Public Policy

  • August 14, 2025

    Colo. Sex Offender Can't Nix Registry Over Expunged Record

    A Colorado Court of Appeals panel held Thursday in a matter of first impression that an expunged juvenile sex offense can be a factor in determining lifetime registration as a sex offender, rejecting a defendant's arguments that it violates the ex post facto clause and the Eighth Amendment.

  • August 14, 2025

    9th Circ. OKs Returning Calif. Farm Wage Suit To State Court

    A California farmworker's wage and hour suit against Sunsweet Growers Inc. can proceed in state court, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled Thursday, rejecting the company's argument that the suit belongs in federal court and should be dismissed.

  • August 14, 2025

    Austin Asks Justices To Toss Abortion Travel Decision

    The city of Austin, Texas, threw its weight behind San Antonio in the latter's fight against a state appeals court finding that barred San Antonio from funding out-of-state abortion travel, telling the Texas Supreme Court the ruling allows the state to thwart Texas cities' legislative process.

  • August 14, 2025

    DC Judge Halts Some USDA Climate Grant Terminations

    A D.C. federal judge on Thursday halted the U.S. Department of Agriculture's termination of certain climate-focused grants awarded to five nonprofits, saying the terminations were likely arbitrary and capricious but stopping short of blocking the administration's broader grant termination policy.

  • August 14, 2025

    DOJ Says No Habeas Exception In Georgetown Scholar's Case

    The Trump administration has told the Fourth Circuit that district court orders barring the removal and ordering the release of Indian Georgetown academic Badar Khan Suri, who was detained on foreign policy grounds, flout longstanding limits on courts' authority over habeas petitions.

  • August 14, 2025

    Trump Picks Ex-Scalia, Kavanaugh Clerk For 7th Circ.

    President Donald Trump announced on Thursday evening he would be nominating Rebecca Taibleson, an assistant U.S. attorney in Wisconsin, to the Seventh Circuit.

  • August 14, 2025

    Trump's Brazil Tariffs Raise Questions About Legal Limits

    Higher tariffs imposed last week on Brazilian imports may prove especially vulnerable to legal challenges, but stakeholders expect the U.S.-Brazil trading relationship to nevertheless remain in limbo for the immediate future.

  • August 14, 2025

    Bid To Block Alabama's Anti-DEI Law Rejected

    An Alabama federal judge has rejected a bid to block a state law banning certain diversity, equity and inclusion-related activities at state schools and college campuses, finding the Alabama NAACP and the students and professors who filed suit didn't show that the law is unconstitutionally vague.

  • August 14, 2025

    Calif. Justices Say No Arb. For Nursing Home Death Claim

    The California Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a decision sending to arbitration a wrongful death claim by parents who allege their son was neglected at the 24-hour skilled nursing facility he was admitted to.

  • August 14, 2025

    SpaceX Calls Va. Broadband Funding Plan 'Wasteful'

    SpaceX criticized Virginia over its spending plan for the $1.48 billion in broadband funding it's set to receive from the BEAD program, saying the state "has put its heavy thumb on the scale in favor of expensive, slow-to-build fiber bias" over satellite.

  • August 14, 2025

    Red States Back Feds' Push To End Trump Energy Orders Suit

    Republican-led states on Thursday threw their support behind the federal government's bid to dismiss a lawsuit by youths alleging that President Donald Trump's energy policy directives harm their future by exacerbating climate change, saying there are no grounds to sustain the suit.

  • August 14, 2025

    AGs Urge Meta To 'Prioritize Safety' With Location Feature

    A bipartisan coalition of more than three dozen state attorneys general is calling on Meta Platforms Inc. to strengthen the privacy and security safeguards for a new location tracking feature that recently debuted on Instagram, arguing that the social media giant has a duty "to prioritize user safety over product novelty."

  • August 14, 2025

    Okla. City Fights Creek Nation Over Tribal Court Authority

    An Oklahoma city is looking to dismiss a challenge by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation that looks to block the municipality from prosecuting Native Americans for crimes committed on tribal lands, arguing that a 2022 Supreme Court ruling gives it concurrent jurisdiction with the federally recognized tribe.

  • August 14, 2025

    PTAB Petitions To Get More Scrutiny Under New Policy

    A new Patent Trial and Appeal Board policy limiting the ability of the challengers to argue that "general knowledge" indicates that a patent is invalid will heighten scrutiny of petitions and could lead to more of them being denied if they don't comply with the rule, attorneys say.

  • August 14, 2025

    Wyden, Warren Ask Lutnick's Son About Firm's Tariff Bets

    Senate Democratic ranking members sent a letter published Thursday to Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. CEO Brandon Lutnick raising concerns about potential insider trading and conflicts of interest associated with a financial product hedging the legality of tariffs that his father, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has been involved in.

  • August 14, 2025

    11th Circ. Looks For Immunity Line In $40M Taser Case

    An Eleventh Circuit panel appeared conflicted Thursday over whether to toss a $40 million verdict against the city of Atlanta and a cop who left a man a quadriplegic after shocking him with a Taser over suspicions of panhandling, struggling with whether the officer should have foreseen the injuries he caused.

  • August 14, 2025

    Mich. Mayor Gets 2 Years For $100K Bribery Scheme

    A federal judge sentenced a Detroit suburb's former mayor to two years in prison Thursday after he admitted to accepting bribes in exchange for a promise to secure a land deal.

  • August 14, 2025

    20 States Win Injunction Against ICE's Use Of Medicaid Data

    A California federal judge has blocked the federal government from using Medicaid information from 20 states for immigration enforcement purposes, marking a partial victory for the coalition of states challenging a new data-sharing arrangement between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security.   

  • August 14, 2025

    FCC Member Sees Special Authority As Key To Defense Tech

    The Federal Communications Commission could increasingly use its legal authority to temporarily authorize radio licenses as a way to test new wireless networks that bolster national security, an agency member said.

  • August 14, 2025

    5th Circ. Tosses Challenge To Texas Gas Terminal Permit

    The Fifth Circuit has dismissed an environmental group's petition challenging a permit issued by Texas regulators for a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal, finding that a previous permit for another project, which stipulated a lower emissions rate, has no bearing on the permit at issue here.

  • August 14, 2025

    US Targets Russia-Linked Crypto Exchanges Over Illicit Flows

    The Trump administration on Thursday renewed sanctions on Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex and moved against its successor, Grinex, accusing the platforms of helping launder illicit transactions and shifting business to dodge earlier penalties.

  • August 14, 2025

    HHS Relaunches Childhood Vaccine Panel After Lawsuit

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday it is restarting a 1980s-era childhood vaccine task force that aims to improve safety and oversight, months after an anti-vaccine group previously headed by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sued the agency to reinstate the panel. 

  • August 14, 2025

    Minn. Telecom Officials Decry Push For Fed Preemption

    Minnesota's telecommunications regulators have told the Federal Communications Commission that local officials are tired of being punching bags for industry groups looking to speed up broadband infrastructure deployment, saying the industry's push for federal rules overriding local authority have been based on "unsubstantiated or vague" attacks on local guidelines.

  • August 14, 2025

    Mich. Panel Greenlights 911 Dispatcher's Whistleblower Suit

    A Michigan appellate panel said Wednesday that a former 911 operator may be protected by a whistleblower law for criticizing a supervisor's handling of a 911 call, clearing the way for his lawsuit to move forward.

  • August 14, 2025

    FCC Urged To Tackle Health, Enviro Impacts From Cellphones

    An environmental group called on the Federal Communications Commission to address what it sees as the agency's failure to meet a D.C. Circuit order from four years ago to back up the reasoning for its radiofrequency exposure limits.

Expert Analysis

  • The CFTC Is Shaking Up Sports Betting's Legal Future

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    The sports betting industry faces a potential sea change amid recent state and federal actions across the regulatory landscape that have expanded access to sporting event contracts against the backdrop of waning Commodity Futures Trading Commission opposition, says Nick Covek at Foley & Lardner.

  • DOJ Atty Firing Highlights Tension Between 2 Ethical Duties

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent firing of a prosecutor-turned-whistleblower involved in the Abrego Garcia v. Noem case illustrates the tricky balancing act between zealous client advocacy and a lawyer’s duty of candor to the court, which many clients fail to appreciate, says David Atkins at Yale Law School.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Rejecting Biz Dev Myths

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    Law schools don’t spend sufficient time dispelling certain myths that prevent young lawyers from exploring new business opportunities, but by dismissing these misguided beliefs, even an introverted first-year associate with a small network of contacts can find long-term success, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • Fla. Condo Law Fix Clarifies Control Of Common Areas

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    Florida's repeal of a controversial statutory provision that permitted developers of mixed-use condominium properties to retroactively assert control over common facilities marks a critical shift in legal protections for unit owners and associations, promoting fairness, transparency and accountability, say attorneys at Pardo Jackson.

  • Trade In Limbo: The Legal Storm Reshaping Trump's Tariffs

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    In the final days of May, decisions in two significant court actions upended the tariff and trade landscape, so until the U.S. Supreme Court rules, businesses and supply chains should expect tariffs to remain in place, and for the Trump administration to continue pursuing and enforcing all available trade policies, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

  • Shareholder Takeaways From NY Internal Affairs Doctrine Suit

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    A May New York Court of Appeals decision in Ezrasons v. Rudd involving Barclays — affirming the state's "firmly entrenched" internal affairs doctrine — is a win for all corporate stakeholders seeking stability in resolving disputes between shareholders and directors and officers, say attorneys at Sadis & Goldberg.

  • The Legal Fallout Of The Open Model AI Ecosystem

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    The spread of open-weight and open-source artificial intelligence models is introducing potential harms across the supply chain, but new frameworks will allow for the growth and development of AI technologies without sacrificing the safety of end users, says Harshita Ganesh at CMBG3 Law.

  • Move Beyond Surface-Level Edits To Master Legal Writing

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    Recent instances in which attorneys filed briefs containing artificial intelligence hallucinations offer a stark reminder that effective revision isn’t just about superficial details like grammar — it requires attorneys to critically engage with their writing and analyze their rhetorical choices, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.

  • 3 Rulings May Reveal Next Frontier Of Gov't Contract Cases

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    Several U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the past year — involving wire fraud, gratuities and obstruction — offer wide-ranging and arguably conflicting takeaways for government contractors that are especially relevant given the Trump administration’s focus on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, say attorneys at Rogers Joseph.

  • How Ore. Law Puts New Confines On Corp. Health Ownership

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    A newly enacted law in Oregon strengthens the state’s restrictions on corporate ownership of healthcare practices, with new limitations on overlapping control, permissible services, restrictive covenants and more making it necessary for practices to review decades-old physician practice arrangements, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Early Trends In Proxy Exclusion After SEC Relaxes Guidance

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent guidance broadening shareholder proposal exclusion under Rule 14a-8 has been undoubtedly useful to issuers this proxy season, but it does not guarantee exclusion, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • How New Texas Law Revamps Electric Grid To Meet Demand

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    A new Texas law enacted in response to the burdens that data centers, crypto mining and other large-scale users are placing on the state's electric grid means that stakeholders must review updated requirements around grid interconnection, disclosure of development plans and operational flexibility during tight conditions, say attorneys at Jackson Walker.

  • Best Practices For State Banks Eyeing Federal Conversions

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    Amid a notable uptick — fueled by ongoing regulatory upheaval — in state-chartered banks exploring conversion to national bank charters, banks contemplating the decision should weigh the benefits, like uniform supervision, and potential impediments, like costly exam fees, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • DOJ May Rethink Banning Firearms For Marijuana Users

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    In light of various federal circuit court decisions and an executive order from President Donald Trump, U.S. Department of Justice enforcement policy now may be on the verge of changing decidedly in favor of marijuana users' gun rights, and could foreshadow additional marijuana-friendly reforms, says Jacob Raver at Dentons.

  • EDNY Ruling May Limit Some FARA Conspiracy Charges

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    Though the Eastern District of New York’s recent U.S. v. Sun decision upheld Foreign Agents Registration Act charges against a former aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, its recognition of an affirmative legislative policy to exempt some officials may help defendants charged with related conspiracies, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

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