Public Policy

  • July 20, 2026

    FCC Poised To Pull Co.'s Test Lab Status Over China Ties

    A Federal Communications Commission office is ready to pull a company's certification as an authorized test lab for devices sold into the U.S. market because of its ownership ties to the Chinese government.

  • July 20, 2026

    Judge Questions Exxon Bid To Revive Claims In Records Suit

    A Massachusetts judge on Monday appeared unlikely to let Exxon Mobil revive equal protection claims in a public records lawsuit against state environmental regulators, saying counsel for the company was essentially asking him to second-guess a colleague who tossed the allegations in March.

  • July 20, 2026

    NJ Justices Call Land Swap An Abuse Of Eminent Domain

    The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that a municipality violated state law and constitutional limits when it condemned two privately owned parcels of land to trade them to a developer, holding that the town never intended to put the seized properties to public use.

  • July 20, 2026

    Pa. District Owed Refund For Improper Water Fees, Court Told

    The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has continued to improperly collect stormwater fees even after a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision found the fees to be illegal taxes, the city's public school district said in a complaint filed Monday, arguing it is entitled to a $1.9 million refund.

  • July 20, 2026

    Exxon Climate Suit Fate May Hinge On Preemption Precedent

    A Connecticut state judge on Monday seemed inclined to wait for upcoming U.S. Supreme Court preemption guidance before ruling on the state's attempt to nix one of Exxon Mobil's defenses in an environmental marketing lawsuit, though both sides drew some skepticism during oral argument Monday.

  • July 20, 2026

    Trump Curbs Foreign Sourcing Waivers For Weapon Materials

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing the secretary of defense to limit waivers that allow weapons contractors to obtain certain materials from nonallied countries.

  • July 20, 2026

    SD Judge Blocks Abortion Ad Ban Against Atty, Nonprofit

    A South Dakota federal judge barred the state from enforcing an abortion advertising ban against a reproductive health education nonprofit and an attorney, ruling that doing so would likely violate the First Amendment.

  • July 20, 2026

    Water Transfer Co. Seeks $351K In Worker Credit Refunds

    The Internal Revenue Service owes a water transfer services company nearly $351,000 in employee retention tax credit refunds, the business told a Pennsylvania federal court, saying the agency improperly retained the overpayments to offset a supposed civil penalty against the company.

  • July 20, 2026

    Vanda's NDA Rejection Challenge Can't Be Heard At DC Court

    A D.C. federal judge has said he no longer has jurisdiction to hear Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s challenge alleging the FDA violated the Appointments Clause by allowing a non-officer to exercise "signatory authority" and reject its new drug application for tradipitant, since Vanda went to the D.C. Circuit raising the same argument already.

  • July 20, 2026

    Trade Court Backs Thai Pipe Duties On Third Try

    A Thai steel pipe producer will be hit with a 15% antidumping duty after the U.S. Court of International Trade signed off on a federal government determination finding the record was missing necessary information.

  • July 20, 2026

    Wis. Village Can't Void Tribal Land Trust Order, 7th Circ. Told

    The U.S. Department of the Interior is asking the Seventh Circuit to reject a Wisconsin village's appeal that seeks to undo the agency's decision to place 500 acres into trust for the Oneida Nation, arguing that the municipality can't overcome Congress' power to regulate Indian affairs.

  • July 20, 2026

    Masonry Co. Owner To Pay $7.2M Over Amtrak Bribery Plot

    The owner of an Illinois-based masonry contracting company who last year pled guilty to conspiring to bribe an Amtrak employee to get favorable contract terms for the renovation of Philadelphia's 30th Street Station has agreed to pay more than $7.2 million to resolve civil claims stemming from the scheme, prosecutors said.

  • July 20, 2026

    IMF Paper Backs Destination-Based VAT For Digital Services

    The most coherent way to tax digital services is with value-added taxes that have place-of-supply rules to ensure they apply on a destination basis to final domestic consumption, according to a working paper by the International Monetary Fund.

  • July 20, 2026

    Activist Seeks Mich. Judicial Candidate Records

    A suburban Detroit political activist who has brought several challenges to candidates and state election rules sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and state election officials, claiming they violated the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to provide identity documents filed by a Wayne County judicial candidate. 

  • July 20, 2026

    Unions Seek To Block Texas Tech Curriculum Censorship

    A professors union and its Texas affiliate asked a Texas federal court to stop Texas Tech University's chancellor and board from enforcing policies that, the unions say, censor academic speech on race, gender identity and sexual orientation, arguing the policies will cause irreparable harm to the university's teachers.

  • July 20, 2026

    Trump Demands Review Of Judges' Science Manual

    President Donald Trump has escalated a recent controversy over a scientific manual for federal judges that has been around for over three decades. 

  • July 20, 2026

    Legal Center Tells 4th Circ. To Reject FCC Campaign Ad Rule

    The Campaign Legal Center has asked the Fourth Circuit to set aside recent FCC guidance on political ads, saying it violates the Communications Act of 1934.

  • July 20, 2026

    Rural Providers Laud Latest Broadband Map Push

    Rural telecoms are pressing lawmakers to advance a new bill to improve granular detail to broadband maps across the U.S. introduced by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

  • July 20, 2026

    Ga. Gov. Names US Magistrate Judge To State Appellate Court

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has appointed a U.S. magistrate judge for the Southern District of Georgia as a Georgia Court of Appeals judge, a move that came after the judge made the short list for a Georgia Supreme Court justice vacancy last year.

  • July 20, 2026

    Samsung Directed To Pay Interest Atop $445M Patent Verdict

    A Texas federal judge has ordered Samsung to pay prejudgment and postjudgment interest on a $445 million jury verdict that found the South Korean electronics firm was infringing patents covering wireless communications network efficiency.

  • July 20, 2026

    Pension Guarantor Proposes Rule On Disclosure Penalties

    The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. proposed a rule Monday on monetary penalties for failures to provide information on single-employer and multiemployer benefit plans that clarifies how plan sponsors can lower what's owed when they run afoul of their disclosure duties under federal benefits law.

  • July 20, 2026

    Trump Admin Wants Susman Godfrey DQ In ABA's EO Suit

    Over a year into a suit by the American Bar Association challenging 2025 executive orders targeting law firms, the Trump administration is looking to have Susman Godfrey LLP disqualified as plaintiffs' counsel, alleging the firm can't act as counsel in a case where it's also a key witness.

  • July 20, 2026

    Immunity Shields Conn., Ex-Enviro Chief From Coverage Fight

    A Connecticut federal court dropped the state and its former environmental commissioner from a dispute over coverage for a developer accused of unlawfully encroaching on and destroying public land, finding that the state defendants are shielded by the Eleventh Amendment's grant of sovereign immunity.

  • July 20, 2026

    Fluor Whistleblower Says Suit Clears FCA Disclosure Bar

    A former federal prosecutor pursuing labor-trafficking claims tied to a military logistics contract in Afghanistan says his lawsuit revealed previously unknown information that precludes his latest complaint from the bar on public disclosures in the False Claims Act.

  • July 20, 2026

    CIT Judge Changes IEEPA Test Case But Retains Schedule

    The U.S. Court of International Trade has selected a new underlying case as the one to test the federal government's updates on its system for refunding duties charged under President Donald Trump's struck-down global tariff regime, though it otherwise kept in place certain reporting and hearing deadlines.

Expert Analysis

  • Big Issues Linger After Senate Prediction Market Trading Ban

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    Whether the Senate can — or should — extend prediction market trading restrictions beyond itself will test not only the boundaries of insider trading law, but also the structural limits of legislative power in an era where information itself has become a tradable asset, say attorneys at Benesch.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

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    Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

  • Trump's Psychedelics EO Creates A Regulatory Collision

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    Sponsors pursuing U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for psychedelic drug access must tackle how to generate regulatory-grade safety and efficacy data in controlled trials when President Donald Trump's recent executive order on psychedelics mandates uncontrolled access through Right to Try, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell and Odette Hauke at Odette Alina.

  • What Model Risk Guidance Update Means For Banks

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    Federal prudential regulators recently issued new model risk management guidance for banks that is designed to reduce prescriptive supervisory expectations and instead focus more on material financial risk, so banking organizations should reassess their model inventories, apply the new materiality framework and update their internal policies, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • Recent Benchmarking Suits Highlight DOJ Enforcement Risks

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recent settlements with RealPage and Agri Stats inform the level of antitrust risk surrounding the use of benchmarking services and suggest an aggressive enforcement approach, particularly with respect to granular data and nonprice data reporting, say attorneys at Axinn.

  • Becoming The Biz-Savvy GC That Portfolio Companies Need

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    Candidates for general counsel roles at private equity-backed portfolio companies should prioritize proving their sector-specific experience, commercial judgment and ease with uncertainty — and attorneys hoping to be candidates in five to 10 years should start working on those skills now, says Dimitri Mastrocola at Major Lindsey.

  • Operational AI Washing: The Section 220 Information Strategy

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    Plaintiffs filing AI washing claims will likely use Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law to obtain internal board records, but 2025 amendments have fundamentally changed the landscape of presuit shareholder document demands in ways that create both risk and opportunity for companies, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • What New PFAS Rule Means For Tracking And Disclosure

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    In the wake of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's publication of its rule adding PFHxS-Na to the Toxics Release Inventory, companies should identify this substance in their facilities and supply chains, and prepare for disclosures to both regulators and the public, says Ayodeji Ayolola at Gordon Rees.

  • Ch. 11 Ruling Raises Bar For Avoiding Default Interest

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    Following a New York bankruptcy court's recent decision in 33 Mako, solvent debtors may find it significantly harder to avoid paying contractual default interest to oversecured lenders under Section 506(b) of the Bankruptcy Code, say attorneys at Benesch.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: How Courts Can Survive The Tech Revolution

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    Colorado Supreme Court Justice Maria Berkenkotter and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Lino Lipinsky de Orlov discuss how artificial intelligence has already fundamentally altered the legal system and offer tips for courts navigating deepfakes, hallucinations and a gap in access to AI tools.

  • 'Skinny Label' Arguments Spotlight Induced Infringement Risk

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    Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Hikma Pharmaceuticals v. Amarin Pharma highlight the uncertain boundary between lawful generic competition through so-called skinny labels and induced patent infringement, with potential implications for patent holders’ communication, enforcement and causation strategies across industries, says Anton Hopen at Trenam.

  • What Jury Holdouts Can Teach Trial Lawyers About Strategy

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    Though a hung jury can be a disappointment, a psychological understanding of jury holdouts can help trial lawyers shape their damages arguments and understand leadership and group composition as a function of jury selection, says Clint Townson at Townson Litigation.

  • 'Mobile' Sources For On-Site Generation May Be A Risky Bet

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering treating large on-site generators used at data centers as mobile rather than stationary sources under the Clean Air Act, a significant policy change that would leave developers that adopt this solution at risk of regulatory reversals, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • AI Investment Advice May Fail Investor Protection Rules

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    Based on an ongoing study of artificial intelligence platforms' investment advice given to retail investors, direct access to AI may not yield recommendations for typical households that are suitable under relevant securities rules, raising new and important issues in the regulation of financial markets, says Bruce Carlin at Rice University.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

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    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

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