Public Policy

  • July 30, 2025

    White House Crypto Report Sets Blueprint For Coming Rules

    A long-awaited report from the President's Working Group on Digital Asset Markets that was released Wednesday encouraged securities and derivatives regulators to use their existing authorities to clear the way for crypto issuance and trading in the absence of lasting legislation, while also urging banking regulators to sharpen standards for crypto engagement.

  • July 30, 2025

    Connecticut Says 2 Men Sold $2.5M In Fake Cannabis Licenses

    Two Connecticut businessmen ran a counterfeit cannabis licensing operation, selling fake credentials to as many as 70 retailers in the state for as much as $30,000 a certificate, according to a lawsuit filed by state officials who seek a $2.5 million judgment against the accused.

  • July 30, 2025

    Refugee Class Certified In Suit Over Trump's Admissions Ban

    A Washington federal judge said Wednesday that a challenge to the Trump administration's halt on refugee admissions may move forward as a class action on behalf of individuals seeking entry into the country and others impacted by the suspension, while also spurning the federal government's dismissal bid.

  • July 30, 2025

    GHG Regs Rollback Would Test Clean Air Act Interpretation

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to eliminate a pillar of climate change regulation could test the agency's — and courts' — interpretations of Clean Air Act language that has remained largely unquestioned since the Obama administration.

  • July 30, 2025

    NTSB Hearing Probes Helicopter Risks In DCA Collision

    The U.S. Army helicopter involved in January's deadly midair collision over the Potomac River was flying almost 100 feet higher than it should've been near one of Washington, D.C.'s busiest airports as the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday examined equipment and operational lapses tied to the accident.

  • July 30, 2025

    Microsoft Browser Rival Asks Brazil To Investigate Tech Titan

    Microsoft has been flexing its power as owner of the world's most dominant computer operating system to make people use its own web browser over those belonging to competitors, one such rival told Brazilian competition authorities.

  • July 30, 2025

    Calif. Sens. Slam Trump's US Atty 'Hijacking' To Keep LA Ally

    California Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff issued a statement Wednesday condemning the Trump administration's decision to "circumvent the law" and appoint Bill Essayli as acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, in a move echoing the recent appointment of Alina Habba as acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey.

  • July 30, 2025

    Mich. Appeals Panel Settles Split On Notice Rule Retroactivity

    A special Michigan Court of Appeals panel said on Tuesday that a state high court ruling enforcing a notice requirement for lawsuits against the state is retroactive, resolving a conflict within the intermediate appellate court and upholding the dismissal of a correction worker's suit.

  • July 30, 2025

    Senate OKs Kirkland & Ellis Partner For Commerce Trade Role

    The U.S. Senate confirmed William Kimmitt on Tuesday to lead the U.S. International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

  • July 30, 2025

    8th Circ. Tosses Ruling Striking Binding NEPA Regulations

    The Eighth Circuit has granted blue states' bid to vacate a ruling that faulted the White House Council on Environmental Quality for issuing binding regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act, following the Trump administration's decision to withdraw those regulations.

  • July 30, 2025

    Imam Says Revoked Asylum Left Him In A 'Constitutional Void'

    An Egyptian children's hospital chaplain who is fighting the revocation of his asylum status urged an Ohio federal judge to order his release from immigration detention, arguing that the government is unlawfully detaining him based on allegations he supported a group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

  • July 30, 2025

    Judge Denies Fired Copyright Chief's Reinstatement Bid

    A D.C. federal judge ruled Wednesday that the fired leader of the U.S. Copyright Office cannot immediately be reinstated while she challenges her termination by the Trump administration, saying she has not shown irreparable harm to herself or that the agency "will grind to a halt without her."

  • July 30, 2025

    EPA Extends Compliance Deadlines For Methane Control Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is extending certain compliance deadlines for a Biden-era rule that imposed sweeping new methane control requirements for oil and gas infrastructure.

  • July 30, 2025

    Calif. Tribe Says 70-Acre Casino Land Fight Must Continue

    The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria are fighting a bid by a fellow California tribe to pause their challenge to the U.S. Department of the Interior's decision to take 70 acres into trust for a casino project while a sovereign immunity order is appealed to the Ninth Circuit.

  • July 30, 2025

    US Adds 40% Tariff On Brazil, Sanctions Top Court Justice

    President Donald Trump imposed a 40% tariff on Brazil on Wednesday, alleging in an executive order that the country's Supreme Court is "politically persecuting" former President Jair Bolsonaro, while the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned one of the court's justices.

  • July 30, 2025

    GTCR Denied Rival's Old Sales Prospects Data In FTC Case

    An Illinois federal judge refused Tuesday to force a rival medical device coatings company to cough up old sales projections data so private equity firm GTCR BC Holdings can defend against a Federal Trade Commission challenge to its $627 million purchase of Surmodics.

  • July 30, 2025

    Senate Panel Advances 2 Bipartisan Bills Boosting ESOPs

    A key Senate panel advanced two bills Wednesday that would change federal benefits law related to employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs, by providing businesses additional legal cover when they make company stock valuations and by adding ESOP representatives to a federal advisory board.

  • July 30, 2025

    Gov't Contracting Policies To Watch In The 2nd Half Of 2025

    A planned overhaul of the Federal Acquisition Regulation and the implementation of a fee-shifting provision for unsuccessful U.S. Government Accountability Office bid protests headline a slate of policy initiatives for government contractors to watch for during the second half of this year.

  • July 30, 2025

    Texas Senate Again Approves Ban On Hemp-Derived THC

    Texas state senators on Wednesday once again gave approval to a legislative proposal to ban products with THC derived from hemp. 

  • July 30, 2025

    Noem Hit With Religious Discrimination Suit Over Ayahuasca

    A Florida woman alleges in a new federal discrimination lawsuit that U.S. Customs and Border Protection rescinded her job offer after she disclosed her religious practice includes consumption of ayahuasca tea, a federally controlled substance.

  • July 30, 2025

    Cable Industry Seeks Bar On Rate Regulation Under BEAD

    Independent cable providers are urging the U.S. Department of Commerce to guard against policies that could be construed as rate regulation as it continues a revamp of more than $42 billion in broadband funding to states and territories.

  • July 30, 2025

    Fla. AG Allowed To Drop Sandoz Generics Price-Fixing Claims

    After several months of wrangling over the terms of a $10 million generic drug price-fixing settlement, a Connecticut federal judge on Wednesday granted Florida's request to permanently drop its claims against Sandoz, finding that it would be an abuse of discretion to hold up the resolution any longer.

  • July 30, 2025

    Buddhist Group's Suit Against Everglades Project Advances

    A Florida Buddhist center's suit against an Army Corps of Engineers project in the Everglades will continue after a district court judge determined the center plausibly argued that the potential impacts of the project's construction didn't become clear until at least 2022.

  • July 30, 2025

    Trump Official Denies Shutting Down FEMA Disaster Program

    The administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told a Massachusetts federal judge that President Donald Trump's administration has not decided whether to end the agency's flagship natural disaster protection program, despite a lawsuit by 20 states claiming it had been shut down.

  • July 30, 2025

    Dem Senators Press 9th Circ. Pick On Gender Role Beliefs

    Eric Tung, a partner at Jones Day and nominee for the Ninth Circuit, faced questions from Democratic senators during his nomination hearing Wednesday about his views on gender roles, based on remarks he gave to the Yale Daily News in 2004, when he was in college.

Expert Analysis

  • How Trump Cybersecurity EO Narrows Biden-Era Standards

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    President Donald Trump recently signed Executive Order No. 14306, which significantly narrows the scope and ambition of a Biden executive order focused on raising federal cybersecurity standards among federal vendors, say attorneys at Jenner & Block.

  • Forced Labor Bans Hold Steady Amid Shifts In Global Trade

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    As businesses try to navigate shifting regulatory trends affecting human rights and sustainability, forced labor import bans present a zone of relative stability, notwithstanding outstanding questions about the future of enforcement, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Grappling With Workforce-Related Immigration Enforcement

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    To withstand the tightening of workforce-related immigration rules and the enforcement uptick we are seeing in the U.S. and elsewhere, companies must strike a balance between responding quickly to regulatory changes, and developing proactive strategies that minimize risk, say attorneys at Fragomen.

  • Opinion

    The SEC Should Embrace Tokenized Equity, Not Strangle It

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should grant no-action relief to firms ready to pilot tokenized equity trading, not delay innovation by heeding protectionist industry arguments, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.

  • Compliance Changes On Deck For Banks Under Texas AI Law

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    Financial services companies, including banks and fintechs, should evaluate their artificial intelligence usage to prepare for Texas' newly passed law regulating AI governance, noting that the enforcement provisions provide for an affirmative defense to liability, say attorneys at Mitchell Sandler.

  • What To Do When Congress And DOJ Both Come Knocking

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    As recently seen in the news, clients may find themselves facing parallel U.S. Department of Justice and congressional investigations, requiring a comprehensive response that considers the different challenges posed by each, say attorneys at Friedman Kaplan.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Learning From Failure

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    While law school often focuses on the importance of precision, correctness and perfection, mistakes are inevitable in real-world practice — but failure is not the opposite of progress, and real talent comes from the ability to recover, rethink and reshape, says Brooke Pauley at Tucker Ellis.

  • How Justices' Ruling On NEPA Reviews Is Playing Out

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court's May decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, narrowing the scope of agencies' required reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, the effects of the ruling are starting to become visible in the actions of lower courts and the agencies themselves, say attorneys at Saul Ewing.

  • How Sweeping Budget Bill Shakes Up Health Industry

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    With the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act marking one of the most significant overhauls of federal health policy since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, providers, managed care organizations and life sciences companies must now shift focus from policy review to implementation planning, say advisers at Holland & Knight.

  • Deep-Sea Mining Outlook Murky, But May Be Getting Clearer

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    U.S. companies interested in accessing deep-sea mineral resources face uncertainty over new federal regulations and how U.S. policy may interact with pending international agreements — but a Trump administration executive order and provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act should help bring clarity, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Legal Ops, Compliance Increasingly Vital To Antitrust Strategy

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    With deal timelines tightening and disclosure requirements intensifying, legal operations and compliance teams are becoming critical drivers of premerger strategy, cross-functional alignment and regulatory credibility, says Alexander Lima at Wesco International.

  • What's Next For CFPB After 'Big Beautiful' Funding Cuts

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    While the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's funding cuts to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are unlikely to have an independent effect in the short run, they could exacerbate the existing issue of wide regulatory fluctuations in successive administrations in the longer run, say attorneys at Covington.

  • Series

    Adapting To Private Practice: From ATF Director To BigLaw

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    As a two-time boomerang partner, returning to BigLaw after stints as a U.S. attorney and the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, people ask me how I know when to move on, but there’s no single answer — just clearly set your priorities, says Steven Dettelbach at BakerHostetler.

  • What To Know As SEC Looks To Expand Private Fund Access

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    As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission considers expanding retail access to private markets, understanding how these funds operate — and the role of financial intermediaries in guiding investors — is increasingly important, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Fla. Law Is Part Of State Trend On Curbing Foreign Influence

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    A recently effective Florida law that broadly prohibits charities from receiving or soliciting funds from individuals and entities associated with certain foreign countries, the first of its kind in the nation, follows a growing state-level focus on foreign influence regulation, say attorneys at Venable.

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