Public Policy

  • August 04, 2025

    California Egg Farmers Join Defense Of Animal Welfare Laws

    The Association of California Egg Farmers and several animal rights groups seek to join the Golden State's defense of animal welfare laws being challenged by the federal government.

  • August 04, 2025

    5th Circ. Pushes FERC To Justify Keeping Pipeline Rate Cap

    A Fifth Circuit panel on Monday challenged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's position that two pipeline owners have monopolistic power, suggesting that's not the case if customers have other routes for distributing oil.

  • August 04, 2025

    UT Austin Denies Threatening Prof Who Criticized Leaders

    The University of Texas at Austin denied threatening a professor who publicly criticized its leadership, telling the Fifth Circuit that its employee has remained on staff three years after his speech was allegedly chilled and "refuses to take 'yes' for an answer."

  • August 04, 2025

    DOJ Investigates FlixBus, Greyhound Over ADA Complaints

    Greyhound and Flixbus are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations that they are discriminating against riders with disabilities by denying them reasonable accommodations, including failing to properly maintain lifts on buses, not helping riders use the lifts and refusing to allow service animals to be with riders. 

  • August 04, 2025

    Frontier, Verizon To Invest $8M In Rural Arizona Broadband Fix

    Arizona is waiting for its corporation commission to green-light a settlement with Frontier and Verizon that includes an $8 million investment from the telecommunications companies to expand and enhance rural broadband in Navajo and Apache counties.

  • August 04, 2025

    Top Groups Lobbying The FCC

    Lobbying heated up in July as the Federal Communications Commission heard from advocates close to 200 times on issues ranging from spectrum deals to regulatory cuts, spacecraft licensing, undersea cable security, broadband deployment hurdles and more.

  • August 04, 2025

    DC Circ. Lets Trump Border Asylum Ban Continue, With Limits

    The D.C. Circuit has allowed the Trump administration to continue enforcing a policy that largely bars asylum at the southern border for now, but said it can't deport noncitizens without honoring legal protections for those who fear torture or persecution.

  • August 04, 2025

    Chamber Wants FTC's Merger Notice Overhaul Nixed

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has urged a Texas federal judge to upend a dramatic overhaul of merger filing requirements that it argued exceeded Federal Trade Commission authority, was made without a proper cost-benefit analysis and amounts to a solution in search of a problem.

  • August 04, 2025

    GTCR Says Buyer In Place For Potential FTC Divestiture Deal

    Private equity firm GTCR BC Holdings told an Illinois federal court it has a signed agreement with a buyer for a deal that should fix the concerns raised by the Federal Trade Commission over its planned $627 million purchase of a medical device coatings company.

  • August 04, 2025

    Nurse Agrees To Repay $614K For False Claims In Conn.

    A nurse who owned a medication management business and two Connecticut residential care homes agreed on Monday to settle state and federal False Claims Act allegations for $614,000, ending allegations that he billed Medicare and Medicaid impossible daily hours and for clients that were hospitalized or dead.

  • August 04, 2025

    9th Circ. Rejects Most Of Sodexo's ERISA Arbitration Push

    The Ninth Circuit said Monday that employers can't unilaterally change Employee Retirement Income Security Act-governed plans to require arbitration, backing the bulk of a trial court ruling that refused to throw out of court a nicotine fee lawsuit against food service company Sodexo.

  • August 04, 2025

    Enbridge Asks Judge To Block Mich. Pipeline Shutdown Order

    Energy infrastructure firm Enbridge has told a federal court that Michigan's efforts to shut down a U.S.-Canada pipeline are preempted by federal law, while the state urged the court to drop or stay the case because of a parallel state court action that is teed up for U.S. Supreme Court review. 

  • August 04, 2025

    Hemp Org. Applauds Removal Of Ban From Spending Bill

    A national hemp industry trade organization on Monday said it was grateful for the removal of language from a Senate appropriations bill that would have banned consumable hemp-derived products with psychoactive THC.

  • August 04, 2025

    EU Postpones Tariffs To Finalize US Trade Agreement

    The European Union will delay planned trade countermeasures for the next six months, including tariffs on over €93 billion ($107.6 billion) of U.S. goods entering the bloc, as the EU and U.S. work toward implementing the framework trade deal agreed to last week, a spokesperson for the European Commission said Monday.

  • August 04, 2025

    Google Says Term Limits Only Needed For Some Search Fixes

    Google told the D.C. federal court overseeing the government search monopolization case that there is no need to put a one-year term limit on its default search agreements with Android device manufacturers and wireless carriers because they are not exclusive.

  • August 04, 2025

    Chemical Group Says Fluoride Judge Got It Wrong

    The American Chemistry Council told the Ninth Circuit that a California federal judge who ruled that current limits on fluoride in drinking water aren't protective enough misinterpreted the Toxic Substances Control Act and urged reversal of his decision.

  • August 04, 2025

    DOJ Defends IRS-ICE Data Sharing Pact In DC Circ.

    The D.C. Circuit should reject four immigrant advocacy groups' push to prevent the IRS from disclosing confidential tax return information to immigration enforcement authorities, the government said Monday, arguing there's no concrete evidence that the information sharing will harm the groups' members.

  • August 04, 2025

    Trump Admin. To Test $15K Visa Bond For Some Visitors

    The U.S. Department of State on Monday unveiled a 12-month pilot program that will require noncitizens seeking tourist or business visas from countries with high rates of visa overstays to post a bond of up to $15,000 to obtain a visa.

  • August 04, 2025

    Fla. Tribe Joins Suit Over 'Alligator Alcatraz' In Everglades

    A Florida tribe has joined green groups in hitting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and state officials with environmental claims that the immigration detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" constructed in the Everglades violates a slew of federal statutes.

  • August 04, 2025

    Mississippi Judge Won't Explain TRO Errors In Suit Over DEI

    A Mississippi federal judge won't explain how his decision pausing enforcement of a state law barring diversity, equity and inclusion in public schools contained nonexistent allegations, wrongly identified plaintiffs and defendants and quoted terms that don't appear in the legislative text, ruling that the court isn't obligated to do so.

  • August 04, 2025

    FinCEN Urges Industry To Stay 'Vigilant' On Crypto ATM Fraud

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on Monday cautioned about rising fraud involving crypto ATMs, saying criminals are increasingly using the kiosks to launder money and scam vulnerable consumers, especially seniors.

  • August 04, 2025

    D.C. Circuit Upholds FCC's Foreign Sponsorship Rule

    The D.C. Circuit upheld the Federal Communications Commission's 2024 foreign sponsorship disclosure rule for broadcasters Friday, rejecting arguments that the rule violated First Amendment speech protections and even reprimanding the premature leaking of nonpublic rulemaking details to broadcasters, calling the process a "new low" of industry capture.

  • August 04, 2025

    DOJ Fights Md. Judges' Bid To Ax Suit Over Habeas Orders

    The Department of Justice is standing by its lawsuit challenging a standing order in the District of Maryland that temporarily blocks the deportation of detained noncitizens who file habeas petitions, saying a recent dismissal bid misses the mark because "even a small delay" is "irreparable harm to sovereign interests."

  • August 04, 2025

    Moderna Seeks To Be Cleared In $5B COVID Vax Patent Case

    Moderna has urged a Delaware federal judge to clear it in a rival mRNA developer's $5 billion patent suit over the company's COVID-19 vaccines, saying it is shielded because it made them for the federal government.

  • August 04, 2025

    Conn. Justices Block Rehab Center's Bid To Halt Rival Permit

    A northwestern Connecticut drug rehabilitation facility lacks standing to challenge the state Department of Public Health's approval of a small-town rival's permit, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Monday, holding that a statute does not require regulators to consider effects on local competition when OK'ing new healthcare facilities.

Expert Analysis

  • Previewing State Efforts To Regulate Mental Health Chatbots

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    New York, Nevada and Utah have all recently enacted laws regulating the use of artificial intelligence to deliver mental health services, offering early insights into how other states may regulate this area, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • 6 Questions We Should Ask About The Trump Trade Deals

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    Whenever the text becomes available, certain questions will help determine whether the Trump administration’s trade deals with U.S. trading partners have been crafted to form durable economic relationships, or ephemeral ties likely to break upon interpretive disagreement or a change in political will, says Ted Posner at Baker Botts.

  • 'Pig Butchering' Seizure Is A Milestone In Crypto Crime Fight

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    The U.S.' recent seizure of $225 million in crypto funds in a massive "pig butchering" scheme highlights the transformative impact of blockchain analysis in law enforcement, and the increasing necessity of collaboration between law enforcement agencies, cryptocurrency exchanges and stablecoin issuers, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • Justices' Age Verification Ruling May Lead To More State Laws

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton ruling, permitting a Texas law requiring certain websites to verify users’ ages, significantly expands states' ability to regulate minors’ social media access, further complicating the patchwork of internet privacy laws, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • The Pros, Cons Of A Single Commissioner Leading The CFTC

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    While a single-member U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission may require fewer resources and be more efficient, its internal decision-making process would be less transparent to those outside the agency, reflect less compromise between competing viewpoints and provide the public with less predictability, says former CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Relevance Redactions

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    In recent cases addressing redactions that parties sought to apply based on the relevance of information — as opposed to considerations of privilege — courts have generally limited a party’s ability to withhold nonresponsive or irrelevant material, providing a few lessons for discovery strategy, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • How DOJ's New Data Security Rules Leave HIPAA In The Dust

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently effective data security requirements carry profound implications for how healthcare providers collect, store, share and use data — and approach vendor oversight — that go far beyond the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, say attorneys at Nelson Mullins.

  • Opinion

    Section 1983 Has Promise After End Of Nationwide Injunctions

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down the practice of nationwide injunctions in Trump v. Casa, Section 1983 civil rights suits can provide a better pathway to hold the government accountable — but this will require reforms to qualified immunity, says Marc Levin at the Council on Criminal Justice.

  • Courts Redefining Software As Product Generates New Risks

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    A recent wave of litigation against social media platforms, chatbot developers and ride-hailing companies has some courts straying from the traditional view of software as a service to redefining software as a product, with significant implications for strict liability exposure, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

  • Trump's 2nd Term Puts Merger Remedies Back On The Table

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    In contrast with the Biden administration, the second Trump administration has signaled a renewed willingness to resolve merger enforcement concerns through remedies from the outset, particularly when the proposed fix is structural, clearly addresses the harm and does not require burdensome oversight, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • Why Bank Regulators' Proposed Leverage Tweak Matters

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    Banking agencies' recent proposal to modify the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio framework applicable to the largest U.S. banks shows the regulators are keen to address concerns that the regulatory capital framework is too restrictive, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Corp. Human Rights Regulatory Landscape Is Fragmented

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    Given the complexity of compliance with nations' overlapping human rights laws, multinational companies need to be cognizant of the evolving approaches to modern slavery transparency, and proposals that could reduce mandatory due diligence and reporting requirements, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • How Banks Can Harness New Customer ID Rule's Flexibility

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    Banking regulators' update to the customer identification process, allowing banks to collect some information from third parties rather than directly from customers, helps modernize anti-money laundering compliance and carries advantages for financial institutions that embrace the new approach, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

  • CEQA Reform May Spur More Housing, But Devil Is In Details

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    A recently enacted law reforming the California Environmental Quality Act has been touted by state leaders as a fix for the state's housing crisis — but provisions including a new theoretically optional traffic mitigation fee could offset any potential benefits, says attorney David Smith.

  • Opinion

    Premerger Settlements Don't Meet Standard For Bribery

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    Claims that Paramount’s decision to settle a lawsuit with President Donald Trump while it was undergoing a premerger regulatory review amounts to a quid pro quo misconstrue bribery law and ignore how modern legal departments operate, says Ediberto Román at the Florida International University College of Law.

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