Public Policy

  • April 30, 2026

    Pa. Justices Say DA Can't Drop Charges In Police Shooting

    Pennsylvania prosecutors cannot refuse to try a police officer who claimed he mistook his gun for a taser when he pressed his weapon to a mentally-ill man's leg and shot him in front of his mother at close range, the state's highest court said Thursday, affirming a lower court decision.

  • April 30, 2026

    Colo. Panel OKs Impact Fees On Reconstruction Projects

    Local governments can charge impact fees on new development projects as a condition of issuing a development permit, including on projects other than the development of a raw parcel of land, the Colorado Court of Appeals held Thursday.

  • April 30, 2026

    Critical Mineral Restrictions Up 500% From 2009, OECD Says

    Global export restrictions on critical raw materials that are key for digital and renewable energy technologies increased fivefold between 2009 and 2024, which could lead to greater risks of supply chain vulnerabilities, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said.

  • April 30, 2026

    Fla. High Court Allows Email Service To Foreign Debtor

    The Florida Supreme Court declined to hear a case involving a Maltese citizen's challenge of email service in a law firm's lawsuit to collect fees, validating a recent state law that allows parties to bypass the Hague Convention to serve legal documents to foreign entities electronically.

  • April 30, 2026

    Senate Bars Itself From Prediction Markets

    U.S. senators voted unanimously on Thursday to ban themselves and their staff from trading on prediction markets.

  • April 30, 2026

    5th Circ. Focuses On Whether Texas Disabled Voters Can Sue

    A Fifth Circuit judge questioned Thursday whether voting- and disability-rights groups have standing to challenge parts of a Texas voting security law alleged to make voting harder for Texans with disabilities and whether existing state law gives such voters a path to seek accommodations.

  • April 30, 2026

    UP, Norfolk Southern Refile $85B Merger Bid With Regulators

    Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern on Thursday submitted a revised application to federal rail regulators for their proposed $85 billion mega-merger, touting the efficiencies and cost-savings of their combined coast-to-coast rail network, while also seeking to quell competition concerns.

  • April 30, 2026

    Ga. Power Says Ford, Union Carbide Must Stay In Cancer Suit

    Georgia Power urged a state appellate court Thursday to reverse a trial court's order letting Ford and Union Carbide out of a construction worker's cancer claims, arguing that under the state's 2025 tort reform law, their dismissal would unjustly leave the utility company to face the suit alone.

  • April 30, 2026

    CACI Says High Court Case Will Affect Abu Ghraib Verdict

    CACI Premier Technology Inc. has urged the Fourth Circuit to delay adjudicating its rehearing bid after a panel upheld a $42 million jury award over CACI's conspiracy to torture Iraq War detainees, pointing to a forthcoming U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

  • April 30, 2026

    Antenna Location Near Bermuda Sinks Ala. FM Station Bid

    Selma, Alabama, will not be getting a new low-power FM station after the Federal Communications Commission said an error on the paperwork listed antenna coordinates that nearly reached all the way to Bermuda.

  • April 30, 2026

    Ark. Asks 8th Circ. To Uphold Tribal Gaming License Order

    Arkansas is asking the Eighth Circuit to reject an appeal by two Cherokee Nation entities over the voter referendum revocation of a gaming license in Pope County, arguing that their claims omit crucial details in alleging that the state conspired to violate their constitutional rights.

  • April 30, 2026

    Meta Made $8B From Treasury Guidance On Minimum Tax

    Meta Platforms Inc. booked a more than $8 billion tax benefit from U.S. Treasury Department guidance on the corporate alternative minimum tax that allowed taxpayers to reduce the tax's base, the company said.

  • April 30, 2026

    LSC Decries House Subcommittee's Proposed Budget Cut

    The nation's largest funder of civil legal aid condemned a House appropriations proposal to slash its budget for fiscal year 2027 by more than half, warning Thursday the reduction could leave nearly 3 million Americans without help for critical civil legal problems.

  • April 30, 2026

    Judge Denies Push To Stop Closed Immigration Hearings

    A D.C. federal judge denied a Minnesota human rights organization's request to block immigration judges from restricting public and press access to proceedings, ruling that it failed to show an immediate threat of future harm from unlawful hearing closures.

  • April 30, 2026

    EU-South American Provisional Trade Deal Takes Effect Friday

    The European Union's interim trade agreement with four countries in the South American regional bloc known as Mercosur will begin to apply on a provisional basis Friday, according to news releases issued by the European Commission and members of European Parliament on Thursday.

  • April 30, 2026

    5th Circ. Tosses FCA Suit Against IT Firm Over Visa Fraud

    The Fifth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a man's claims that an India-based information technology and professional services firm violated the False Claims Act via fraudulent visa applications and improper tax withholding, finding no specific payment obligations under the FCA itself.

  • April 30, 2026

    Senate Advances Mont. Judge Pick Rated Unqualified By ABA

    A judicial nominee for the District of Montana who was the only nominee of the second Trump administration so far to receive a "not qualified" rating from the American Bar Association advanced out of committee on Thursday.

  • April 30, 2026

    CFPB Slashes Small-Biz Lender Reporting In Newly Final Rule

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday finalized a major rollback of its Biden-era rule on small-business loan data collection, sharply narrowing the scope of financial institutions and activity subject to the statutorily mandated reporting regime.

  • April 30, 2026

    Judge Seeks Help On Jurisdiction In Trump's Tax Leak Suit

    A Miami federal court appointed six attorneys from three firms to help it determine whether it has jurisdiction in President Donald Trump's suit accusing the IRS of failing to prevent a former contractor from leaking his tax returns to news outlets.

  • April 30, 2026

    Feds Appeal Order Freezing CDC Childhood Vaccine Changes

    The Trump administration said late Wednesday that it's appealing a court order that stopped its pared-down childhood vaccine schedule from going into effect.

  • April 29, 2026

    DOGE Unmasking Order Won't Be Reconsidered, Judge Says

    A New York federal judge Wednesday refused to reconsider ordering Department of Government Efficiency agents to identify themselves in a lawsuit claiming DOGE unlawfully gained access to millions of federal employees' personal information, ruling that the government hasn't offered any new reason for her to rethink her opinion.

  • April 29, 2026

    Tech Group Aims To Halt Minn. Social Media Warning Mandate

    A Minnesota law that requires social media platforms to prominently display mental health warning labels to all users has become the target of the latest First Amendment challenge being pressed by tech trade group NetChoice, which argued in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the state is using public health concerns to create an unlawful "backdoor" to regulate protected speech. 

  • April 29, 2026

    Judiciary Advisers Back Looser Limits On Defense Subpoenas

    A campaign by white collar defense lawyers against long-standing limits on subpoena powers cleared a key hurdle Wednesday when federal judiciary advisers endorsed earlier and easier access to potentially favorable evidence despite staunch resistance from crime victims' advocates.

  • April 29, 2026

    Youth Hockey Owners Deny Report Of Mich. Antitrust Probe

    A Florida-based organization that buys and operates youth hockey rinks nationwide denied knowledge of a reported Michigan state probe into whether that and similar groups are using anticompetitive behavior in purchasing the facilities.

  • April 29, 2026

    Bipartisan Bill Would Give Parents Control Over Kids' AI Use

    A group of Democratic and Republican senators introduced legislation that would allow parents to keep a better eye on their children's use of chatbots by requiring artificial intelligence companies to establish safeguards the lawmakers say will help protect kids' mental health and social development.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Futures Market Anonymity Now Presents A Structural Problem

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    Following anomalous trading on prediction markets just before major recent policy announcements from the Trump administration, many have called on Congress to act, but the problem is not primarily a statutory gap — it is a structural one, built into the self-regulatory model that governs futures exchanges, says Tamara de Silva at De Silva Law Offices.

  • How Calif. Safety Worker Pension Bill Could Cost Employers

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    Public employers should carefully consider how pension costs and bargaining concerns could change under a California Legislature bill that would increase retirement benefits for safety employees like police and firefighters, which could erode previous efforts to fully fund the public retirement system without necessarily improving worker retention, says Michael Youril at Liebert Cassidy.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Restraint Anchors Constitutional Order

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    Contrasting opinions in two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Trump v. CASA and Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections — demonstrate how the judiciary’s constitutionally entrusted role can easily be preserved or disrupted, and invite renewed attention to the enduring importance of judicial restraint, says Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

  • 'Made In America' Rules Raise Stakes For Gov't Contractors

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    The convergence of widely varying "buy American" requirements, increased enforcement efforts and continuing regulatory attempts to limit foreign sourcing suggests that government contractors should carefully review their supply chain and country-of-origin compliance to remain competitive, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Human Authorship Is Still Central To Copyright Eligibility

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    In declining to review the D.C. Circuit's ruling in Thaler v. Perlmutter — holding that a work purely generated by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted — the U.S. Supreme Court has reinforced the human authorship requirement, so it is critical for creators of AI-assisted projects to document their involvement, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Recent Bank Resolution Filings Stress Readiness Over Docs

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    Against the backdrop of banking regulators' recent emphasis on institutional readiness in the event of a bank failure, a review of more than a dozen public resolution plan submissions points to an immediate future in which regulators and banks alike prioritize operational preparedness over extensive documentation, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

  • 3 Federal Policy Trends Shaping Data Center Power

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    With the White House, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Congress each pushing energy policies that will influence how data centers are sited, powered and interconnected for years to come, industry stakeholders should understand compliance obligations, consider possible downstream effects, and evaluate off-grid and self-supply energy options, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • NY Tax Talk: Calculating Tiered Partnership Income

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    Attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland discuss how the potential impact recent New York City Tax Appeals Tribunal decision in Matter of Cantor Fitzgerald holding that the entity approach should be used by tiered partnerships to compute unincorporated business tax liability, why the issue of the proper approach remains unsettled and the broader implications for federal conformity and administrative agency deference.

  • 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.

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