Public Policy

  • June 06, 2025

    DOGE Can Access Social Security Data For Now, Justices Say

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Friday that the Department of Government Efficiency could obtain unlimited access to Social Security Administration data on millions of Americans while a legal dispute over privacy concerns plays out.

  • June 06, 2025

    New York Says It Won't Rescind Native American Mascot Ban

    The New York State Education Department said it won't rescind a ban on the use of Indigenous mascots and names in public schools despite a threat from the Trump administration to pull its federal funding, telling the U.S. Department of Education instead that it's willing to broaden the regulation's reach.

  • June 06, 2025

    Auto Industry Questions Update To FCC Connected-Tech Ban

    With the automotive technology players saying they need more time to assess their supply chains, the Federal Communications Commission is giving the public an additional 18 days to comment on a proposal that would add to the list of vehicle connectivity technologies banned from Russian and Chinese manufacturers.

  • June 06, 2025

    Civil Rights Groups Demand Senate Scrutinize EEOC Nominees

    Nearly 50 civil and workers' groups are urging the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to hold confirmation hearings for Andrea Lucas and Brittany Panuccio, acting chair and commissioner nominee, respectively, for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to further scrutinize their records.

  • June 06, 2025

    FCC Says Texas Telecom Must Pay Back $5M In Federal Support

    The Federal Communications Commission said Friday that a West Texas telecom will have to pay back $5.5 million in federal support because it didn't follow commission rules when documenting its eligibility for the money.

  • June 06, 2025

    Calif. Bar Hires Investigator To Review Exam Snafu

    The State Bar of California's board of trustees voted to approve a $185,000 contract with a nonprofit to review "exam scoring irregularities and testing accommodations" from its fraught February 2025 bar exam.

  • June 06, 2025

    Trump Seeks High Court's OK On Education Dept. Job Cuts

    The Trump administration has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a Massachusetts federal judge's order halting massive job cuts at the U.S. Department of Education, arguing that the judge's finding that almost 1,400 employees must be reinstated to ensure the department's continued operation "has no basis in reality."

  • June 06, 2025

    Feds Tee Up Redo Of Vehicle Fuel Economy Standards

    The U.S. Department of Transportation said Friday that vehicle fuel economy standards issued by the Biden administration improperly factored electric vehicles into the calculus, resulting in overly stringent standards that the Trump administration will soon revise.

  • June 06, 2025

    Judge Questions Trump's Ability To Change Voting Law

    A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday questioned assertions by the government that President Donald Trump is authorized by the Constitution's "take care" clause to impose sweeping changes to federal election procedures despite existing statutes.

  • June 06, 2025

    Dems Urge FHFA To Halt Trump's Fannie, Freddie Plans

    A group of 13 Democratic U.S. senators, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders, urged the Federal Housing Finance Agency to put on hold efforts from President Donald Trump to end government conservatorship for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, stating in a letter that reprivatizing the entities "could dramatically increase costs for families seeking to purchase a home."

  • June 06, 2025

    Mass. Judge Blocks Trump's Harvard Foreign Student Ban

    A Massachusetts federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's proclamation suspending entry of foreign students coming to the U.S. to study at Harvard, saying the university has shown that it will sustain immediate and irreparable injury absent a restraining order.

  • June 06, 2025

    4th Circ. Stays Ruling Restoring Frozen Federal Grant Funding

    A split Fourth Circuit panel has blocked a South Carolina federal judge's order directing the federal government to restore 32 congressionally funded grants that were frozen by the Trump administration, while casting doubt on nonprofits' and cities' legal challenge.

  • June 06, 2025

    European Soccer Org. Under Fire For Stifling 'Super League'

    Spain's competition watchdog opened an investigation into European soccer's governing body on Friday, focusing on a series of agreements it struck with top flight clubs to prevent them from joining the so-called Super League project backed by promoter A22 Sports Management.

  • June 06, 2025

    Off The Bench: NASCAR Antitrust Saga, White Sox Transfer

    In this week's Off The Bench, an appeals court says Michael Jordan's auto racing team cannot compete amid an antitrust suit against NASCAR, the Chicago White Sox start a long ownership transfer process, and the woman who accused a college football coach of sexual harassment sues the university over its handling of the complaint.

  • June 05, 2025

    FTC Chair Calls On Congress To 'Reform' Kids' Privacy Model

    The longstanding framework for protecting children from online privacy harms is no longer working as Congress intended, the head of the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday, in urging federal lawmakers to take steps to empower both the agency and parents to more effectively tackle these growing risks. 

  • June 05, 2025

    Harvard Expands Challenge To Trump's Foreign Scholar Ban

    Harvard University on Thursday expanded its lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump's efforts to block international students from studying at the nation's oldest college to attack a presidential proclamation that restricts Harvard's foreign students based on supposed national security concerns.

  • June 05, 2025

    Trump's New Travel Ban May Be Harder To Fight This Time

    President Donald Trump's travel ban, which suffered multiple court losses during his first term before the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld it, may be on more solid legal footing in its renewed form, with lessons evidently applied from those losses.

  • June 05, 2025

    Fla. High Court Denies Property Rights In Special Taxi Permits

    The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled taxi permits that weren't recognized by a county jurisdiction after a special district was dissolved don't constitute an unconstitutional taking by the government without compensation, saying the state Legislature repealed the licenses' property rights in 2017.

  • June 05, 2025

    USDA Sued Over Ending 600 Grants Via Flawed Form Letters

    A group of environmental and food sustainability nonprofits hit the U.S. Department of Agriculture with a lawsuit in D.C. federal court Thursday, accusing the Trump administration of unconstitutionally exceeding its authority by abruptly rescinding nearly 600 grants via "minimally edited form letters" that had errors and lacked detailed explanations.

  • June 05, 2025

    Red States Double Down On Bid To Stymie Trans Health Rule

    More than a dozen Republican attorneys general challenging a Biden-era rule that protected gender-affirming care under the Affordable Care Act said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can't keep the rule on the books just because the new administration is unlikely to enforce it.

  • June 05, 2025

    Infant Cushion Maker Urges DC Circ. To Vacate CPSC Rule

    A company that manufactures infant support cushions has told the D.C. Circuit that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission overstepped its authority by issuing a rule regulating the products as "durable" and thus skirting congressional limits on its ability to issue mandatory product safety standards.

  • June 05, 2025

    Colo. Gov. Faces Suit Over Order To Comply With ICE Info Bid

    Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was accused in court Wednesday of forcing government employees to violate a state law by requesting they honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests for information about 35 sponsors of unauthorized immigrant children.

  • June 05, 2025

    SEC Wants 8th Circ. To Remand 'Dealer' Suit After Dismissals

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked the Eighth Circuit on Thursday to send a $12 million case it won against Carebourn Capital back to the district court in light of its recent decision to take a less expansive approach to the definition of "securities dealer."

  • June 05, 2025

    DC Circ. Won't Make FCC Reconsider LTD Broadband Funds

    The D.C. Circuit isn't going to touch a Federal Communications Commission decision denying LTD Broadband LLC $1.3 billion in rural network deployment funds after the company failed to convince the agency that it could connect the half-million locations that came with the money.

  • June 05, 2025

    Crypto.com Says Nevada Can't Sue Over Sports Contracts

    The derivatives platform owned by Crypto.com on Thursday urged a Nevada federal judge to block the state's gaming regulators from taking action over its sports event contracts, arguing the federal court has already granted similar relief to trading platform Kalshi.

Expert Analysis

  • Foreign Countries Have Strong Foundation To Fill FCPA Void

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    Though the U.S. has paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, liberal democracies across the globe are well equipped to reverse any setback in anti-corruption enforcement, potentially heightening prosecution risk for companies headquartered in the U.S., says Stephen Kohn at Kohn Kohn.

  • How Attys Can Use A Therapy Model To Help Triggered Clients

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    Attorneys can lean on key principles from a psychotherapeutic paradigm known as the "Internal Family Systems" model to help manage triggered clients and get settlement negotiations back on track, says Jennifer Gibbs at Zelle.

  • A Tale Of Two Admins: Parsing 1st Half Of SEC's FY 2025

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    The first half of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's fiscal year 2025, which ended March 31, was unusually eventful, marked by a flurry of enforcement actions in the last three months of former Chair Gary Gensler's tenure and a prompt pivot after Inauguration Day, say attorneys at Jones Day.

  • A Closer Look At Amendments To Virginia Noncompete Ban

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    Recently passed amendments in Virignia will prohibit noncompetes for all employees who are eligible for overtime pay under federal law, and though the changes could simplify employers’ analyses as to restrictive covenant enforceability, it may require them to reassess and potentially adjust their use of noncompetes with some workers, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • What Bank Regulator Consolidation Would Mean For Industry

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    Speculation over the Trump administration’s potential plans to consolidate financial service regulators is intensifying uncertainty, but no matter the outcome for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the industry should expect continued policy changes, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • Getting Ahead Of The SEC's Continued Focus On Cyber, AI

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is showing it will continue to scrutinize actions involving cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, but there are proactive measures that companies and financial institutions can take to avoid regulatory scrutiny going forward, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Navigating Florida's Bad Faith Reforms After Appellate Ruling

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    A Florida appellate court's recent decision is among the first to interpret two significant amendments to the state's insurance bad faith law, and its holding that one of the statutes could not apply retroactively may affect insurers' interpretation of the other statute, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 3 Steps For In-House Counsel To Assess Litigation Claims

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    Before a potential economic downturn, in-house attorneys should investigate whether their company is sitting on hidden litigation claims that could unlock large recoveries to help the business withstand tough times, says Will Burgess at Hilgers Graben.

  • IRS And ICE Info Sharing Could Drive Payroll Tax Enforcement

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    Tax crimes are historically difficult to prosecute, but the Internal Revenue Services’ recent agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to share taxpayer records of non-U.S. citizens could be used to enhance payroll tax-related enforcement against their employers, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • Breaking Down Ill. Bellwether Case For Bank Preemption

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    The banking industry's pending lawsuit against the state of Illinois stands to permanently enjoin state regulation of bank card processing, as well as clarify the outstanding and consequential issue of whether conflict preemption continues to cover third parties in certain circumstances, says Tom Witherspoon at Stinson.

  • Despite SEC Climate Pause, Cos. Must Still Heed State Regs

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    While businesses may have been given a reprieve from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's rules aimed at standardizing climate-related disclosures, they must still track evolving requirements in states including California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York that will soon require reporting of direct and indirect carbon emissions, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.

  • A Primer On The Trading And Clearing Of Perpetual Contracts

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently released a request for comment on the trading and clearing of perpetual-style derivatives, most common in the cryptocurrency market, necessitating a deep look at how these contracts operate and their associated risks, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Teaching College Students Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Serving as an adjunct college professor has taught me the importance of building rapport, communicating effectively, and persuading individuals to critically analyze the difference between what they think and what they know — principles that have helped to improve my practice of law, says Sheria Clarke at Nelson Mullins.

  • 5 Areas Contractors Should Watch After 1st 100 Days

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    Federal agencies and contractors face challenges from staff reductions, contract terminations, pending regulatory reform and other actions from the second Trump administration's first 100 days, but other areas stand to become more efficient and cost-effective, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Planning For Open Banking Despite CFPB Uncertainty

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    Though pending litigation or new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau leadership may reshape the Biden-era regulation governing access to consumer financial data, companies can use this uncertain period to take practical steps toward an open banking strategy that will work regardless of the rule’s ultimate form, says Adam Maarec at McGlinchey Stafford.

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