Public Policy

  • May 14, 2026

    Advocacy Groups, Dems Seek To Restore Digital Equity Fund

    A year after the Trump administration abruptly pulled funds set aside for digital equity grants, Democratic lawmakers are joining with public interest groups in trying to block a budget proposal that would permanently stamp out the program.

  • May 14, 2026

    Sen. Whitehouse Warns Colleagues Of Privilege 'Creep'

    A key Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a call to arms to his fellow members about the executive branch chipping away at the committee's oversight authority.

  • May 14, 2026

    Infrastructure Can't Support ICE Detention Center, Ga. City Says

    Social Circle, a Georgia city of about 5,000, has asked a federal judge to block U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from rapidly converting an empty warehouse into a 10,000-bed detention center, arguing the agency shirked its duty to consider the impacts.

  • May 14, 2026

    7th Circ. Presses Trans CTA Driver On Bias Evidence

    A Seventh Circuit panel Thursday pressed counsel for a former Chicago Transit Authority bus driver on whether the record showed he was fired because he is transgender, rather than because he failed to follow procedures for taking leave, as he seeks to revive discrimination claims against the agency and union.

  • May 14, 2026

    Railroads Say Taxing Train But Not Truck Fuel Violates Law

    Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation told a Georgia federal court in a lawsuit against the state Department of Revenue and its commissioner that the state's suspension of an excise tax on highway diesel fuel without extending the suspension to locomotive diesel fuel is "discriminatory taxation" that must be enjoined.

  • May 14, 2026

    Texas AG Says Dallas Sheriff Must Cooperate With ICE

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened legal action against Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown over her refusal to enter into a cooperative agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorizing local officers to enforce federal immigration law.

  • May 14, 2026

    Texas Panel Nixes Ex-Atty's Defamation Suit Against City

    A Texas appeals court dismissed a former attorney's suit against the city of Shenandoah on Thursday because he waited too long to make the city a defendant in lieu of city employees.

  • May 14, 2026

    4th Circ. Says Tribe Can Reclaim Boarding School Remains

    The U.S. Army must repatriate the remains of two Indigenous children from a former Indian boarding school cemetery in Pennsylvania, a split Fourth Circuit panel determined Thursday, saying the site qualifies as a holding or collection under a federal law designed to protect Native American burial sites.

  • May 14, 2026

    DOJ Asserts Broad Power In BigLaw Executive Order Appeal

    A Trump administration attorney told the D.C. Circuit on Thursday that the courts have no authority to review the president's decision to revoke someone's security clearance for any reason, including race, religion, or even refusal to pay a $1 million bribe.

  • May 14, 2026

    Rural Carrier To Pay $80K For Breaking FCC Rules

    A rural telephone company in Colorado has agreed to pay $80,000 and create a compliance plan to resolve a Federal Communications Commission probe into whether it provided unauthorized service.

  • May 14, 2026

    DC Beneficiary Can't Get Recordation Tax Refund, Court Says

    A trust beneficiary is not eligible for a refund of a Washington, D.C., recordation tax that was paid when a property was transferred upon the dissolution of the trust, a district appellate court ruled Thursday. 

  • May 14, 2026

    Feds Must Return Colombian Deported To Congo, Judge Says

    A D.C. federal judge ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a 55-year-old Colombian woman the government deported to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in April, ruling that her removal likely violated federal immigration law.

  • May 14, 2026

    NYC Bar Endorses Random Audits For Law Firm Accounts

    The New York City Bar Association's Professional Discipline Committee on Thursday threw its support behind a statewide bill to institute a random audit program for law firm financial accounts.

  • May 14, 2026

    Guidelines For Tariff Offsets Treat Truck Parts Like Auto Parts

    Imported parts used in manufacturing various trucks are treated like automobile parts in guidelines that the U.S. International Trade Administration issued Thursday for U.S. manufacturers of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles looking to qualify for a program that allows a discount on duties paid for such parts.

  • May 14, 2026

    NJ Lawmakers Slam Attacks On Judiciary At State Bar Panel

    A bipartisan panel of New Jersey lawmakers condemned partisan attacks on judges and the judiciary on Wednesday, urging Garden State attorneys to uphold their oath to the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law and to "step back from the keyboard."

  • May 14, 2026

    Fla. AG Blasts State Atty Over Lenient Felony Punishments

    Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier this week criticized State Attorney Monique Worrell over her application of a Sunshine State law that allows "youthful offenders" to receive less severe punishments, calling her use a "policy of excessive leniency."

  • May 14, 2026

    Gov't Asks 6th Circ. To Reverse FedEx's $89M Tax Credit Win

    The U.S. government urged the Sixth Circuit to reverse a Tennessee federal court's decision that invalidated foreign tax credit regulations and allowed FedEx an $89 million refund, arguing that the rules reflect Congress' intent to prevent windfalls under the 2017 tax overhaul.

  • May 14, 2026

    New Bill Would Ban Chinese Point-Of-Sale Tech For DOD

    The U.S. Department of Defense would be banned from using any Chinese-made point-of-sale technology — devices like those that allow people to tap their cards to pay — in its buildings, if one Republican congressman gets his way.

  • May 14, 2026

    Water Utilities Urge DC Circ. To Toss EPA PFAS Regs Suit

    A trade association for local public clean water utilities is urging the D.C. Circuit to affirm the dismissal of a suit from a group of farmers alleging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hasn't adequately regulated so-called forever chemicals, saying the plaintiffs' suit risks interfering with their ability to do their jobs.

  • May 14, 2026

    Senate Banking Committee Advances Landmark Crypto Bill

    The latest version of a bill to regulate crypto markets advanced out of the Senate banking committee on Thursday in a vote that saw two Democrats break with their colleagues to support the measure, though they warned their continued support of the so-called Clarity Act is contingent upon adding ethics language and other updates before the bill reaches the Senate floor.

  • May 14, 2026

    'Pig Butchering' Crypto Scam Victim Seeks $962K From IRS

    An Ohio man told a district court that the Internal Revenue Service wrongly denied his tax deduction claim for a loss of over $800,000 from a cryptocurrency "pig butchering" scheme despite the extensive documentation of the fraud he said he provided to the agency.

  • May 14, 2026

    US Trade Rep. Seeks Feedback On ITC's Quartz Tariff Plan

    The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Thursday said it is seeking comments on tariff recommendations made in April by the U.S. International Trade Commission regarding imported quartz surfaces.

  • May 14, 2026

    Trump's 8th Circ. Pick Clears Senate Panel Vote

    President Donald Trump's nominee for the Eighth Circuit, who represented the president in the cases brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, advanced to the full Senate on Thursday.

  • May 14, 2026

    DOL Walks Back Biden-Era Overtime Exemption Rule

    The U.S. Department of Labor moved Thursday to undo a rule from former President Joe Biden's administration that raised the salary threshold for overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act, returning to the standard from President Donald Trump's first term.

  • May 14, 2026

    Justices Say Freight Brokers Can Face Negligence Suits

    The U.S. Supreme Court said Thursday that freight brokers might also be liable under state law for selecting unsafe motor carriers that then get into highway crashes that kill or injure people, offering long-sought clarity on liability standards in a commercial trucking industry unnerved by supersized verdicts against carriers and drivers.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Alpine Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Skiing has shaped habits I rely on daily as an attorney — focus, resilience and the ability to remain steady when circumstances shift rapidly — and influences the way I approach legal strategy, client counseling and teamwork, says Isaku Begert at Marshall Gerstein.

  • 3 Federal Policy Trends Shaping Data Center Power

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    With the White House, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Congress each pushing energy policies that will influence how data centers are sited, powered and interconnected for years to come, industry stakeholders should understand compliance obligations, consider possible downstream effects, and evaluate off-grid and self-supply energy options, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • NY Tax Talk: Calculating Tiered Partnership Income

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    Attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland discuss how the potential impact recent New York City Tax Appeals Tribunal decision in Matter of Cantor Fitzgerald holding that the entity approach should be used by tiered partnerships to compute unincorporated business tax liability, why the issue of the proper approach remains unsettled and the broader implications for federal conformity and administrative agency deference.

  • FDA Guidance May Move Goalposts For Form 483 Responses

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    New draft guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides formal insight on how drug manufacturers are expected to respond to Form 483s, raising some concerns about the agency's timelines and expectations, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Understanding The SEC's Consequential Crypto Guidance

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent interpretive release — its most comprehensive statement ever on the application of the federal securities laws to crypto-assets — reimagines the Howey test to resolve long-standing questions over what is a security, but leaves many issues unresolved, say attorneys at Cahill.

  • Ohio Case Reflects States' Aggressive Criminal Antitrust Turn

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    The Ohio Attorney General's Office’s recent bid-rigging indictment of an online auctioneer is the latest signal that states, through attorneys general pursuing more kickback cases and legislators expanding the reach of antitrust laws, are shedding their historical reluctance to wield their criminal antitrust enforcement powers, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Justices' Geofence Ruling May Test 4th Amendment's Future

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    When the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Chatrie v. U.S. whether law enforcement may use geofence warrants to compel Google to disclose location history data, the ruling is likely to become an important statement about the future of Fourth Amendment law in data-driven investigations, says Duncan Levin at Levin & Associates.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1

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    In the first quarter of 2026, New York's banking developments were headlined by initiatives to expand oversight of financial institutions and strengthen consumer protection laws, including a new framework for buy now, pay later lenders, a sweeping debt collection rule and a revised corporate self-disclosure program for financial crimes, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Seeking A Policy Fix As Merger Reporting Fight Continues

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    A recently announced request by the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice for public comment on the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger reporting requirements, as litigation challenging the commission's updated requirements continues, suggests the government's willingness to address how best to support modern merger enforcement without unduly burdening filing parties, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • What New Fla. Citizens Bill Means For Surplus Lines Insurers

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    A Florida bill recently passed by the Legislature as part of a continued effort to depopulate Citizens Property Insurance, the state's insurer of last resort, creates an additional pathway for commercial policies to be written by surplus lines insurers, but also presents concerns of unnecessary regulation, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • What Voluntary Calif. Carbon Reports Show About Compliance

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    While the enforcement of California's S.B. 261 is currently paused due to a Ninth Circuit injunction, more than 130 companies have nonetheless chosen to voluntarily publish climate-related financial risk disclosures, providing a useful snapshot of how the market is interpreting the law's requirements in practice, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • PTAB Memo Recenters Discretion On US Manufacturing

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    Read alongside recent Federal Circuit decisions, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires' memo on patent denial considerations emphasizes domestic manufacturing in a way that the International Trade Commission does not require, says Brandon Theiss at Volpe Koenig.

  • Why MDLs Slow Down — And How To Speed Them Up

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    Multidistrict litigation has become central to mass tort practice, but as MDLs grow in size and complexity, so do delays and costs — so tools like the new federal rule governing MDLs, targeted use of special masters and strategically deployed Lone Pine orders are more essential than ever, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

  • What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

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    My audit of 1,522 court documents from last month found that over 95% contained at least one verifiable error, with fewer than 1% showing clear indicators of artificial intelligence use — highlighting above all else that lawyers may want to focus most on strengthening their review processes, says Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich.

  • Regulators' Basel Pitch May Bring Banks Capital Relief

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    The prudential banking agencies' new proposals to implement the so-called Basel III endgame rules — which would modify the approach to risk-based capital, among other notable changes — represent a fundamental directional shift in bank capital requirements aimed at increasing lending capacity, says Chen Xu at Debevoise.

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