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Public Policy
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October 27, 2025
PTAB Judges Alarmed By Squires' Moves To Limit Their Role
With U.S. Patent and Trademark Office leadership limiting the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's oversight of patent validity disputes, current judges for the tribunal say they are distressed by the recent moves to curb their role and are looking for work elsewhere amid the instability.
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October 27, 2025
Former Pandemic Watchdog Named Interim US Atty In Pa.
Amid the ongoing furlough of U.S. Department of Justice employees, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has announced the interim appointment of Brian D. Miller, former inspector general for pandemic recovery, as U.S. attorney, effective on Monday.
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October 27, 2025
Mich. Panel Orders House To Send Stalled Bills To Governor
The Michigan House of Representatives must deliver nine passed bills that it has held onto for 10 months to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her consideration, a Michigan Court of Appeals panel ruled Monday.
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October 27, 2025
USPTO, NWS Unions Try Blocking Order Ending Labor Rights
Two unions that represent employees at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the National Weather Service have asked a District of Columbia federal judge for a preliminary injunction to block an executive order ending their collective bargaining rights, saying the order relied on a flawed finding that the two agencies have national security as a primary function.
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October 27, 2025
AGs Call Landlord Deals In RealPage MDL 'Weak'
A quartet of state attorneys general urged a Tennessee federal judge to hold off on approving $141.8 million in class settlements resolving claims that major landlords used RealPage to fix rent prices, arguing the "weak injunctive terms" and "meager monetary relief" interferes with their own cases.
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October 27, 2025
Texas Defends Using 'Alien Verification' System To Vet Voters
Texas is looking to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's pooling of immigrants' personal data into centralized databases to help states purge voter rolls, saying that the challenge jeopardizes a "transformational" tool for doing so.
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October 27, 2025
10th Circ. Upholds Wyoming's Hemp Restrictions
The Tenth Circuit on Monday said a Wyoming law regulating hemp-derived intoxicating products was not unconstitutional or preempted by federal law, preserving the state's strict policies reining in wares containing synthetic or delta-8 THC.
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October 27, 2025
Trump Asks Justices To Stay Copyright Chief's Reinstatement
The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to stay a D.C. Circuit ruling that reinstated the fired leader of the U.S. Copyright Office while she challenges her removal, arguing that allowing a terminated official to remain in place causes irreparable harm to the president's authority.
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October 27, 2025
Ex-Conn. Housing Chief's Brother Says Payments Were Legit
The brother of the former executive director of a Connecticut municipal housing authority denied the authority's claims against him in a sprawling fraud lawsuit, saying payments made to his companies as part of the targeted transactions at issue were legitimate.
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October 27, 2025
Ore. Religious Group Loses Tax-Exempt Bid In Claims Court
An Oregon religious organization lost its challenge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to regain its church tax-exempt status, which the Internal Revenue Service revoked after determining that much of the group's spending personally benefited the founders' family members.
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October 27, 2025
NY Judge Orders State Agency To Issue Climate Regulations
A New York state judge on Friday sided with green groups that sued the Department of Environmental Conservation for failing to promulgate regulations implementing a climate change law that the agency says would burden residents with high costs.
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October 27, 2025
6th Circ. Judges Question FINRA's 'Voluntary' Membership
Sixth Circuit judges probed the effect on private securities regulators of a U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's use of in-house courts Monday, though a procedural issue may thwart the appeal.
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October 27, 2025
Feds Fight Union Bid To Protect Jobs During Gov't Shutdown
The Trump administration is fighting a group of unions' request for a California federal judge to block the government from laying off federal workers during the shutdown, saying the injunction request from eight unions is far too broad.
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October 27, 2025
9th Circ. OKs Gun Ban For Suspect Who Brought Gun To Court
The Ninth Circuit on Monday revived the indictment of a man who brought a loaded handgun into an Idaho state court, finding that a no-contact order banning him from possessing a firearm does not violate his Second Amendment rights.
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October 27, 2025
AbbVie Defends Challenge Of Colorado's Discount Drug Law
AbbVie defended its lawsuit challenging a Colorado law it says conflicts with federal law by forcing manufacturers to sell drugs at steep discounts to Walgreens, CVS and other pharmacy chains, telling a federal judge that the state compels the biotech company to sell more discounted drugs than federal law requires.
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October 27, 2025
US Unveils Trade Frameworks For Vietnam, Thailand Deals
The U.S. issued new details on a framework trade deal it reached months ago with Vietnam and announced a new framework deal with Thailand, according to announcements made by the White House on Sunday.
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October 27, 2025
Native Activist Urges 10th Circ. To Deny Gov't Rehearing Bid
A Muscogee (Creek) Nation member is asking the Tenth Circuit to deny a full-panel rehearing bid by the federal government that looks to undo the appellate court's decision to overturn his simple assault conviction, arguing that prosecutors cannot get past exceptions to the Major Crimes Act.
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October 27, 2025
Developer Says Calif. Law Targets Its Santa Barbara Project
The developer behind a housing project in Santa Barbara, California, sued the city and state in federal court, claiming a new state law is unconstitutional because it unfairly singles out its development for additional review under the California Environmental Quality Act.
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October 27, 2025
DOE's Wright Extends Order To Keep Md. Oil Plant Running
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has extended an emergency order keeping an oil-fired power plant in Maryland running through year's end, citing reliability concerns raised by regional grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC.
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October 27, 2025
Pittsburgh Urges Toss Of Inclusionary Zoning Law Challenge
The city of Pittsburgh argued Monday that a developer group can't retroactively add a member's project-specific subsidiary to a lawsuit just to shore up the group's standing to challenge the city's "inclusionary zoning" mandate for certain neighborhoods.
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October 27, 2025
FERC Defends OK Of Grid Operator's Project Hookup Study
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has told the Fifth Circuit that Louisiana and Mississippi utility regulators have no grounds to challenge its approval of a regional grid operator's cap on electricity generation projects evaluated as part of its interconnection process.
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October 27, 2025
Who Watches The Watchers? Conn. Justices Mull Court Bias
A Connecticut Supreme Court justice said Monday that if the state's human rights watchdog cannot address claims of racial discrimination in attorney licensing, then there is "no oversight" when bias infects the process.
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October 27, 2025
Cannabis Cos. Seek Supreme Court Review Of Federal Ban
A group of cannabis interests challenging the federal marijuana ban are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider a 20-year-old precedent on cannabis policy.
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October 27, 2025
Exxon Sues Calif. Over Climate Disclosure Laws
Exxon Mobil Corp. is suing California over state laws the company says violate its First Amendment rights by forcing it "to serve as a mouthpiece" for ideas it disagrees with, including that large companies are uniquely responsible for climate change.
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October 27, 2025
Holland & Knight's CFIUS Team Leader Jumps To Weil
The leader of Holland & Knight LLP's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and industrial security team has made the move to Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Monday.
Expert Analysis
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Breaking Down The Intersection Of Right-Of-Publicity Law, AI
Jillian Taylor at Blank Rome examines how existing right-of-publicity law governs artificial intelligence-generated voice-overs, deepfakes and deadbots; highlights a recent New York federal court ruling involving AI-generated voice clones; and offers practical guardrails for using AI without violating the right of publicity.
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Civil Maritime Nuclear Sector Poised For Growth, Challenges
The maritime industry now stands on the verge of a nuclear-powered renaissance, with the need for clean energy, resilient power generation and decarbonized logistics driving demand for commercial maritime nuclear technology — but these developments will raise significant new legal, regulatory and technical questions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.
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Series
Painting Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Painting trains me to see both the fine detail and the whole composition at once, enabling me to identify friction points while keeping sight of a client's bigger vision, but the most significant lesson I've brought to my legal work has been the value of originality, says Jana Gouchev at Gouchev Law.
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H-2A Rule Rollback Sheds Light On 2 Policy Litigation Issues
The Trump administration’s recent refusal to defend an immigration regulation implemented by the Biden administration highlights a questionable process that both parties have used to bypass the Administrative Procedure Act’s rulemaking process, and points toward the next step in the fight over universal injunctions, says Mark Stevens at Clark Hill.
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NY AML Rules Get Crypto Rebrand: What It Means For Banks
A recent letter from the New York State Department of Financial Services outlining how banks can use blockchain analytics in anti-money laundering efforts is a reminder that crypto activity is not exempted from banks' role in keeping the financial system safe, says Katherine Lemire at Lankler Siffert.
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What's At Stake At High Court For Presidential Removal Power
Two pending U.S. Supreme Court cases —Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook — raise fundamental questions about the constitutional separation of powers, threaten the 90-year-old precedent of Humphrey's Executor v. U.S. and will determine the president's authority to control independent federal agencies, says Kolya Glick at Arnold & Porter.
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Using The GHG Protocol For California Climate Reporting
With the California Air Resources Board's recent announcement that entities subject to the state's climate disclosure laws can use the Greenhouse Gas Protocol as a standard for structured, auditable reporting, a review of methods, data sources and disclosures under the protocol is timely for compliance planning, says Thierry Montoya at Frost Brown.
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Employer Considerations As Ill. Ends Mandatory Fact-Finding
Illinois recently eliminated mandatory fact-finding conferences, and while such meetings tend to benefit complainants, respondent employers should not dismiss them out of hand without conducting a thorough analysis of the risks and benefits, which will vary from case to case, says Kimberly Ross at FordHarrison.
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Courts Are Still Grappling With McDonnell, 9 Years Later
The Seventh and D.C. Circuits’ recent decisions in U.S. v. Weiss and U.S. v. Paitsel, respectively, demonstrate that courts are still struggling to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 ruling in McDonnell v. U.S., which narrowed the scope of “official acts” in federal bribery cases, say attorneys at Quinn Emanuel.
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Compliance Pointers Amid Domestic Terrorism Clampdown
A recent presidential memorandum marks a shift in federal domestic-terrorism enforcement that should prompt nonprofits to enhance diligence related to grantees, vendors and events, and financial institutions to shore up their internal resources for increased suspicious-activity monitoring and reporting obligations, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Trump Tax Law Has Mixed Impacts On Commercial Real Estate
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act brings sweeping changes to the real estate industry — and while the permanency of opportunity zones and bonus depreciation creates predictability for some taxpayers, sunsetting incentives for renewable energy projects will leave others with hard choices, says Jordan Metzger at Cole Schotz.
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CFTC, SEC Joint Statement Highlights New Unity On Crypto
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent joint statement announcing a cross-agency initiative enabling certain spot crypto-asset products to trade on regulated exchanges is the earliest and most visible instance of interagency cooperation on crypto regulation, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Regulatory Uncertainties Loom As Fed Ends Crypto Oversight
The Federal Reserve Bank's recently ended crypto supervisory program headlines other recent federal actions from Congress, the White House and relevant agencies that may complicate financial institutions' digital-asset use and attendant compliance strategies, say attorneys at Buchalter.
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What The New Nondomiciled-Trucker Rule Means For Carriers
A new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration interim final rule restricting states' issuance of commercial drivers licenses to nondomiciled drivers does not alter motor carriers' obligations to verify drivers' qualifications, but may create disruptions by reducing the number of eligible drivers, say attorneys at Benesch.
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EU-US Data Transfer Ruling Offers Reassurance To Cos.
The European Union General Court’s recent upholding of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework in Latombe v. European Commission, although subject to appeal, provides companies with legal certainty for the first time by allowing the transfer of European Economic Area personal data without relying on alternative mechanisms, say lawyers at Wilson Sonsini.