Public Policy

  • July 30, 2026

    Judiciary's Bid To Control Courthouses Gets Senate Push

    A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would create a pilot program for the federal judiciary to obtain direct authority to maintain its buildings, which the judiciary says is desperately needed.

  • July 30, 2026

    Ease Broadband Buildout To Fuel AI Boom, Lawmakers Urged

    Lawmakers must put an end to delays in broadband deployment and renew a federal cybersecurity statute if they hope to feed the artificial intelligence boom while curtailing safety concerns, U.S. senators heard Thursday.

  • July 30, 2026

    8th Circ. Revives Iowa Vape Restrictions Law

    Iowa can start enforcing a state law that restricts the sale of some e-cigarettes, after the Eighth Circuit on Thursday determined that the policy was not preempted by federal tobacco law and overturned a lower court's ruling that blocked officials from implementing it.

  • July 30, 2026

    Resolution Copper Creates $54M Trust For Ariz., NM Tribes

    Resolution Copper Co. said it established a $54 million trust that will provide annual funding to 11 Indigenous nations that have cultural and ancestral ties to a sacred Arizona worship site that's facing destruction to make way for a multibillion-dollar mining operation.

  • July 30, 2026

    Renters Seek $120M Fee Award In RealPage Rent-Fixing MDL

    Renters in sprawling multidistrict litigation that reached nearly $360 million in preliminary settlements with building owners over their alleged use of RealPage's software to inflate rents asked a Tennessee federal judge to approve $119.9 million in attorney fees, saying they've expended over 100,000 hours on the case.

  • July 30, 2026

    OCC, FDIC Say Ore. Opt-Out Law Threatens Interstate Lending

    Top federal banking regulators have lined up behind the banking industry in a challenge to a new Oregon law aimed at capping interest rates on loans from out-of-state banks, warning in federal court filings that it threatens "confusion" and disruption for interstate lending.

  • July 30, 2026

    DOJ Wants Rethink On Apple's Peek Into Feds' Phone-Buying

    The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a special master to rethink his New Jersey federal court mandate giving Apple a look into how the Pentagon, CIA, State Department and other federal agencies purchase smartphones, arguing that the retired federal judge applied the wrong legal standard in the antitrust case.

  • July 30, 2026

    Conn. Bans Most In-Cell Restraints To Settle Prison Lawsuit

    Connecticut's prisons on Sept. 1 will stop using separate restraints on inmates locked in holding cells, the state's corrections commissioner announced Thursday, settling a lawsuit by disability rights advocates who said the state was inappropriately using shackles to deal with mental illness symptoms.

  • July 30, 2026

    Judge Questions TPS Work Permit Rule's Scope

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Thursday questioned whether the Trump administration was in bounds in enforcing a retroactive cap on work authorization that may impact thousands of immigrant workers, suggesting during a hearing that the directive may have been imposed without adequate notice.

  • July 30, 2026

    FCC Official Calls E-Rate Review 'Long Overdue'

    A top official at the Federal Communications Commission said the agency's review of the E-Rate fund for schools and libraries will be a much-needed reexamination of a 30-year-old telecom program.

  • July 30, 2026

    OECD To Publish Comments On Services Draft In August

    The OECD plans to publish at the end of August the comments it received on draft revisions to transfer pricing guidelines dealing with intragroup services, an official said at a conference Thursday.

  • July 30, 2026

    CH Robinson's $604M Verdict Tests Freight Broker Defenses

    A Dallas County jury's $604 million verdict against C.H. Robinson over a fatal 2021 accident marks one of the first major tests of freight brokers' legal strategies since the U.S. Supreme Court reshaped their liability exposure, creating monumental stakes for the trucking industry's middlemen on how to navigate unpredictable duty-of-care standards and volatile verdicts.

  • July 30, 2026

    The Top Property Insurance Rulings Of The First Half Of 2026

    A California ruling boosting policyholders' prospects in water leak suits and a Texas Supreme Court decision compelling appraisal in a complex commercial property loss are among the biggest property insurance decisions of the year so far. Here, Law360 take a mid-year look at the top property insurance decisions.

  • July 30, 2026

    Colo. Recycling Law Unconstitutional, Trade Association Says

    A national trade association representing wholesale distributors sued Colorado's top environmental regulator Thursday to block enforcement of the state's extended producer responsibility recycling law, arguing the program unconstitutionally delegates regulatory power to a private organization controlled by the state's largest corporations.

  • July 30, 2026

    FAA Proposes Waiving Regs To Get Faster Space Approvals

    The Trump administration said it's proposing a rule to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to waive "unnecessary environmental laws and regulations" for commercial space licenses and permits in a push to accelerate a critical industry.

  • July 30, 2026

    Europe Soccer Group To Boycott FIFA Over Investor Sale Plan

    The soccer federation representing 55 European countries announced Thursday that it will boycott World Cup competition in protest of FIFA's plan to sell billions of dollars in shares of the sport's premier international tournament to private investors.

  • July 30, 2026

    DOJ Debuts Terrorist Removal Court In Afghan Mother's Case

    An Afghan national with legal permanent resident status was accused of plotting an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day in 2024 in the first ever hearing Thursday morning at U.S. Alien Terrorist Removal Court, a court that has been unused since it was created in 1996.

  • July 30, 2026

    Trump May Renominate Blanche If GOP Holdouts Block Vote

    With Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., still on the fence about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's confirmation to be attorney general, President Donald Trump said Thursday he might renominate Blanche next year when the two senators are no longer serving in the Senate.

  • July 30, 2026

    Army Asks 4th Circ. To Rethink Boarding School Burial Ruling

    The U.S. Army wants the Fourth Circuit to rethink a decision that says it must return the remains of two Indigenous children from a former Indian boarding school cemetery to a Nebraska tribe, arguing that if not reversed, it will cause confusion, likely spur more litigation and slow repatriation.

  • July 30, 2026

    Judge Keeps New Medicaid 'Frailty' Proof Rule In Place

    A Massachusetts federal judge late Wednesday declined to block the government from requiring medically frail Medicaid recipients to prove they are significantly impaired to avoid a new requirement that they engage in 80 hours of work or volunteering per month or attend school part-time.

  • July 30, 2026

    Denver Worker Didn't Show Firing Over Mayoral Race Support

    A Denver city employee who alleged that she was laid off in retaliation for supporting a mayoral candidate has lost her bid to keep her job, after a federal judge found she failed to show that her political affiliations or her lawsuit played a meaningful role in the layoff decision.

  • July 30, 2026

    DA Says Trump's NY Hush Money Conviction Must Stand

    New York prosecutors told a state appellate court that President Donald Trump's 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records is "unaffected" by the U.S. Supreme Court's watershed presidential immunity decision and should be upheld.

  • July 30, 2026

    Chinese Truck Beds' Covers Face Possible Triple-Digit Duties

    Chinese truck bed covers manufactured by certain exporters could be hit with triple-digit countervailing duties when exported to the U.S. after the U.S. Department of Commerce found Thursday that the products are subsidized.

  • July 30, 2026

    DOL Chief Nom Sonderling To Get Full Senate Vote

    The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted Thursday in favor of sending acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling's nomination to the full Senate for a confirmation vote, despite Democrats' concerns during a recent hearing about the department's proposed wage and hour rules.

  • July 30, 2026

    Dem Bill Would End Forced Arbitration In Workplace Disputes

    Democratic lawmakers reintroduced a bill Thursday that would eliminate mandatory arbitration agreements in employment contracts and enhance workers' ability to band together to challenge unlawful employment practices.

Expert Analysis

  • 3 Ways Tokenization Is Moving To Traditional Finance

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    Recent initiatives reflect efforts to integrate distributed ledger technology into existing regulatory frameworks for securities, banking and payments settlements while preserving the underlying rights and obligations of market participants, say attorneys at Hughes Hubbard.

  • At The Intersection Of Right-To-Repair Laws And IP Rights

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    Right-to-repair legislation passing through Congress highlights a broad tension between manufacturers' security measures and consumer autonomy, with important repercussions for the automotive industry's intellectual property rights, says Keith Noe at Lando & Anastasi. 

  • Opinion

    States Should Reconsider Forced PBM Divestiture Laws

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    State legislatures are attempting to enact policies intended to force pharmacy benefit managers to divest from pharmacies, but these laws would have the practical effect of reducing patient access and competition, potentially violating the U.S. Constitution in the process, says former Utah Attorney General John Swallow.

  • HSR Deals Proceed More Steadily Than Narratives Suggest

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    The most recent Hart-Scott-Rodino Act data show that transaction volume remained relatively stable, transaction values continued to increase and enforcement activity remained low, suggesting that enforcement rates have been relatively consistent across presidential administrations despite widely differing public rhetoric regarding merger enforcement, says Amanda Wait at Michael Best.

  • Assessing The Benefits Of Fla.'s Newest Business Structure

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    As of July 1, Florida business owners can create protected series LLCs to shield assets from liability while avoiding increased costs and wasted time, but burdensome recordkeeping obligations are crucial to maintaining the very protection that makes them attractive in the first place, says Gregory Ritter at Moritt Hock.

  • Key Post-Proposal Shifts Likely In CFPB Loss Mitigation Rule

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    Mortgage servicers, borrowers and consumer advocates should prepare for a likely narrowed version of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's loss mitigation rule, which is likely to permit sequential reviews, defer to investor guidelines, extend compliance timelines and preempt conflicting state standards, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Series

    Teaching SEC Investigations Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Instructing a law school course on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations has made me a more thoughtful, deliberate practitioner because it requires me to continually reassess and challenge what I know about securities law enforcement, how I know it and how best to explain it, says David Chase at Miami Law.

  • Noncompete Laws Show States Focusing On Bans, Healthcare

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    The first half of 2026 confirms that state legislatures are driving the most consequential changes in noncompete law, including a few state bans and several healthcare-specific laws, making a one-size-fits-all approach increasingly untenable for multistate employers, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What's Inside Proposed, Expanded NY Stablecoin Regulations

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    New York's recently proposed regulations for payment stablecoin issuers would, if adopted, increase the regulatory burdens of a state license, and midsize issuers considering a conversion to a federal charter should weigh the associated costs of both options, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Justices' Tax Sale Ruling Tees Up Auction Fairness Battles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Pung v. Isabella County, Michigan, that taxpayers are not entitled to fair market value of real property seized to satisfy a tax debt shifts attention to the fairness of state and local auction procedures, and whether taxpayers claiming surplus proceeds face unwarranted hurdles, say attorneys at Miller Canfield.

  • What Corporate Counsel Can Learn From OpenAI Test Breach

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    The significance of the recent artificial intelligence testing breach involving OpenAI and Hugging Face lies in what it reveals about the path of AI’s evolution, because legal professionals must translate that trajectory into actionable governance, contractual and advisory frameworks, says Jason Mueller at Vorys.

  • Patent Eligibility Reforms Keep Chasing The Wrong Fixes

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    Repeated efforts to create a consistent, predictable patent eligibility standard under Section 101 have centered on replacing judge-made exceptions with new statutory language, but the better fix is to align examination standards with how courts actually apply eligibility doctrine, says former Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge Amee Shah.

  • Opinion

    Qualified Immunity Bill's Reach Goes Beyond Federal Officers

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    The federal Qualified Immunity Abolition Act, introduced earlier this year and described by the bill sponsors as a federal-officer measure, would in actuality reach the entire universe of Section 1983 defendants, a distinction that matters as much to defense counsel as to plaintiffs, says attorney V. James DeSimone.

  • State Of Insurance: Q2 Notes From Pennsylvania

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    Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey highlights notable second-quarter insurance developments in Pennsylvania, including federal court opinions providing guidance on first-party and third-party insurance coverage principles, and a pending bill seeking to regulate health insurers' use of artificial intelligence.

  • Assessing DOJ Antitrust's New, Faster Merger Review Option

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    The U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division's recently announced targeted second request option and new model timing signal a commercially friendly stance and a departure from the prior administration's position, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

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