Public Policy

  • January 30, 2026

    Trump Says Court Can't Review Rule Delay For Chemical Cos.

    The Trump administration has urged a D.C. federal judge to nix a lawsuit by green groups that claim it violated the Clean Air Act by postponing emission standard compliance deadlines for 50 chemical manufacturing facilities, arguing they lack standing since they fail to sufficiently allege injury from all facilities that received exemption.

  • January 30, 2026

    Russian Skier's Appeal For Olympic Berth Too Late, CAS Says

    The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Thursday that it could not entertain Russian cross-country skier Alexander Bolshunov's bid to compete in the Winter Olympic Games as an individual neutral athlete.

  • January 30, 2026

    Mich. Can't Shake Residents' Water Suit Based On Timeliness

    A Michigan appellate court has allowed lead contamination claims from Benton Harbor residents to proceed, affirming that state officials did not make clear the level of danger in the city's water system for purposes of starting the clock on the statute of limitations.

  • January 30, 2026

    7th Circ. Grills Trump Admin Atty Over Definition Of Illegal DEI

    Seventh Circuit judges on Friday pushed an attorney for the Trump administration to define what kind of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives it deems illegal in requiring grant recipients to certify they don't promote DEI programs that violate anti-discrimination law, with one judge saying the unanswered question has caused "frustration" in litigation over the requirement.

  • January 30, 2026

    The Message From Delaware Courts: Change Is Coming

    Delaware's Supreme Court delivered a reminder to the state's corporation law ecosystem recently with a reversal of a Court of Chancery decision invalidating a 7-year-old stockholder agreement that granted broad corporate powers to investment bank Moelis & Co.'s founder.

  • January 30, 2026

    Okla. Gov. Challenges AG's Tribal Hunting Policy Opinion

    Oklahoma's governor and wildlife department have urged the Oklahoma Supreme Court to give them control over hunting and fishing rights on tribal reservation lands so they can issue state-managed permits, arguing that an opinion by the state's attorney general wrongly says federal law prohibits such permitting.

  • January 30, 2026

    DOL Adds More H-2B Visas For Imperiled Employers

    The U.S. Department of Labor issued a temporary rule Friday making another 64,716 H-2B visas for seasonal, non-agricultural workers available for fiscal year 2026, but only to employers facing severe financial hardship.

  • January 30, 2026

    Labor Dept. Recovered $1.4B For Benefit Plans In Fiscal '25

    The U.S. Department of Labor reported $1.4 billion in recoveries for employee benefit plans in its latest enforcement report on Friday, an amount equal to what the agency has reported for the previous three fiscal years, although it had a significant uptick in funds recovered from abandoned plans.

  • January 30, 2026

    Ex-Mass. Pol Gets Extra Month In Prison For Obstruction

    A former Massachusetts state senator who was two weeks from being released from prison on unemployment and tax fraud charges will spend an additional month in custody for misleading investigators, a federal judge ordered on Friday with "some misgivings."

  • January 30, 2026

    Ex-NC City Council Member Cops To COVID Fraud In Plea Deal

    A former Charlotte City Council member reached a plea deal Friday in her North Carolina federal wire fraud case in which she admits to stealing COVID-19 business relief funds by submitting bogus applications to obtain money she later used to throw herself a birthday party.

  • January 30, 2026

    FCC Urges Cos. To Tamp Down Ransomware Risks

    The Federal Communications Commission called on companies to take tough measures against ransomware attacks and report data breaches and outages from cybersecurity incidents.

  • January 30, 2026

    Bill Regulating Attorney AI Use Passes California Senate

    A proposed California law that would regulate attorneys and arbitrators' use of generative artificial intelligence statewide has headed to the Assembly after the state Senate unanimously approved the measure.

  • January 30, 2026

    Ex-Fla. Rep. Says Prosecutor Has 'Personal Animus' In DQ Bid

    A former Florida congressman and a lobbyist charged with failing to register as foreign agents for Venezuela urged a federal court to disqualify an assistant U.S. attorney in the case, saying Friday that the prosecutor has a conflict of interest and "personal animus" toward defense counsel.

  • January 30, 2026

    US Rebukes WTO Siding With China On Energy Tax Credits

    The U.S. Trade Representative condemned the World Trade Organization's decision to side with China in a dispute over energy tax credits passed during former President Joe Biden's term Friday, calling the global body's dispute resolution mechanism inadequate.

  • January 30, 2026

    Undersea Cable Cos. Seek Slash In FCC License Paperwork

    Submarine cable providers want the Federal Communications Commission to replace its current "ad hoc" procedure for approving license applications with one that's more streamlined and clearly spelled out in FCC rules.

  • January 30, 2026

    FTC Requires Facility Sales For $835M Healthcare Deal

    The Federal Trade Commission reached an agreement Friday allowing Sevita Health to move ahead with an $835 million deal for BrightSpring Health Services Inc.'s community living business, conditioned on the sale of more than 100 facilities.

  • January 30, 2026

    House To Vote On Reform Of Court Nondisclosure Orders

    Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., fumed at the House on Friday for trying to undo a provision that allows him and other senators investigated by special counsel Jack Smith to sue for damages and held up the government funding vote as a result. But a bill the House is poised to take up next week could alleviate some of his concerns.

  • January 30, 2026

    Feds Say Alleged $100K H-1B Fee Harm Only Speculative

    The Trump administration asked a California federal judge to dismiss a suit challenging President Donald Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee, arguing it rests upon multiple what-ifs that deprive the groups that challenged the fee of standing.

  • January 30, 2026

    Attys Rip Judge-Shopping Sanctions As Bid To 'Rewrite' Rules

    Two Alabama attorneys who were sanctioned for allegedly judge shopping in a civil rights case urged the Eleventh Circuit to toss the sanctions Friday, arguing the judges accusing them were seeking to "rewrite" the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

  • January 30, 2026

    FTC Warns 42 Law Firms Of DEI 'Anticompetitive Collusion'

    The Federal Trade Commission announced Friday that it has sent warning letters to 42 major law firms for their purported participation in an outside diversity, equity and inclusion program, alleging their participation could constitute anticompetitive collusion.

  • January 30, 2026

    Virginia Senators Ask DHS IG To Investigate Surveillance Tech

    Virginia's Democratic senators have urged the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's inspector general to investigate the agency's technology procurement amid the Trump administration's immigration enforcement push, warning that DHS' various information collection tools put Americans' privacy rights under threat.

  • January 30, 2026

    Commerce Outlines USMCA Truck Tariff Discount Reporting

    The federal government Friday outlined criteria to meet and information that importers must provide on imported medium- and heavy-duty trucks to qualify for preferential tariff treatment under the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement.

  • January 30, 2026

    DOJ Requires Divestitures For Reddy Ice-Arctic Glacier Tie-Up

    The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division is forcing Reddy Ice to divest assets in five geographic areas in order to win approval for a $126 million acquisition of competitor Arctic Glacier.

  • January 30, 2026

    Amazon Says Shoppers' Labeling Suit Is Corrupted By AI Errors

    In customers' latest filing in their proposed class action accusing Amazon of failing to make required disclosures on dietary supplement product pages, the e-commerce giant alleges that the plaintiffs have submitted a document riddled with errors derived from the use of generative text.

  • January 30, 2026

    Trade Court Slams Gov't Bid To Dismiss Wood Shutter Case

    A U.S. Court of International Trade judge rejected the government's argument that a wood shutter company obscured the "true nature" of its challenge of the Department of Commerce's refusal to review duties on its products, saying the government didn't adequately explain how to make that determination.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Supreme Court Term Limits Would Carry Hidden Risk

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    While proposals for limiting the terms of U.S. Supreme Court justices are popular, a steady stream of relatively young, highly marketable ex-justices with unique knowledge and influence entering the marketplace of law and politics could create new problems, say Michael Broyde at Emory University and Hayden Hall at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

  • Navigating A Sea Change In Rent Algorithm Regulation

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's proposed settlement of the RealPage lawsuit represents a pivotal moment in the regulation of algorithmic rent-setting, restraining use of these tools amid a growing trend of regulatory limits on use of algorithmic data and methodologies in establishing housing rental prices. say attorneys at Wilson Elser.

  • Tariffs And Trade Volatility Drove 2025 Bankruptcy Wave

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    The Trump administration's tariff regime has reshaped the commercial restructuring landscape this year, with an increased number of bankruptcy filings showing how tariffs are influencing first‑day narratives, debtor-in-possession terms and case strategies, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Insuring Equality: 3 Tips To Preserve Coverage For DEI Claims

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    Directors and officers and employment practices liability are key coverages for policyholders to review as potentially responsive to the emerging liability threat of Trump's executive orders targeting corporate diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices, says Micah Skidmore at Haynes Boone.

  • Perspectives

    Justice Requires Excluding Manner Of Death As Evidence

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    A recent report showing that the unstandardized and subjective U.S. system of medicolegal death investigations contributes to unjust convictions should prompt courts and lawmakers to reject manner of death testimony in favor of more transparent and testable forensic evidence, say Peter Neufeld and Isabelle Cohn at the Innocence Project.

  • The SEC Whistleblower Program A Year Into 2nd Trump Admin

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower program continues to operate as designed, but its internal cadence, scrutiny of claims and operational structure reflect a period of recalibration, with precision mattering more than ever, say attorneys Scott Silver and David Chase.

  • Autonomous Vehicle Liability Trends To Watch In 2026

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    With autonomous vehicles increasingly making their own decisions, the liability landscape for AVs has changed over the past year — highlighting a number of important issues that companies and practitioners should keep a close eye on in 2026, says Farid Yaghoubtil at Downtown LA Law Group.

  • Key Crypto Class Action Trends And Rulings In 2025

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    As the law continued to take shape in the growing area of crypto-assets, this year saw a jump in crypto class action litigation, including noteworthy decisions on motions to compel arbitration and class certification, according to Justin Donoho at Duane Morris.

  • New Russia Energy Sanctions Add Compliance Complexity

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    Recent U.S. and U.K. designations of Russian oil companies and related entities, as well as a new sanctions package from EU, mark a significant escalation in restrictions on the Russian energy industry and add a new layer of regulatory complications for companies operating in the global energy sector, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • 6 Laws For Calif. Employers To Know In 2026

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    California's legislative changes for 2026 impose sweeping new obligations on employers, including by expanding pay data reporting, clarifying protections related to bias mitigation training and broadening record access rights, but employers can avoid heightened exposure by proactively evaluating their compliance, modernizing internal systems and updating policies, says Alexa Foley at Gordon Rees.

  • How New SEC Policies Shift Shareholder Proposal Landscape

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    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins' recent remarks provide a road map for public companies to exclude nonbinding shareholder proposals from proxy materials, which would disrupt the mechanism that has traditionally defined how shareholders and companies engage on governance matters, say attorneys at Gunderson.

  • NBA, MLB Betting Indictments: Slam Dunks Or Strikeouts?

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    Recent fraud charges against bettors, NBA players and MLB pitchers raise questions about what the government will need to prove to prosecute individuals involved in placing bets based on nonpublic information, and it could be a tough sell to juries, say attorneys at Ford O'Brien.

  • Tracking The Evolution Of AI Insurance Regulation In 2025

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    As artificial intelligence continues to transform the insurance industry, including underwriting, pricing, claims processing and customer engagement, state regulators, led by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, are increasing oversight to ensure that innovation does not outpace consumer protections, say attorneys at Fenwick.

  • Series

    Knitting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Stretching my skills as a knitter makes me a better antitrust attorney by challenging me to recalibrate after wrong turns, not rush outcomes, and trust that I can teach myself the skills to tackle new and difficult projects — even when I don’t have a pattern to work from, says Kara Kuritz at V&E.

  • How 11th Circ.'s Qui Tam Review Could Affect FCA Litigation

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    On Dec. 12, the Eleventh Circuit will hear arguments in U.S. ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, setting the stage for a decision that could drastically reduce enforcement under the False Claims Act, and presenting an opportunity to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the act's whistleblower provisions, say attorneys at Epstein Becker.

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