit, but by the time the judge issued summary judgment.

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Texas AG Accuses School Districts Of Electioneering

By Jonathan Capriel

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton chastised several school districts he claims asked voters to support funding increases via ballot measures, saying their actions amounted to "illegal electioneering" and violated state law, according to an announcement issued Friday.

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Fed's Miran Says Stablecoins Spur Demand For Treasurys

By Aislinn Keely

Federal Reserve Gov. Stephen Miran said Friday that he believes stablecoins are already increasing demand for U.S. Treasury bonds, and that continued adoption of the stable-value tokens could lead to lower interest rates in the future.

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Fed Faces Dem Grilling Over 30% Supervision Staff Cut Plan

By Jon Hill

The Federal Reserve's plan to cut its bank supervision workforce by 30% is facing fresh scrutiny from the Senate Banking Committee's top Democrat, who is calling on the central bank to explain how the downsizing will affect its ability to police Wall Street.

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NY, NJ Approve Pipeline Project In CWA Permitting About-Face

By Keith Goldberg

New York and New Jersey environmental regulators on Friday issued Clean Water Act permits for a controversial Williams Cos. pipeline upgrade project, five years after they denied the permits over pollution concerns.

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Jury Clears Novo Nordisk Of Medicaid Fraud Over Blood Drug

By Ben Adlin

A Tacoma federal jury cleared Novo Nordisk on Friday of allegations that it defrauded Washington state's Medicaid and Medicare systems by paying kickbacks and promoting off-label use to illegally boost prescriptions of its hemophilia drug NovoSeven.

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Michigan Candidate Wants Campbell's Co. TM Suit Tossed

By Elliot Weld

Michigan congressional candidate Shelby Nicole Campbell has asked a federal court to dismiss a trademark lawsuit brought by The Campbell's Co. over campaign materials that showed a soup can saying "Campbell for Congress" with the soup company's iconic design, arguing that her use of the design was not commercial in nature and presented no likelihood of confusion.

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Altria, NJOY Rip 'Unconstitutional' ITC Patent Proceeding

By Rae Ann Varona

The U.S. International Trade Commission's process for appointing its administrative law judges is unconstitutional, Altria Group and its NJOY vaping subsidiary alleged Friday in urging a Virginia federal court to block an ITC patent infringement proceeding against them.

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USPTO Extends Deadline For PTAB Institution Rules Feedback

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has provided a 15-day extension for giving feedback on proposed rules that will likely reduce the institution of certain patent challenges at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, with Director John Squires saying "now's the time" to finalize rulemaking on discretionary denial issues.

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Texas AG Defends App Store Law Against Free Speech Claims

By MJ Koo

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has pushed back on efforts to block the state's new App Store Accountability Act, telling a federal court that the measure's parental-consent and age-verification rules don't restrict speech but simply help parents oversee what apps their kids can download.

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Maryland Sues Feds Over Nixed FBI Headquarters Plan

By Tom Lotshaw

Maryland officials asked a federal judge to block the Trump administration from sabotaging plans to build a new FBI headquarters in the state, after it announced the FBI would instead move into an overhauled Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.

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Jeffer Mangels Hit With Pregnancy Bias Suit By Ex-Associate

By Hailey Konnath

A former Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell LLP associate has accused the firm of discriminating against women, especially pregnant women, claiming that she was harassed throughout her pregnancy and eventually fired after she advocated for herself and pointed out the disparate treatment.

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Boston, Mayor Ask Judge To Toss Fired Staffer's Lawsuit

By Julie Manganis

The city of Boston, its mayor and a police officer say a former City Hall staffer's claim that she was fired to shield a high-ranking official and spare the mayor from political embarrassment is based on nothing more than "labels and conclusions," according to new filings seeking dismissal of a lawsuit over the termination.

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Miami Cop Says City's Disparaging Remarks Breached Deal

By Carolina Bolado

A controversial Miami Police Department captain is refusing to retire without a fight, suing the city Thursday claiming a city commissioner broke a non-disparagement agreement in a prior settlement with the city that requires him to retire Nov. 7.

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NJ Senate Bill Seeks Tax Credit For Employer Child Care

By Zak Kostro

New Jersey would establish tax credits for employers who provide child care services for their employees' children under a bill introduced in the state Senate.

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Brief

Pension Corp. Installs EEOC Ex-Chair Dhillon As Director

By Kellie Mejdrich

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. swore in former U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chair and commissioner Janet Dhillon as the 17th director of the federal agency, which runs two insurance programs backstopping the nation's single and multiemployer defined-benefit pension plans.

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DOJ Starts Price-Fix Probe Of Meatpackers Amid Trump Posts

By Gina Kim

The U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation into alleged price-fixing by meatpacking companies, following social media posts by President Trump accusing "Majority Foreign Meat Packers" of colluding to drive up prices.

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Panel Weighs If Baby Lounger Co. Can Still Fight CPSC Label

By Jared Foretek

D.C. Circuit judges suggested Friday that the maker of a popular baby lounger may have forfeited its key appellate argument for undoing a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission rule that has forced the product off the market by failing to address the issue during the agency's rulemaking.

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UK Lawmakers Call For Stronger Taxation Of Online Gambling

By Kevin Pinner

The U.K. government should ensure online gambling businesses always pay a higher tax rate than traditional casinos, a parliamentary committee said in report Friday, adding that anti-avoidance measures may be needed to target gambling companies' use of offshore tax havens.

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Hearing Officer Clears Mass. Judge Of Aiding ICE Escape

By Julie Manganis

A hearing officer has concluded that Massachusetts state court Justice Shelley Richmond Joseph was not aware of a plan to allow a defendant to evade an ICE agent waiting at a suburban Boston court in 2018, but is recommending a public reprimand for other actions the judge took that day.

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Dems' Bill Would Give DHS Detainees Right To Talk To Atty

By Gina Kim

Democratic lawmakers unveiled a bill Friday that would guarantee immigrant detainees the right to contact their families and speak to legal counsel in custody, amid the Trump administration's push to ramp up major enforcement efforts that have led to arrests of people while dropping off children at school or grocery shopping.

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Alaskan Tribes Demand Halt To Canada Mining Permits

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Alaskan native tribes are pushing government officials in British Columbia, Canada, to halt progress on mining projects in the headwaters of rivers the tribes say they rely on until they are consulted.

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New York Tribe Looks To Reverse Fishing Rights Decision

By Crystal Owens

Members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation are asking a New York federal court to reconsider an order that determined they don't have state regulation-free fishing rights off the shores of Long Island, saying it failed to consider U.S. Supreme Court precedent that allows coexistence.

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Drafted Bill Would Have States Return Leftover BEAD Money

By Nadia Dreid

Under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, states that don't use all the broadband infrastructure funds they have been allocated would get to keep whatever is left from the chunk of $42.5 billion they received — but one senator is proposing that any money remaining instead go back to the U.S. Treasury.

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Hemp Industry Urges Congress To Let States Regulate Wares

By Sam Reisman

A coalition of attorneys representing interests in the hemp cannabinoid beverage space are urging federal lawmakers not to enact legislation that they say could shut down the industry and to allow states to continue to regulate it without obstruction.

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Greenberg Adds Gov't Relations Pro From Citi In Albany

By Andrea Keckley

Greenberg Traurig LLP announced Thursday that it had hired the managing director and head of state and local government affairs at Citi for its office in Albany, New York.

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Adapting To Calif.'s Enhanced Regulation Of PE In Healthcare

New California legislation enhances oversight on the role of private equity groups and hedge funds in healthcare transactions, featuring both a highly targeted nature and vague language that will require organizations to carefully evaluate existing practices, says Andrew Demetriou at Husch Blackwell.

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AG Watch: DC Faces Congressional Push To End Elected Role

Given the current structural tension between D.C.'s local autonomy and congressional plenary power, legal and business entities operating in the district should maintain focus on local enforcement gaps, and monitor the legislative process closely, says Lauren Cooper at Hogan Lovells.

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State Child Privacy Laws May Put More Cos. In FTC's Reach

Starting with Texas in January, several new state laws requiring app stores to share user age-related information with developers will likely subject significantly more companies to the Federal Trade Commission’s child privacy rules, altering their compliance obligations, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

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How The SEC May Overhaul Its Order Protection Rule

Attorneys at Skadden trace the evolution of the controversial Rule 611 of Regulation National Market System, examine the current debate surrounding its effectiveness, and consider how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's emerging Project Crypto initiative could reshape Regulation NMS for a tokenized, on-chain market environment.

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What To Note In OCC, FDIC Plan To Standardize Supervision

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s recent proposals to standardize the meaning of "unsafe or unsound practice" and revise the process for issuing matters requiring attention could significantly narrow the scope of activities that spawn enforcement actions, says Brendan Clegg at Luse Gorman.

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Next Steps For DOE's Large-Load Interconnection Reforms

The U.S. Department of Energy's recent letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission may mark a substantial expansion of FERC's open-access framework for large-load facilities, though the proposed timeline for the rulemaking appears to be extraordinarily short, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

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FTC Focus: M&A Approvals A Year After Trump's Election

The Federal Trade Commission merger-enforcement regime a year since President Donald Trump's election shows how merger approvals have been expedited by the triaging out of more deals, grants for early termination of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period, and zeroing in on preparing solutions for the biggest problems, say attorneys at Proskauer.

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Why Appellees Should Write Their Answering Brief First

Though counterintuitive, appellees should consider writing their answering briefs before they’ve ever seen their opponent’s opening brief, as this practice confers numerous benefits related to argument structure, time pressures and workflow, says Joshua Sohn at the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Senate Committee To Investigate Impeachment Of Judges

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate Judiciary Committee will have a hearing next week to consider impeachment of "rogue" federal judges, according to an announcement on Monday.

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Ex-Mass. Judge Joins Todd & Weld After Fiery Resignation

By Emily Sawicki and Chris Villani

A Massachusetts federal judge said Tuesday he would join Boston boutique litigation firm Todd & Weld LLP after resigning from the bench and penning a public letter saying that he could no longer "bear to be restrained" from speaking out against the Trump administration.

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Shutdown Deal Funds Justices' Security, Public Defender Pay

By Courtney Bublé

The government funding agreement reached in the Senate on Sunday includes funding for public defenders, some of whom haven't been paid since July, and security for U.S. Supreme Court justices.

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Judge To Review Grand Jury Materials In Comey Indictment

By Jared Foretek

A Virginia federal judge said he would review grand jury materials in camera to see if any privileged information was used to secure the indictment of ex-FBI Director James Comey on charges of lying to Congress.

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Ex-Judges, US Attys Urge Axing 'Political' Indictment Of NY AG

By Lauren Berg

A bipartisan group of former federal judges and U.S. attorneys on Monday threw their weight behind New York Attorney General Letitia James' bid to dismiss the indictment accusing her of mortgage fraud, rebuking the appointment of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan and slamming the prosecution's apparent political motivations.

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Fitch Even, Ex-Client Settle $1.2M Fee Fight

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge suspended all briefing deadlines Monday in Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery LLP's $1.2 million fee dispute with a former client and a litigation funder's CEO, following the parties' signal that they've resolved their legal issues in principle.

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Trump Pardons Giuliani, Others Accused Of Election Crimes

By Emily Sawicki

President Donald Trump has reportedly pardoned scores of lawyers accused of attempting to interfere in the 2020 election, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Sidney Powell, according to a social media post created by the president's pardon attorney, Ed Martin.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jeff Montgomery

Delaware's top court issued a flurry of rulings last week and heard arguments on recently passed legislation that expanded liability shields for some corporate acts while the Court of Chancery passed on another round of arguments over control of Caribbean broadcaster Caribevision.

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