Public Policy

  • February 27, 2026

    Judge Says 5th Circ. Ruling Doesn't Bar Noncitizen's Release

    A Texas federal judge has ordered the release of a detained noncitizen after finding her constitutional rights to due process were violated, saying a recent Fifth Circuit decision allowing the detention of certain noncitizens without a bond hearing has limits.

  • February 27, 2026

    SEC Moves To Toss Suit Over 'Accredited Investor' Rule

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is fighting a lawsuit challenging income limits that prohibit those making less than $200,000 a year from investing in the private markets, telling a Texas federal court that lifting income requirements could actually make it more difficult for businesses to find investors.

  • February 27, 2026

    Do H-1B Fee Waivers Exist In Practice? Attys Have Doubts

    More than five months after President Donald Trump rolled out a $100,000 fee for some H-1B petitions, immigration attorneys say the administration hasn't adjudicated fee exemption requests, leaving them uncertain about whether the waiver is merely notional.

  • February 27, 2026

    OCC Finalizes Rule Confirming Trust Charter's Broader Scope

    The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday finalized a rule amending its chartering regulations to make clear that national trust banks can go beyond managing assets for others, a tweak that could benefit fintech firms seeking charters and could draw the ire of banking groups.

  • February 27, 2026

    SEC Issues Final Rules For Foreign Private Issuer Reporting

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday adopted final rules requiring directors and officers of foreign private issuers to begin disclosing their holdings and transactions of the issuer's securities on March 18, as mandated under a new law aimed at cracking down on foreign insider trading.

  • February 27, 2026

    FCC Staff Gives Go-Ahead To $34B Charter, Cox Tie-Up

    The Federal Communications Commission's staff on Friday cleared the $34.5 billion combination of cable giants Cox and Charter, approving the license transfers needed to merge into a broadband, mobile and video distribution behemoth.

  • February 27, 2026

    FCC Commish Sees Ditching Copper Lines As Security Need

    A member of the Federal Communications Commission says the impending retirement of most legacy copper networks in the U.S. should be viewed through a national security lens, not just as an industry modernization.

  • February 27, 2026

    Feds Use Another Samsung Case To Encourage Injunctions

    Federal courts should not overly limit the ability of patent owners to get injunctions against infringers, Justice Department and federal patent officials have told a Texas federal court overseeing a case where Samsung was put on the hook for $445.5 million after a patent trial.

  • February 27, 2026

    When Murder Charges Reach People Who Didn't Kill

    Felony murder murder charges permit people to be convicted of murder, even when they neither killed nor intended to kill. Critics say the charges drive excessive sentences, and a wave of reconsideration in courts and legislatures have led states like California to narrow their reach, while others are weighing whether the long prison terms tied to them are constitutional.

  • February 27, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Rejects Tesla's PTAB Challenge, Leaving Just 1

    The Federal Circuit on Friday rejected Tesla Inc.'s mandamus petition challenging how the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's leadership is discretionarily denying Patent Trial and Appeal Board decisions.

  • February 27, 2026

    Geofence Warrants Harm 'Privacies Of Life,' Amici Tell Justices

    Geofence warrants violate Fourth Amendment protections against government surveillance by being imprecise and overbroad in the information they obtain, civil rights and public interest groups argued Friday, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent the warrants' use.

  • February 27, 2026

    Judge Expands Block On SNAP Cuts Over Data Demand

    A California federal judge has broadened an injunction barring the U.S. Department of Agriculture from cutting off Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funding to 21 states and the District of Columbia, finding the states are likely to succeed in challenging the department's renewed demand for sensitive program data as unlawful.

  • February 27, 2026

    Denmark's Top Party Plans Wealth Tax Ahead Of Elections

    Denmark's top party has proposed a 0.5% wealth tax as a pillar of its platform for early elections called by a prime minister seeking to build on public support for her efforts to prevent the U.S. from taking over Greenland.

  • February 27, 2026

    Credit Bureaus Fight Bid To Add Plaintiffs, Claims To Suit

    Medical providers and a collection agency in a proposed class action accusing Equifax, Experian and TransUnion of conspiring to exclude less than $500 in medical debt from consumer credit reports lack good cause to again amend their complaint, the credit reporting agencies told a federal court. 

  • February 27, 2026

    Blue States Rally Behind Birthright Citizenship At High Court

    More than two dozen state and local governments urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject President Donald Trump's effort to end automatic birthright citizenship, filing an amicus brief arguing that the executive order violates the Constitution and would impose sweeping harms on states and their residents.

  • February 27, 2026

    Ex-Officials Back Union Challenge To Feds' Resignation Offer

    A group of former public officials and legal scholars have urged the First Circuit to revive a union-led challenge to the Trump administration's resignation program for federal employees, saying a lower court improperly expanded a doctrine for evaluating when disputes must go through administrative channels rather than court.

  • February 27, 2026

    Ala. Lawmakers OK Boosted Tourism Project Tax Break Cap

    Alabama would increase caps on tax rebates available to companies that operate qualifying tourism projects in the state under a bill approved by the state Legislature and sent to the governor.

  • February 27, 2026

    Judge Says RFK Jr.-Tied Group Can't Join Childhood Vax Suit

    A Massachusetts judge said an anti-vaccine advocacy group with ties to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cannot join a lawsuit over the federal government's new childhood vaccine schedule, a day after the government said it opposed the group intervening in the case.

  • February 27, 2026

    Calif. Mass Tort Firm Drops Suit Against ABS Fee-Sharing Ban

    A California mass torts firm seeking to overturn the state's law banning alternative business structure fee sharing with out-of-state law firms owned by nonattorneys dropped its suit Thursday, three months after filing it.

  • February 27, 2026

    Freight Brokers Fear Liability Pileup In Pivotal Top Court Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday on whether freight brokers might also be liable for roadway crashes that have killed or injured people, in a case that could reshape liability standards in a commercial trucking industry unnerved by supersized verdicts against carriers and drivers.

  • February 27, 2026

    Army Corps Fights Bid To Void Alaskan Gold Mining Permit

    The federal government is asking an Alaska district court to deny a bid by several Indigenous communities to vacate a permit associated with a placer gold mining project in the Bonanza Channel near Nome, saying its decision falls well within the "broad zone of reasonableness" under Supreme Court precedent.

  • February 27, 2026

    3 Takeaways From The Supreme Court's Mich. Tax Sale Case

    The U.S. Supreme Court will consider issues of fairness and just compensation in a case in which a Michigan county seized a home over a disputed $2,200 tax debt and sold it at auction, but oral arguments made clear it will not be an easy decision. Here, Law360 presents three takeaways from the oral arguments in Pung v. Isabella County.

  • February 27, 2026

    Markey Pushes Bill To Bolster Immigrant Legal Access

    Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., announced on Friday that he will introduce legislation to help immigrants secure legal counsel in deportation and other immigration proceedings via a $100 million grant program.

  • February 27, 2026

    Tricolor Noteholders Say Big Banks Ignored Auto Loan Fraud

    Securitized auto loan investors are suing JPMorgan, Barclays and Fifth Third in New York federal court, alleging the banks ignored glaring red flags and helped conceal a sprawling subprime auto loan fraud by Tricolor Holdings that collapsed in bankruptcy last year.

  • February 27, 2026

    Pryor Cashman Taps Foreign Service Vet As Gov't Lead

    A career foreign service officer who spent more than 15 years in senior roles in both political and consular affairs has joined Pryor Cashman LLP as the leader of government affairs, a new position the firm says will help clients navigate the federal policy and regulatory landscape.

Expert Analysis

  • Next Steps For Fair Housing Enforcement As HUD Backs Out

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    A soon-to-be-finalized U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rule, which would hand responsibility for determining disparate impact liability under the Fair Housing Act to the courts, reinforces the Trump administration’s wider rollback of fair lending enforcement, yet there are reasons to expect litigation challenging this change, say attorneys at Spencer Fane.

  • Malpractice Claim Assignability Continues To Divide Courts

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    Recent decisions from courts across the country demonstrate how different jurisdictions balance competing policy interests in determining whether legal malpractice claims can be assigned, providing a framework to identify when and how to challenge any attempted assignment, says Christopher Blazejewski at Sherin & Lodgen.

  • As Federal Enviro Justice Policy Goes Dormant, All Is Not Lost

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    Environmental justice is enduring a federal dormancy brought on by executive branch reversals and agency directives over the past year that have swept long-standing federal frameworks from the formal policy ledger, but the legal underpinnings of EJ have not vanished and remain important, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • What Clarity Act Delay Reveals About US Crypto Regulation

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    The Senate Banking Committee's decision to delay markup of the Clarity Act, which would establish a comprehensive federal framework for digital assets, illuminates the political and structural obstacles that shape U.S. crypto regulation, despite years of bipartisan calls for regulatory clarity, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • Courts' Rare Quash Of DOJ Subpoenas Has Lessons For Cos.

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    In a rare move, three federal courts recently quashed or partially quashed expansive U.S. Department of Justice administrative subpoenas issued to providers of gender-affirming care, demonstrating that courts will scrutinize purpose, cabin statutory authority and acknowledge the profound privacy burdens of overbroad government demands for sensitive records, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • The Little Tucker Act's Big Class Action Moment

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    The Little Tucker Act, which allows claims against the government for illegally exacted fees, is transforming from a niche procedural mechanism into a powerful vehicle for class action litigation, with more than $500 billion in such fees — including President Donald Trump's tariffs — now ripe for challenge, says Dinis Cheian at Susman Godfrey.

  • Venezuela Legal Shifts May Create Investment Opportunities

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    Since the removal of President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela has shown signs of economic liberalization, particularly in the oil and mining sectors, presenting unique — but still high-risk — investment opportunities for U.S. companies, say attorneys at Haynes Boone.

  • Unpacking Dormant Commerce Clause Cannabis Circuit Split

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    Federal courts have reached differing conclusions as to whether state-legal cannabis is subject to the dormant commerce clause, with four opinions across three circuit courts in the last year demonstrating the continued salience of the dormant commerce clause debate to the nation's cannabis industry, regulators and policymakers, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Remote Patient Monitoring Is At Regulatory Inflection Point

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    With remote patient monitoring at the center of new federal pilot programs and a recent report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General examining Medicare billing for those services, it is clear that balancing innovation and risk will be a central challenge ahead for digital health stakeholders, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • How Latest Nasdaq Proposals Stand To Raise Listings Quality

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    Nasdaq's recent proposals stand to heighten both quantitative and qualitative standards for issuers, which, if approved, may bring investors stronger market integrity and access but also raise the listings bar, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • Opinion

    CFIUS Must Adapt To Current Foreign Investment Realities

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    To continue protecting the U.S.’ long-term strategic and economic interests, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States should implement practical enhancements that leverage technology, expertise and clear communication, and enable it to keep pace with evolving demands, says attorney Sohan Dasgupta.

  • Texas AG Wields Consumer Protection Law Against Tech Cos.

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    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has targeted technology companies using the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a broadly worded statute that gives the attorney general wide latitude to pursue claims beyond traditional consumer protection, creating unique litigation risks, say attorneys at Yetter Coleman.

  • When Bankruptcy Collides With Product Recalls

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    The recent bankruptcy filing by Rad Power Bikes on the heels of a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warning about dangerously defective batteries sold by the company highlights how CPSC enforcement clashes with bankruptcy protections, leaving both regulators and consumer litigants with limited options, says Michael Avanesian at Avian Law Group.

  • Protecting Sensitive Data During Congressional Inquiries

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    With the 2026 midterm elections potentially set to shift control of one or both houses of Congress, entities must proactively plan for the prospect of new congressional investigations, and adopt strategic, effective and practical measures to mitigate risks related to disclosure of sensitive information, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Where PCAOB Goes Next After A Year Of Uncertainty

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    The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board will likely bring fewer enforcement matters in 2026, reflecting a notable change in board priorities following the change in administrations, say Robert Cox and Nicole Byrd at Whiteford Taylor and Matthew Rogers at Bridgehaven Consulting.

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