Public Policy

  • April 29, 2026

    Warsh's Fed Bid Moves Ahead After Powell Probe Is Shelved

    A U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday advanced President Donald Trump's pick of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve, putting him on track for confirmation next month after a Republican holdout lifted his blockade tied to the now-dropped probe of current Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

  • April 29, 2026

    Justices Limit Voting Rights Act Suits While Voiding La. Map

    The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana's congressional map containing two majority-Black voting districts Wednesday and further limited the Voting Rights Act's use in challenging racial discrimination in legislative redistricting — a decision the dissent claims completes the conservative majority's "demolition" of the seminal civil rights law.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    Illinois Panel Limits BIPA Exemption For Gov't Contractors

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    Feds Say 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' Halts Ballroom

    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."

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    Booz Allen Should Defeat Retaliation Suit, Judge Says

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    FTC Must Face Ticketers' Challenge To Its BOTS Act Case

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    Trans Pilot Says Influencer's Defamation Countersuit Is Barred

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    EPA Creates A Legal Haze With Emissions Plan Rejections

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    CFTC Sues Wisconsin In Latest Prediction Market State Battle

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    FCC's Carr Orders ABC Station Probes Amid Kimmel Dispute

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    Calif. Billionaire Tax Backers Say They Have 1.6M Signatures

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    DOJ Says Sen. Kelly Not Immune From Military Discipline

    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. 

  • April 28, 2026

    DHS Rule Ties Unpaid Asylum Fees To Denials, Removal

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

    Boston To Pay $850K In Settlement With 2020 Protesters

    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.

  • April 28, 2026

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

    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.

Expert Analysis

  • FDA Guidance May Move Goalposts For Form 483 Responses

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides formal insight on how drug manufacturers are expected to respond to Form 483s, raising some concerns about the agency's timelines and expectations, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Understanding The SEC's Consequential Crypto Guidance

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent interpretive release — its most comprehensive statement ever on the application of the federal securities laws to crypto-assets — reimagines the Howey test to resolve long-standing questions over what is a security, but leaves many issues unresolved, say attorneys at Cahill.

  • Ohio Case Reflects States' Aggressive Criminal Antitrust Turn

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    The Ohio Attorney General's Office’s recent bid-rigging indictment of an online auctioneer is the latest signal that states, through attorneys general pursuing more kickback cases and legislators expanding the reach of antitrust laws, are shedding their historical reluctance to wield their criminal antitrust enforcement powers, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Justices' Geofence Ruling May Test 4th Amendment's Future

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    When the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Chatrie v. U.S. whether law enforcement may use geofence warrants to compel Google to disclose location history data, the ruling is likely to become an important statement about the future of Fourth Amendment law in data-driven investigations, says Duncan Levin at Levin & Associates.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1

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    In the first quarter of 2026, New York's banking developments were headlined by initiatives to expand oversight of financial institutions and strengthen consumer protection laws, including a new framework for buy now, pay later lenders, a sweeping debt collection rule and a revised corporate self-disclosure program for financial crimes, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Seeking A Policy Fix As Merger Reporting Fight Continues

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    A recently announced request by the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice for public comment on the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger reporting requirements, as litigation challenging the commission's updated requirements continues, suggests the government's willingness to address how best to support modern merger enforcement without unduly burdening filing parties, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • What New Fla. Citizens Bill Means For Surplus Lines Insurers

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    A Florida bill recently passed by the Legislature as part of a continued effort to depopulate Citizens Property Insurance, the state's insurer of last resort, creates an additional pathway for commercial policies to be written by surplus lines insurers, but also presents concerns of unnecessary regulation, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • What Voluntary Calif. Carbon Reports Show About Compliance

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    While the enforcement of California's S.B. 261 is currently paused due to a Ninth Circuit injunction, more than 130 companies have nonetheless chosen to voluntarily publish climate-related financial risk disclosures, providing a useful snapshot of how the market is interpreting the law's requirements in practice, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • PTAB Memo Recenters Discretion On US Manufacturing

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    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.

  • Why MDLs Slow Down — And How To Speed Them Up

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    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.

  • What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

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    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.

  • Regulators' Basel Pitch May Bring Banks Capital Relief

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    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.

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

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    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.

  • FTC Focus: Growing Emphasis On Competition In AI

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    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.

  • What's Missing From Latest Gov't Claims Against Harvard

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    The most interesting thing about the Trump administration’s recent civil rights enforcement efforts targeting Harvard University is its decision not to assert violations of the False Claims Act when given the opportunity, despite signals that its enforcement efforts will include use of the federal FCA, say attorneys at Bass Berry.

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