Public Policy

  • April 16, 2026

    NYC Suit Alleges $1.3M Illegal Short-Term Rental Scheme

    A New York City landlord and several of his relatives and associates made over $1.3 million from an illegal short-term rentals scheme that involved hosting an illegal number of guests, the city alleged in New York state court.

  • April 16, 2026

    ICE Chief Says Shutdown Still Hurts Despite Billions

    The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Congress Thursday that the agency is feeling the effects of the ongoing partial government shutdown, even though the agency received billions of dollars for much of its current operations.

  • April 16, 2026

    Ky. Conforms To Fed. Tax Changes, Nixes Tax Threshold

    The Kentucky General Assembly overrode the governor's veto of a bill that eliminates its sales tax nexus transaction threshold, levies sales tax on data brokering services and will conform the state's tax code with some provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.

  • April 16, 2026

    NJ US Atty's Office Turmoil Doesn't Nix Conviction, Judge Rules

    A federal judge on Thursday rejected a New Jersey criminal defendant's attempt to dismiss his conviction and disqualify the state's top federal prosecutor, holding that the appointment of the current U.S. attorney complies with federal law and that any earlier defects in leadership do not warrant dismissal.

  • April 16, 2026

    NJ Justices To Weigh Municipal Counsel Conflict Of Interest

    The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to review a state ethics opinion that bars attorneys from simultaneously serving as corporation counsel to a municipality and general counsel to a regional fire and rescue agency that the municipality helps fund, setting an expedited briefing schedule.

  • April 16, 2026

    DOL Benefits Chief Pressed On Labor Secretary's Conduct

    The head of the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm faced tough questions from House Democrats at an oversight hearing Thursday, fielding questions about the labor secretary's on-the-job conduct as well as the DOL's take on mental health parity enforcement. 

  • April 16, 2026

    Foreign Truckers Sue Over 'Catastrophic' License Ban

    Nineteen foreign truckers sued the federal trucking regulator and Florida's motor vehicle agency over a federal rule barring roughly 200,000 noncitizen truckers from getting commercial driver's licenses, saying those with valid federal work permits are being left in the lurch.

  • April 16, 2026

    Calif. Lawyer Sues Over State Bar Investigations

    A California trial lawyer claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that he has been unfairly investigated by the state bar since 2019, alleging the office "illegally prioritizes revenue-generation over protection of the public."

  • April 16, 2026

    USPTO Ends COVID Patent Appeals Program

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has decided to end a program launched five years ago that aimed to prioritize and fast-track ex parte appeals of rejections on patent applications for inventions related to combating COVID-19.

  • April 16, 2026

    Dems Call On Watchdog To Probe DOJ Antitrust Work

    A group of Democratic federal lawmakers this week called on the U.S. Department of Justice's acting inspector general to investigate the possibility that lobbying has led to misconduct in the department's antitrust work, including the DOJ's recent surprise settlement with event ticketing giant Live Nation.

  • April 16, 2026

    ICE Ordered To Stop Work On Maryland Detention Center

    A Maryland federal court blocked the Trump administration from continuing construction work to convert an existing warehouse into an immigrant detention center while a challenge brought by the state under federal environmental regulations plays out.

  • April 16, 2026

    Higher Ed Group Seeks Fees After Beating DOE Research Cap

    An organization of public and private research universities has asked a Massachusetts federal judge to award attorney fees and costs in a successful challenge to a U.S. Department of Energy limit on reimbursements for indirect costs of grant-funded research, the third such request since last fall.

  • April 16, 2026

    8th Circ. Weighs Link Between Cannabis Use And Danger

    An Eighth Circuit panel weighing a man's conviction for owning a firearm as an unlawful marijuana user appeared inclined Thursday to reject his Second Amendment challenge and rule that his violent actions warranted the charge as it was applied to him.

  • April 16, 2026

    Texas Judge Vacates IRS' Steep Microcaptive Reporting Rule

    A Texas federal judge vacated a tax code regulation designating microcaptive insurance transactions as listed transactions subject to deep scrutiny and hefty penalties, saying the Internal Revenue Service didn't prove that they are mostly for tax avoidance and not really for insurance.

  • April 16, 2026

    Nebraska Inmates Sue Over Access To Native Religious Area

    Two Indigenous men are asking a federal court to block a Nebraska Department of Corrections' 60-day ban on access to a religious space within a Lincoln prison yard, arguing that the policy is keeping roughly 60 inmates from practicing essential elements of their faith.

  • April 16, 2026

    Pa. Justices Eye New Approach For 'De Facto' Juvenile Lifers

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court seemed open Thursday to subjecting "de facto life sentences" for juvenile offenders to additional scrutiny, though several justices hypothesized that heinous crimes could still carry long prison terms if a court weighed all the necessary factors.

  • April 16, 2026

    Feds Can't Block Hawaii's Suit Against Oil, Gas Companies

    A Hawaii federal judge has dismissed with prejudice a suit from the U.S. government aiming to block the state from suing oil and gas companies on climate change-related claims, finding the government's complaint fails to establish any of the elements of standing.

  • April 15, 2026

    Immigration Board Won't Undo Removable Finding For Khalil

    The Board of Immigration Appeals has affirmed an administrative law judge's order finding that Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil can be removed because of alleged misrepresentations he made on his green card application and "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences," according to an opinion made public Wednesday.

  • April 15, 2026

    Food Apps' NYC Data Win Seems 'Weird' To 2nd Circ. Judges

    Does the First Amendment allow Uber Eats to keep your Chick-fil-A order a secret? At the Second Circuit on Wednesday, the fate of a New York City law aimed at reducing restaurant reliance on food delivery apps appeared to hinge heavily on that curious question.

  • April 15, 2026

    Justice Jackson Slams Court's 'Oblivious' Emergency Orders

    U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson this week slammed her conservative colleagues' use of the court's emergency docket, which has repeatedly benefited the Trump administration, saying that such "scratch-paper" orders don't acknowledge the harms that can follow such decisions, making the orders "seem oblivious and thus ring hollow."

  • April 15, 2026

    John Eastman Disbarred Over Bid To Overturn 2020 Election

    California's highest court on Wednesday ordered the disbarment of California attorney John Charles Eastman, who a state bar court found had helped plan and promote President Donald Trump's strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

  • April 15, 2026

    Trump Defends DOJ Investigation Of 'Incompetent' Fed Chair

    President Donald Trump expressed support Wednesday for the U.S. Department of Justice continuing to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the Fed's headquarters renovation, saying the government must "find out what happened" with the project's $2.5 billion price tag.

  • April 15, 2026

    Roblox To Pay $12.5M, Boost Child Safety In Deal With Nev.

    Roblox has agreed to implement enhanced safeguards for children who use the popular interactive gaming platform and pay $12.5 million to fund an online safety awareness campaign and other initiatives as part of what Nevada's attorney general on Wednesday called a first-of-its-kind agreement to resolve claims that the company failed to adequately protect its youngest users. 

  • April 15, 2026

    Amneal Trims But Can't Nix AGs' Drug Price-Fixing Suit

    There is enough evidence from which a jury could conclude that Amneal Pharmaceuticals participated in a conspiracy to fix the price of an epilepsy medication, but not enough to show it participated in the overarching antitrust conspiracy alleged by dozens of state attorneys general, a Connecticut federal judge ruled Wednesday.

  • April 15, 2026

    'Deemed' Admissions End Tribal Cannabis Raid Suit

    A California federal judge tossed a lawsuit claiming Riverside County in Southern California and its sheriff's department illegally raided a cannabis operation on sovereign tribal land, due to insufficient discovery responses that resulted in "deemed" admissions. 

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Coaching Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Coaching youth soccer for my 7-year-old son's team has sharpened how I communicate with clients, prepare witnesses, work within teams and think about leadership, making me a more thoughtful and effective lawyer in many ways, says Joshua Holt at Smith Currie.

  • How Internal Reporting Could Benefit Antitrust Whistleblowing

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    As the Justice Department's new antitrust whistleblower program stands to raise questions over the interaction between rewards and corporate leniency, incentivizing internal reporting first could increase the likelihood that the Antitrust Division receives the high-quality evidence needed to successfully prosecute cartel cases, says Daniel Oakes at Axinn.

  • What Texas Anti-Boycott Ruling Means For ESG Landscape

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    A Texas federal court's recent ruling in American Sustainable Business Council v. Hegar that Texas' anti-ESG law is unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds will likely embolden legal challenges to similar laws in other states that have adopted fossil fuel boycott statutes, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • How To Wield The Clarity Act As A Litigation Defense Tool

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    The Clarity Act is being discussed as a future compliance statute, but for litigators it can be used as a present-day defense tool to strengthen fair‑notice framing, argue for forward‑looking remedies rather than punitive ones and reprice settlement leverage as statutory clarity approaches, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: The Human Element

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    Law school teaches you to quickly apply intellect and logic when handling a legal issue, but every fact pattern also involves a person, making the ability to balance expertise with empathy critical to the growth of relationships with clients, colleagues and adversaries, says Rachel Adcox at Adcox Strategies.

  • As Justices Mull Suncor, Cos. Face New Climate Suit Realities

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to hear Suncor Energy v. Boulder County — its first case analyzing the litigation impact of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rescission of its 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding — companies must consider new preemption questions surrounding climate lawsuits after the rescission, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

  • 7 Steps For Gov't Contractors In Post-IEEPA Tariff Landscape

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    In response to U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down tariffs issued by the Trump administration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, there are several actions federal contractors should take to preserve their place in any refund waterfall, and to manage audit, overpayment and False Claims Act risk, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • How DExit, Mandatory Arbitration Could Alter IPO Outlook

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    As companies continue to leave Delaware and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission begins allowing companies to implement mandatory arbitration provisions, these developments could have a major impact on the initial public offering, securities class action, and directors and officers insurance landscapes, says Walker Newell at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

  • How High Court Recast State Sovereign Immunity In Galette

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in Galette v. New Jersey Transit, asserting that the state-chartered transit agency has independent corporate personhood and sole obligation to pay judgments against it, turned on substance rather than form — and its analysis should be carefully reviewed in courthouses and statehouses, say attorneys at McCarter & English.

  • Get Smart: Navigating The Genius Act's Regulatory Gaps

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    While some recent Genius Act rulemaking has covered consumer protection issues within the stablecoin market, the context is generally narrow and the final outcome remains uncertain for financial institutions or companies in the evolving landscape, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • Opinion

    Ga. HOA Reform Bills Risk Undermining Local Governance

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    Lawmakers considering several bills in Georgia that would centralize regulation of homeowners associations should acknowledge that effective reform needs to protect homeowners’ rights while preserving the financial and governance structures that allow communities to function, says Julie Howard at NowackHoward.

  • Why Prediction Market Regulation Is At Major Inflection Point

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    As prediction markets experience tremendous growth and rapid mainstream adoption, regulators have begun to exercise enforcement authority to ensure market integrity and protect participants, though forthcoming guidance will shed light on how aggressively the agencies will police the fast-changing landscape, say attorneys at Latham.

  • How Cos. Should Prepare For NY RAISE Act Compliance

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    With the New York Responsible AI Safety and Education Act taking effect March 19, state regulators will expect subject artificial intelligence governance policies to understand whether appropriate safeguards and protocols are in place to prevent or mitigate discriminatory or adverse outcomes by frontier models, says Michael Paulino at Gordon Rees.

  • Compliance Takeaways Amid Increased Auto Finance Scrutiny

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    Recent supervisory focus on consumer protection in auto finance by agencies such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. provides meaningful signals regarding areas of heightened regulatory scrutiny for lenders, including data accuracy, AI risk management and vendor oversight, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • The Benefits Of Choosing A Niche Practice In The AI Age

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    As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly accessible, lawyers with a niche practice may stand out as clients seek specialized judgment that automation cannot replicate, but it is important to choose a niche that is durable, engaging and a good personal fit, says Daniel Borneman at Lowenstein Sandler.

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