Public Policy

  • May 08, 2026

    Top Atty In DOJ Appeal Over Law Firm Exec Orders To Depart

    The lead federal prosecutor on the Trump administration's appeal to reinstate executive orders targeting four law firms is stepping down from his government role at the end of May, he publicly announced this week.

  • May 08, 2026

    Texas Justices Say Nicotine Pouches Taxable As Tobacco

    The Texas Supreme Court on Friday found that oral nicotine pouches are taxable as tobacco products under state law, as they are made from "tobacco substitutes" through a combination of nicotine extracted from tobacco leaves and plant compounds.

  • May 08, 2026

    NYC Lawmaker Promises COPA Revival After Adams' Veto

    New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse confirmed at a May 8 panel that she plans to reintroduce an updated version of the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act that grants some preapproved buyers a first shot at purchasing some residential buildings, after Mayor Eric Adams vetoed a previous version on his last day in office.

  • May 08, 2026

    Trump Illegally Fired Mine Safety Commissioner, Suit Says

    A Biden-era appointee to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission sued President Donald Trump in D.C. federal court, claiming the president illegally fired him from the adjudication body before his six-year term was up without justification.

  • May 08, 2026

    Mike Lindell's Atty Sanctioned Again For False Case Citation

    A Colorado federal judge has sanctioned the attorney defending Mike Lindell in a defamation lawsuit brought by a Dominion Voting Systems executive for a second time after finding an incorrect citation in a filing, despite the attorney's representation that the mistake was a product of human error, not artificial intelligence.

  • May 08, 2026

    Squires Says Fitness Tracker Patent Date Key To PGR Ruling

    Wearable technology company Whoop Inc. has shown that an Omni Medsci Inc. patent can be challenged under the America Invents Act because its effective filing was after a cutoff date in the law, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires has found.

  • May 08, 2026

    Oregon Court OKs Farm Tax Break For Horse Stabling

    An Oregon property is eligible for a special farm use assessment because its stabling and pasturing of horses for profit were qualifying activities, the state tax court found Friday, reversing a local assessor's determination.

  • May 08, 2026

    Mass. Board Says Not Enough Evidence To Drop Home Value

    The owners of a Massachusetts home did not provide enough evidence in their analyses of comparable properties to lower the home's valuation for property tax purposes, the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board said.

  • May 08, 2026

    DOL Benefits Chief Warns Of 'Bad Faith' Focus On ESG, DEI

    The top official for the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits subagency said at a trade association conference Friday that agency investigations will focus on benefit plan managers' loyalty conflicts, including disloyal pursuits of socially conscious investing or diversity goals.

  • May 07, 2026

    Judiciary Panel Punts AI Rules, Mulls Judges' Survey Results

    Buckle up: Efforts to modernize evidentiary rules amid artificial intelligence fears are getting bumpy, as judiciary advisers Thursday agreed to dramatically delay action while digesting an AI survey of nearly 1,000 judges and organizing a symposium of litigators and tech pros.

  • May 07, 2026

    OpenAI CEO Altman Fueled 'Toxic Culture Of Lying,' Jury Told

    California federal jurors weighing Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion on Thursday watched prerecorded testimony from a former OpenAI board member who voted to oust CEO Sam Altman in 2023 over concerns his pattern of lies and deception fostered a "toxic culture of lying."  

  • May 07, 2026

    Proposed Meta Age Reforms Echo Europe Efforts, Judge Told

    An online safety expert testified Thursday that Meta would not be unduly burdened by age-verification reforms New Mexico's attorney general is seeking in a $3.7 billion bench trial over harm to teen users of its social media platforms, given that European regulators in recent weeks announced nearly identical demands.

  • May 07, 2026

    Agri Stats Reaches Meat Price-Fixing Deal With States, DOJ

    Agri Stats has agreed to stop putting together certain sales reports for broiler chicken processors to resolve the U.S. Department of Justice's allegations that those reports enabled price-fixing by meat processors, according to an announcement made Thursday.

  • May 07, 2026

    Judges Clash On Whether Kelly Urged Order Disobedience

    A D.C. Circuit panel appeared to be headed for a split decision on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's appeal of a district court order stopping him from dropping Sen. Mark Kelly's U.S. Navy rank, with judges clashing over whether Kelly ever told service members to disobey lawful orders.

  • May 07, 2026

    Incarcerated Woman Sues DOJ Over Transgender Policy Shift

    A transgender woman currently in federal prison has sued the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging a December memo issued by the agency illegally excludes transgender people from a major federal anti-sexual assault law designed to protect incarcerated people.

  • May 07, 2026

    Blue States Say Trump Admin Can't Duck Energy Order Suit

    Blue states have urged a federal judge to keep alive their lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's declaration of a national energy emergency, saying every action that's been taken by federal agencies to fast-track nonemergency energy activities flows from that order.

  • May 07, 2026

    Trump Campaign Exits Sex Assault Suit, Manager Appeals

    Days after President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign settled negligence claims in a former aide's sexual assault lawsuit, an ex-campaign manager accused of rape faced doubts from New York state appellate judges that he could escape the case with their help.

  • May 07, 2026

    6th Circ. Tosses Ohio's Out-Of-State Wine Limits

    The Sixth Circuit has struck down as unconstitutional Ohio's restrictions on out-of-state retailers' ability to sell wine directly to consumers in the Buckeye State.

  • May 07, 2026

    Father 'Blacked Out' While Killing Baby, Civil Court Hears

    A father convicted of murdering his 7-month-old by throwing the infant into a river from a 90-foot-high bridge in 2015 "blacked out" most of the details, he testified Thursday in a mother's wrongful death lawsuit against a Connecticut child protection agency.

  • May 07, 2026

    DOJ Antitrust Head Tells Merging Firms: No Games

    Combating "gamesmanship" remains top of mind for the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division as it reviews mergers, according to a New York speech Thursday from acting head Omeed A. Assefi warning parties against "altering" merger notification material or trying to "play games with documents and data."

  • May 07, 2026

    DC Judge Says ICE Guidance Violates Immigrant Arrest Order

    A D.C. federal judge said Thursday that the Trump administration violated her order banning warrantless civil immigration arrests in Washington, D.C., without officers first determining if an individual would likely escape before a warrant is secured, blaming agency guidance.

  • May 07, 2026

    Crypto Bill Could Get Senate Banking Markup Next Week

    A bill to regulate crypto markets known as the Clarity Act could be marked up by the Senate Banking Committee as soon as next week, but lawmakers are still finalizing key provisions that could make or break the voting process, policymakers told attendees of the crypto conference Consensus.

  • May 07, 2026

    How Litigation Funding Disclosure Could Affect ITC Cases

    The U.S. International Trade Commission's proposed rule to require disclosure of litigation funding in intellectual property cases could bring more transparency to disputes and promote settlements, but it could also discourage some suits if it's not carefully tailored, attorneys say.

  • May 07, 2026

    NAACP Urges Miss. Judge To Turn Off XAI Gas Turbines

    The NAACP has asked a Mississippi federal judge to block X.AI Corp. from operating a battery of polluting gas turbines in the community of Southaven, asserting it has continued to add turbines to power a nearby data center rather than address permitting violations.

  • May 07, 2026

    'If It Quacks': Judge Hints Kalshi's Biz Is Sports Gambling

    Fourth Circuit judges appeared dubious Thursday as counsel for Kalshi explained why its "sports event contracts" can only be regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than state gambling laws, with one judge remarking, "If it quacks, you know, it's a duck. Right? It's gambling isn't it?"

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Futures Market Anonymity Now Presents A Structural Problem

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    Following anomalous trading on prediction markets just before major recent policy announcements from the Trump administration, many have called on Congress to act, but the problem is not primarily a statutory gap — it is a structural one, built into the self-regulatory model that governs futures exchanges, says Tamara de Silva at De Silva Law Offices.

  • How Calif. Safety Worker Pension Bill Could Cost Employers

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    Public employers should carefully consider how pension costs and bargaining concerns could change under a California Legislature bill that would increase retirement benefits for safety employees like police and firefighters, which could erode previous efforts to fully fund the public retirement system without necessarily improving worker retention, says Michael Youril at Liebert Cassidy.

  • Opinion

    Judicial Restraint Anchors Constitutional Order

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    Contrasting opinions in two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings — Trump v. CASA and Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections — demonstrate how the judiciary’s constitutionally entrusted role can easily be preserved or disrupted, and invite renewed attention to the enduring importance of judicial restraint, says Ninth Circuit Judge J. Clifford Wallace.

  • 'Made In America' Rules Raise Stakes For Gov't Contractors

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    The convergence of widely varying "buy American" requirements, increased enforcement efforts and continuing regulatory attempts to limit foreign sourcing suggests that government contractors should carefully review their supply chain and country-of-origin compliance to remain competitive, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Human Authorship Is Still Central To Copyright Eligibility

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    In declining to review the D.C. Circuit's ruling in Thaler v. Perlmutter — holding that a work purely generated by artificial intelligence cannot be copyrighted — the U.S. Supreme Court has reinforced the human authorship requirement, so it is critical for creators of AI-assisted projects to document their involvement, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Recent Bank Resolution Filings Stress Readiness Over Docs

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    Against the backdrop of banking regulators' recent emphasis on institutional readiness in the event of a bank failure, a review of more than a dozen public resolution plan submissions points to an immediate future in which regulators and banks alike prioritize operational preparedness over extensive documentation, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • 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.

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