Public Policy

September 23, 2025
DHS Floats H-1B Rule To Prioritize Higher-Paid Workers

The Trump administration proposed a rule on Tuesday to change the H-1B lottery process to one that gives priority to higher-skilled workers at companies offering better pay, according to a Federal Register notice.
September 23, 2025
Trump Tariffs Are Constitutional, President's Allies Tell Justices

Two Republican lawmakers and two allied nonprofit groups told the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday that it should allow President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs authorized under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
September 23, 2025
Tribe Fights Mont. County's Bid To Delay Voting Rights Case

An Indigenous tribe is fighting a county's bid to pause its voting rights lawsuit in Montana federal court, arguing that a dilutive map illegally supports an "at large" election system that has resulted in a failure to meet the needs of tribal citizens.
September 23, 2025
Ex-Provost Says UNC Hired Belichick After Unlawful Meeting

A former provost is suing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's board of trustees in state court, alleging the board conducted last-minute hiring deliberations over a multimillion-dollar contract for legendary football coach Bill Belichick in an unlawfully secret meeting.
September 23, 2025
Cannabis Cos. To Pay $400K In Deal Over Sleep Aid Product

The companies behind the 1906 brand of cannabis products have agreed to halt all sales in Colorado and pay $400,000 to the state in order to end an investigation into allegations that they sold a marijuana-based sleep-aid product, "Midnight Drops," that might have caused liver problems.
September 23, 2025
Tylenol MDL In Spotlight After Trump Blasts Use In Pregnancy

The Trump administration's attack on the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy drew on the work of a Harvard expert whose analysis is central to a legal clash now before a federal appeals court. The president's broadside promises to energize plaintiffs.
September 23, 2025
$6.6M IRS Civil Fraud Penalty Ruled Constitutional

A Pennsylvania federal judge upheld a $6.6 million civil fraud tax penalty against an insurance broker over its captive deductions, ruling Tuesday that the Internal Revenue Service's assessment of the penalty without a jury trial was constitutional.
September 23, 2025
Watchdog Calls For D.C., Md. Bar Investigations Into Carr

A government accountability watchdog brought a complaint against Federal Communications Chair Brendan Carr to the D.C. Bar Association on Tuesday, claiming Carr violated conduct rules when he threatened to bring FCC action against ABC if it declined to discipline Jimmy Kimmel over his remarks following Charlie Kirk's murder.
September 23, 2025
NC Sens. Vote To Cut Planned Parenthood's Medicaid Funds

Republican state senators in North Carolina have greenlit a bill that would revoke Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, aligning the Tar Heel state with the president's "One Big Beautiful Bill," which prohibits Medicaid funding for nonprofit groups that provide abortion services.
September 23, 2025
Churches Urge DC Circ. To Revive Bid To Block ICE Raids

Christian and Jewish religious organizations urged the D.C. Circuit to vacate a denial of their preliminary injunction request to stop immigration raids on places of worship, arguing Monday their injuries caused by attendance drops are traceable to the "unprecedented assault on their religious exercise" by the Department of Homeland Security.
September 23, 2025
Dali's Owner Can't Shift Blame For Bridge Collapse, Court Told

The Singaporean owner and manager of the container ship that slammed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and triggered its collapse cannot try to shift blame for its own failings, the South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. has told a Pennsylvania federal court.
September 23, 2025
FERC Urges Justices To Let Grid Incentive Ruling Stand

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to disturb its revocation of an incentive for power companies that are required to be members of a regional transmission organization.
September 23, 2025
Feds Illegally Denying Immigrant Bond Hearings, Suit Says

The Trump administration is deliberately misclassifying immigrants marked for removal proceedings in an effort to illegally skirt their right to a bond hearing, according to a proposed class action filed Tuesday in Massachusetts federal court.
September 23, 2025
Neb. Tribe Seeking Kids' Remains Fights Army's Defense

A Native American tribe seeking to repatriate children's remains currently held on U.S. Army property told the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday that the federal government is misrepresenting the tribe's complaint by claiming the tribe improperly said it couldn't locate living relatives.
September 23, 2025
9th Circ. Rejects Rehearing On Arizona Voting Restrictions

The Ninth Circuit has said it will not reconsider its decision that certain provisions of two Republican-backed Arizona voting laws violated federal law by requiring residents to provide proof of citizenship to vote by mail and in presidential elections.
September 23, 2025
EU Eyeing Country-Level Min. Tax Exemption For US Cos.

The European Union's preferred method for accommodating the U.S. proposal to exempt American companies from the 15% global minimum tax's international provisions would be to allow a conditional safe harbor that member countries would need to enact individually, a top EU tax official told lawmakers Tuesday.
September 23, 2025
'Bridgegate' Drivers Drop Lawsuit Against State Of NJ

After more than a decade of litigation, George Washington Bridge travelers who claimed the "Bridgegate" traffic jam violated their constitutional rights notified the New Jersey federal court that they will not pursue their claims individually after the Third Circuit denied their petition for an interlocutory appeal of the denial of class certification.
September 23, 2025
Gun Group Misused Buyers' Data For Political Ads, Suit Says

The National Shooting Sports Foundation Inc. unjustly enriched itself by secretly obtaining the personal data of millions of firearms buyers from warranty registration cards and creating a database it then used to spread tailored political messages, a proposed class action alleges.
September 23, 2025
Foes Slam Feds' GHG Plan As Trump Decries Green 'Scam'

Green groups and democrats are strongly opposing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to abandon a key greenhouse gas policy, as President Donald Trump on Tuesday called climate change "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world."
September 23, 2025
28 AGs Tell 4th Circ. NC Vape Law Isn't Preempted By FDCA

A group of 28 attorneys general are urging the Fourth Circuit not to block a North Carolina state law prohibiting the sale of e-cigarettes unapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, saying the law isn't preempted by federal law.
September 23, 2025
DOJ Adds Tribes To Program Enhancing Crime Data Exchange

The U.S. Department of Justice has selected six federally recognized Indigenous nations to participate in efforts to continue expansion of the Tribal Access Program for National Crime Information that will give their law enforcement and government access to databases maintained by the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division.
September 23, 2025
EX-CTA Worker's $425K Vaccine Bias Award Capped At $300K

An Illinois federal judge lowered a former Chicago Transit Authority employee's $425,000 jury award to $300,000 Tuesday for the ex-worker's claim that he was wrongly fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, entering a judgment the judge said he'll later amend with awards that include back and front pay.
September 23, 2025
Two Longtime HHS Attys Depart Posts For Crowell & Moring

Two prominent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services attorneys have left their posts for Crowell & Moring LLP after more than two decades in the federal government.
September 23, 2025
Chief Judge In Ala. To Take Semiretirement Status Next Year

Chief U.S. District Judge David Proctor of the Northern District of Alabama has informed the president that he will take senior status Jan. 1, 2026.
September 23, 2025
Texas Bans Hemp Sales To Minors Under Emergency Rule

Texas regulators on Tuesday adopted emergency rules restricting the sale of hemp-derived psychoactive products to anyone under the age of 21.

Editor's Picks

Trump's Legal Battles

States, federal employee unions, various advocacy groups and several individuals have filed over 220 lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's implementation of executive orders and other initiatives. Law360 has created a database of those lawsuits, separated into categories based on their subject matter.

Expert Analysis

Calif. Bill May Shake Up Healthcare Investment Landscape

If signed by the governor, newly passed California legislation would significantly expand the Office of Health Care Affordability's oversight of private equity and hedge fund investments in healthcare companies and management services organizations, and raise several questions about companies' data confidentiality and filing burdens, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.
How Prohibiting Trigger Leads May Affect Mortgage Marketing

Recent amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibiting the sale of trigger leads mark a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for mortgage lenders, third-party lead generators and their legal counsel, who should reevaluate lead generation strategies and compliance protocols, say Joel Herberman, Rob Robilliard and Leah Dempsey at Brownstein Hyatt.
How Hyperlinks Are Changing E-Discovery Responsibilities

A recent e-discovery dispute over hyperlinked data in Hubbard v. Crow shows how courts have increasingly broadened the definition of control to account for cloud-based evidence, and why organizations must rethink preservation practices to avoid spoliation risks, says Bree Murphy at Exterro.
Pharma Copay Programs Raise Complex Economic Questions

The growing prevalence of copay accumulator and maximizer programs in the pharmaceutical industry is drawing increased scrutiny from patients, advocacy groups, lawmakers and courts, bringing complex questions about how financial responsibility for prescription drug purchases is determined and complicating damages assessments in litigation, say analysts at Analysis Group.
State False Claims Acts Can Help Curb Opioid Fund Fraud

State versions of the federal False Claims Act can play an important role in policing the misuse of opioid settlement funds, taking a cue from the U.S. Department of Justice’s handling of federal fraud cases involving pandemic relief funds, says Kenneth Levine at Stone & Magnanini.
Pemex Bribery Charges Provide Glimpse Into FCPA Evolution

A recently unsealed indictment against two Mexican nationals for allegedly bribing officials at Pemex, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, reveals that Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement is adapting to new priorities, but still remains active, and compliance programs should continue apace, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.
CFPB Proposal Defining Consumer Risk May Add Uncertainty

Though a recent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposal would codify when risks to consumers justify supervisory intervention against nonbanks, furthering Trump administration plans to curtail CFPB authority, firms may still struggle to identify what could attract supervisory designation under the new rule, say attorneys at Steptoe.
Targeting Execs Could Hurt SEC's Probusiness Goals

While many enforcement changes under the Trump administration’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have been touted by commission leadership as proinnovation and probusiness, a planned focus on holding individual directors and officers responsible for wrongdoing may have the opposite effect, say attorneys at MoFo.
Preserving Refunds As Tariffs Await Supreme Court Weigh-In

In the event that the U.S. Supreme Court decides in V.O.S. Selections v. Trump that the president doesn't have authority to levy tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, importers should keep records of imports on which they have paid such tariffs and carefully monitor the liquidation dates, say attorneys at Butzel.
How Justices' Ruling Upends Personal Jurisdiction Defense

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Fuld v. Palestinian Liberation Organization, holding that the Fifth Amendment's due process clause does not require a defendant to have minimum contacts with a forum, may thwart foreign defendants' reliance on personal jurisdiction to evade federal claims in U.S. courts, say attorneys at Axinn.
Key Points From DOJ's New DeFi Enforcement Outline

Recent remarks by the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division head Matthew Galeotti reveal several issues that the decentralized finance industry should address in order to minimize risk, including developers' role in evaluating protocols and the importance of illicit finance risk assessments, says Drew Rolle at Alston & Bird.
Revamped Opportunity Zones Can Aid Clean Energy Projects

The Qualified Opportunity Zone program, introduced in 2017 and reshaped in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, offers investors federal tax incentives for development in low-income communities — incentives that are especially meaningful for clean energy projects, where capital-intensive infrastructure and long-term planning are essential, say attorneys at Dentons.
Assessing Potential Ad Tech Remedies Ahead Of Google Trial

The Virginia federal judge tasked with prying open Google’s digital advertising monopoly faces a smorgasbord of potential remedies, all with different implications for competition, government control and consumers' internet experience, but compromises reached in the parallel Google search monopoly litigation may point a way forward, say attorneys at MoloLamken.
Earned Wage Access Providers Face State Law Labyrinth

At least 12 states have established laws or rules regulating services that allow employees to access earned wages before payday, with more laws potentially to follow suit, creating an evolving state licensing maze even for fintech providers that partner with banks, say attorneys at Venable.
The Pros And Cons Of Levying Value-Based Fees On Patents

The potential for a recurring, value-based maintenance fee on patents, while offering some benefits, raises several complications, including that it would likely exceed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's statutory authority and reduce research and development activities in the U.S., says Sandip Patel at Marshall Gerstein.