Public Policy

  • January 28, 2026

    Trump Announces Pick For New Assistant AG For Fraud Role

    President Donald Trump announced Wednesday evening that he would be nominating Colin McDonald, associate deputy attorney general, for the newly created assistant attorney general for fraud role.

  • January 28, 2026

    FCC Sees Dead People On Lifeline, But Dems Balk At New Reg

    Democrats are bristling against a plan by the Federal Communications Commission to reduce purported fraud in the Lifeline program, where the agency says some states enrolled dead people and others who don't qualify.

  • January 28, 2026

    Enbridge Looks To Keep Pipeline Open Amid 7th Circ. Appeal

    Enbridge Energy Inc. is looking to pause a shutdown order of a segment of its Line 5 pipeline that runs through Wisconsin tribal lands pending its Seventh Circuit appeal, arguing to a Wisconsin district court that a cutoff would cause disproportionate economic harm and energy shortages.

  • January 28, 2026

    Jail Officers, Doctor Seek Exit From Excessive Force Suit

    A medical provider for correctional facilities, a physician and two jail officers told a Georgia federal court they should not face a lawsuit seeking to hold them liable for a former sheriff's excessive force, pointing to a two-year statute of limitations.

  • January 28, 2026

    Biden Official Says Congress Should Reassert Trade Control

    Congress should look to take back some of the U.S. trade policymaking reins from President Donald Trump this year to establish appropriate oversight of such measures, a former official under former President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

  • January 28, 2026

    New Squires Order Allows 4 Patent Reviews, Denies 25 Others

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires instituted four America Invents Act patent challenges while denying 25 others in his most recent summary decision.

  • January 28, 2026

    Social Media Addiction Laws Eyed By Conn. Governor, AG

    Connecticut lawmakers will consider forcing social media companies to display mental health warning labels and file state reports detailing the numbers of youth users, parental consent figures and average daily screen time statistics, Gov. Ned Lamont and Attorney General William M. Tong said in a Wednesday statement.

  • January 28, 2026

    SEC Urged To Adopt Insider Trading Rules For Foreign Firms

    A former member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is among a trio of academics pressing the agency to write rules cracking down on insider trading at foreign companies that trade on U.S. exchanges, urging action before a congressionally mandated deadline runs out in March.

  • January 28, 2026

    Casino License Revocation Order Off The Mark, 8th Circ. Told

    Two Cherokee Nation entities say an Arkansas federal court "struck out on its own" when it dismissed claims over the revocation of an Arkansas-issued gambling license, telling the Eighth Circuit that the decision sets a dangerous precedent that will haunt the state as it seeks multimillion-dollar investors.

  • January 28, 2026

    FBI Raids Fulton County Election Office

    The FBI raided Fulton County, Georgia's election operations center Wednesday, a move that comes amid efforts by the federal government to find evidence to support President Donald Trump's assertion that widespread voter fraud led to his loss in the 2020 election.

  • January 28, 2026

    EPA Begins Rollback Of Biden-Era Smog Control Plan

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to reapprove pollution control plans from several states as part of its effort to undo a Biden-era rule curbing cross-border smog formation that was halted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • January 28, 2026

    Only 2 GOP Sens., Tillis and Murkowski, Call For Noem To Go

    A day after two Senate Republicans have called for the removal of Kristi Noem from her post as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of the second deadly shooting this month by immigration agents in Minneapolis, no other Republicans have joined them.

  • January 28, 2026

    NM Bill Could Shield Medical Cannabis Users From Job Bias

    Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico's Legislature are looking to redefine employment rules for medical cannabis patients to prohibit bosses from taking adverse actions for lawful off-duty use but allow them to restrict use for certain roles or carry out discipline for impairment at work.

  • January 28, 2026

    NJ Justices Revive Woman's Suit Over Parole Conditions

    A woman who was sent to prison for violating allegedly unconstitutional bans on social media and pornography consumption during her lifelong parole for endangering the welfare of a child may proceed with her civil suit, New Jersey's highest court ruled Wednesday in a partial reversal.

  • January 28, 2026

    Federal Judge Blocks USDA's SNAP Pilot Project In Colo.

    A Colorado federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday preventing the U.S. Department of Agriculture from enforcing a pilot project demanding that the state recertify Supplemental Nutrition Act Program recipients in five counties.

  • January 28, 2026

    Fla. Prosecutors' Detention Defense Met With Sanction Threat

    The U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Gregory Kehoe, along with an assistant U.S. attorney have been threatened with sanctions by a federal judge for the methods their office used in defending the mandatory detention of noncitizens.

  • January 28, 2026

    Prosecutors Form New Group To Fight Federal Overreach

    Several progressive prosecutors have launched a new group to hold accountable federal officials who "exceed their lawful authority," amid a growing backlash to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the recent killing of two protesters by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

  • January 28, 2026

    Advocates Seek Shift To 1st Circ. In Prison Call Rate Cases

    A public interest group, backed by other public interest petitioners, is asking the D.C. Circuit to transfer to the First Circuit the challenges to the Federal Communications Commission's latest prison phone rate order, arguing the court is already deeply familiar with the dispute and best positioned to resolve it.

  • January 28, 2026

    FCC Chair Signals Feb. Vote On 900 MHz Expansion

    Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said the commission plans to vote next month on an order that would allow broadband deployment across the full 10 megahertz of the 900 MHz band, a move the nation's railroads have said they would support but only with strict safeguards in place.

  • January 28, 2026

    Conn. Justices Question 'Double Recovery' In Asbestos Case

    Several Connecticut Supreme Court justices on Wednesday appeared uneasy with the thought of a mesothelioma patient's estate and widow receiving a "double recovery" from private settlements and workers' compensation law payments in an illness involving both workplace and at-home asbestos exposure sources.

  • January 28, 2026

    PBGC Reports Rosy Outlook For Single, Multiemployer Plans

    The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s program backstopping the nation's private-sector pension plans reported another year of healthy finances, with an end-of-fiscal-year surplus of more than $64 billion, the agency said.

  • January 28, 2026

    HUD Asserts Authority In Homeless Services Funding Suits

    The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development pushed for a quick win against two suits in Rhode Island federal court accusing the federal government of wrongfully pulling funding for homeless services, arguing that Congress allows HUD to determine how it distributes its funding.

  • January 28, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Won't Revive MasterCard Trade Secret Claims

    The Federal Circuit declined to revive trade secret theft claims Wednesday brought by a MasterCard unit against two former McKinsey consultants, agreeing with a lower court that the company had failed to identify the alleged trade secrets with enough specificity.

  • January 28, 2026

    Solar Panel Co. Sunrun Misclassifying Sales Reps, Suit Says

    Solar panel company Sunrun Inc. misclassified its sales representatives as independent contractors in violation of Massachusetts workers' compensation law, a coalition of advocacy groups alleged in a complaint filed in state court.

  • January 28, 2026

    Mass. Disbars Pot Shop Lawyer Convicted In Bribery Scheme

    A Massachusetts attorney convicted of attempting to bribe a Boston-area police chief to endorse his client's pot shop license has been disbarred, according to a notice released by the state's bar this week.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Nature Photography Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Nature photography reminds me to focus on what is in front of me and to slow down to achieve success, and, in embracing the value of viewing situations through different lenses, offers skills transferable to the practice of law, says Brian Willett at Saul Ewing.

  • 2025 Brought A New Paradigm For Federal Banking Regulation

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    A series of thematic shifts defined banking regulation in 2025, including a fundamental reform of prudential supervision, a strategic easing of capital constraints, steps to streamline merger reviews, and a new framework for fair access and entrants seeking to offer banking services, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • What 2025 Transpo And Logistics Legal Trends Mean For 2026

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    2025 was challenging for the transportation and logistics sector, with emergent trends including dramatic federal policy shifts, developments in tort risk, and a host of mergers and acquisitions — but a review of these themes offers a useful playbook for where the industry is headed in 2026, says Jonathan Todd at Benesch.

  • How Cos. Can Roll With NY's New Algorithmic Pricing Rules

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    Despite uncertainty from New York’s new ban on artificial intelligence and computer algorithms for setting rents, and efforts to further restrict individualizing prices based on consumers' personal data, property managers, software providers and merchants can take several steps to stay compliant, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • 2025 State AI Laws Expand Liability, Raise Insurance Risks

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    As 2025 nears its end, claims professionals should be aware of trends in state legislation addressing artificial intelligence use, as insurance claims based on some of these liability-expanding statutes are a certainty, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practical Problem Solving

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    Issue-spotting skills are well honed in law school, but practicing attorneys must also identify clients’ problems and true goals, and then be able to provide solutions, says Mary Kate Hogan at Quarles & Brady.

  • Crypto In 2025: From Federal Deregulation To State Action

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    The cryptocurrency enforcement landscape evolved in 2025, marked by federal deregulatory trends and active state attorney general enforcement, creating both opportunity and risk for businesses navigating the digital asset market, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • How CFTC Enforcement Shifted In 2025 And What's Next

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission pivoted sharply under acting Chairman Caroline Pham in 2025, resulting in a pared-back enforcement docket, sweeping policy changes intended to provide greater transparency, and a renewed focus on fraud prevention and maintaining market integrity for the CFTC's core markets, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Learning From 2025 FCA Trends Targeting PE In Healthcare

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    False Claims Act enforcement trends and legislative developments from this year signal intensifying state and federal scrutiny of private equity's growing footprint in healthcare, and the urgency of compliance, says Lisa Re at Arnold & Porter.

  • Reviewing 2025's State And Federal AI Regulations

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    In light of increasing state and federal action to oversee the use of artificial intelligence, companies that develop or deploy the technology should keep abreast of current and forthcoming AI laws and consider their applicability to their business activities, says Jessica Brigman at Spencer Fane.

  • Software Patents May Face New Eligibility Scrutiny

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    November guidance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, along with recent litigation trends from the Federal Circuit, may encourage new challenges in the USPTO and district courts to artificial intelligence and software patents that rely on generic computing functions without concrete details, say attorneys at Venable.

  • What Trump Order Limiting State AI Regs Means For Insurers

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    Last week's executive order seeking to preclude states from regulating artificial intelligence will likely have minimal impact on insurers, but the order and related congressional activities may portend a federal expectation of consistent state oversight of insurers' AI use, says Kathleen Birrane at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    A Uniform Federal Rule Would Curb Gen AI Missteps In Court

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    To address the patchwork of courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence, curbing abuses and relieving the burden on judges, the federal judiciary should consider amending its civil procedure rules to require litigants to certify they’ve reviewed legal filings for accuracy, say attorneys at Shook Hardy.

  • Investment Advisers Should Stay Apprised Of New AI Risks

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently issued annual examination priorities reiterate a host of regulatory implications for investment advisers using artificial intelligence tools, highlighting that meaningful ongoing due diligence can help mitigate both operational and regulatory surprises amid AI's rapid evolution, says Christopher Mills at Sidley.

  • New Rule Shows NRC Willing To Move Fast To Reform Regs

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    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to forgo public comment and immediately rescind certain rules governing adjudicatory procedures, federal tort claims and disclosure of licensee information signals the agency's intent to accelerate the regulatory streamlining efforts ordered by the president this spring, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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