Public Policy

  • June 26, 2025

    Phillip Morris Moves To Arbitrate Rivals' Tobacco Deal Suit

    Philip Morris USA is urging a Washington state judge to force arbitration in a dispute with R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco companies over deals delineating billions of dollars in annual payments owed to states under Big Tobacco's 1998 master settlement agreement.

  • June 26, 2025

    DHS Releases Grant Funds After Chicago Suit Targets 'Pause'

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has released at least some of the counterterrorism grant fund reimbursements it had recently suspended for Chicago and certain other cities, but Chicago officials say the move isn't enough to end a lawsuit it launched over the allegedly unconstitutional pause.

  • June 26, 2025

    Ex-NY Gov. Aide Hit With New PPE Fraud Scheme Charges

    A federal grand jury Wednesday tacked on charges against a former top aide to two New York governors in a case accusing her of secretly acting as a Chinese government agent, alleging she illegally steered government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic to businesses she was secretly connected to.

  • June 26, 2025

    NY Court Suppresses Evidence Due To Cannabis Law Change

    A man's guilty plea to possessing cocaine was vacated Thursday after a New York appeals court allowed suppression of evidence gleaned from a police search prompted by a cannabis smell, because the state barred this exact practice days after his indictment.

  • June 26, 2025

    Calif. FAIR Plan Fire Policy Is Unlawful, Court Rules

    Fire insurance offered by California's insurer of last resort does not meet the minimum coverage standards laid out in the state insurance code, a California state court ruled, finding the policy's definition of "direct physical loss" and its smoke damage provision to be unlawfully restrictive.

  • June 26, 2025

    Judge Questions DOJ's Justification For $820M Grant Cuts

    A D.C. federal judge on Thursday expressed frustration with the U.S. Department of Justice's scant explanation for canceling more than $820 million in public safety grants disbursed through the agency's Office of Justice Programs.

  • June 26, 2025

    NY Looks To Snuff Out Pot Shop's Labor Peace Law Spat

    New York cannabis regulators fought a dispensary operator's challenge to a state law making companies sign on to labor peace agreements with unions to have a license, telling a federal judge Thursday that the business can't show harm from the pact because it doesn't have employees.

  • June 26, 2025

    EPA Illegally Ended Environmental Justice Grants, Groups Say

    Environmental groups, a Native American village and other local governments have alleged in a proposed class action in D.C. federal court that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency unlawfully stopped a $3 billion climate grant program created by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

  • June 26, 2025

    Cable Biz Wants Notice Before FCC Waives Top-4 Rule

    The cable industry criticized the Federal Communications Commission's handling of a recent waiver of its rule blocking broadcasters from owning more than one top-four TV station in a single market, telling FCC officials they should ask for the public's views before making any exceptions.

  • June 26, 2025

    CSBS Issues Money Transmitter Guidance on Virtual Currency

    The Conference of State Bank Supervisors on Thursday released advisory guidance on how to consider virtual currency when calculating a licensee's tangible net worth under the Money Transmission Modernization Act, the first set of recommendations to be published under the CSBS board of directors' newly established process for issuing nonbinding, advisory guidance.

  • June 26, 2025

    Immigrants Tell 1st Circ. DHS Can't Justify Parole Program Ax

    A class of nearly 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela told the First Circuit on Wednesday that the Trump administration can't show that a Massachusetts federal judge abused her discretion in blocking the government's rescission of temporary Biden-era removal protections.

  • June 26, 2025

    Ex-Trump Atty Chesebro Disbarred In NY For Fake Elector Plot

    President Donald Trump's former attorney Kenneth Chesebro, the so-called "architect" in the plot to use fake electors to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results, has been disbarred from practicing law in the state of New York, according to a unanimous decision issued on Thursday. 

  • June 26, 2025

    Alaska Foster Kids Win Class Status In Child Welfare Suit

    An Alaskan federal judge has ruled that foster children as a class can sue the director of the state's Department of Family and Community Services in her official capacity, finding merit in their claims that statewide practices put all kids in custody at serious risk of harm.

  • June 26, 2025

    Mass. Court Lets Man Try Again To Escape Ankle Monitor

    A convicted rapist in Massachusetts who spent nearly 16 years in prison will get a second shot at challenging how long he must wear a GPS monitor now that he's been released, after a state appellate court on Thursday ruled a lower court did not properly weigh his constitutional rights.

  • June 26, 2025

    Wash. High Court Says State CBAs Are Private Until Funded

    The agency that negotiates Washington state employees' union contracts can reject public records requests for bargaining-related documents until the contracts are finalized and funded, the Washington Supreme Court held in an 8-1 vote Thursday, upholding a Washington Court of Appeals decision.

  • June 26, 2025

    Judge 'Cannot Justify' Ga.'s Social Media Age Limit Law

    A federal judge on Thursday declared unconstitutional Georgia's new restrictions on minors' use of social media, halting enforcement of the measures on First Amendment grounds just weeks before they were to take effect.

  • June 26, 2025

    5th Circ. Revives Biz Records Law, Citing Review Safeguard

    The Fifth Circuit on Thursday tossed a permanent injunction blocking a Texas statute requiring businesses to immediately comply with the state's demand to examine business records, saying the Texas Supreme Court recently "harmonized" the law in a way that addresses Spirit AeroSystems Inc.'s constitutional challenge.

  • June 26, 2025

    FCC Votes To Slash Rules At June Meeting

    Most of what the Federal Communications Commission did at its monthly meeting Thursday was vote away rules that it no longer deems useful to keeping the agency and the various telecommunications sectors under its purview running smoothly.

  • June 26, 2025

    Wireless Cos. Ask FCC To Overturn Subsidy Rulings

    Two wireless companies have asked the Federal Communications Commission to reverse the Universal Service Administrative Co.'s decisions denying some of the federal subsidies the companies received for providing low-income households with broadband discounts.

  • June 26, 2025

    Md. Judge Won't Rush Abrego Garcia's Bid To Avoid Removal

    A federal judge declined Thursday to rule immediately on Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia's emergency request to bar the government from quickly deporting him once he's released from detention in his criminal case in Tennessee, expressing concern about her jurisdiction.

  • June 26, 2025

    GOP Sens. Aim To Finalize Crypto Market Bill By Sept. 30

    Republican senators pledged Thursday to finish their digital asset market structure legislation by the end of September, stressing the urgency of delivering on President Donald Trump's aim to make the U.S. the cryptocurrency capital of the world.

  • June 26, 2025

    10 Years Later: Obergefell Attorneys, In Their Own Words

    Marking the decade anniversary of the Obergefell opinion, Law360 asked the attorneys who argued the case at the Supreme Court what it was like being at the center of such a monumental case, how a ruling favoring same-sex marriage changed the legal landscape over the past decade, and the remaining legal appetite to overturn it.

  • June 26, 2025

    No Work Needed For Military Leave Pay, Wash. Justices Say

    Washington state public employees are entitled to paid military leave even if they are not scheduled to work because they are on active duty during an extended military leave of absence, the state's Supreme Court ruled Thursday, saying the state's paid military leave statute is unambiguous.

  • June 26, 2025

    DOJ Puts U. Of California Diversity Plans Under Microscope

    The U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights arm said Thursday it's launching an investigation into whether a University of California strategic plan prompted its campuses to discriminate against job applicants and employees based on their race and gender.

  • June 26, 2025

    Lawmakers Object To USPTO Reneging On Atlanta Hub Plan

    A group of federal lawmakers from Georgia has written to the acting director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to ask why it no longer plans to launch an outreach office in Atlanta and instead plans to open one at its current headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.

Expert Analysis

  • What Disparate Impact Order Means For Insurers' AI Use

    Author Photo

    A recent executive order seeking to bar disparate impact theory conveys a meaningful policy shift, but does not alter the legal status of federal antidiscrimination law or enforceability of state laws, such as those holding insurers accountable for using artificial intelligence in a nondiscriminatory matter, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Choosing A Road To Autonomous Vehicle Compliance

    Author Photo

    As autonomous vehicle manufacturers navigate the complex U.S. regulatory landscape, they may opt for different approaches to following federal, state and local rules and laws, as they balance the tradeoffs between innovation, compliance and speed of deployment, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Navigating The Expanding Frontier Of Premerger Notice Laws

    Author Photo

    Washington's newly enacted law requiring premerger notification to state enforcers builds upon a growing trend of state scrutiny into transactions in the healthcare sector and beyond, and may inspire other states to enact similar legislation, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Evolving Federal Rules Pose Further Obstacles To NY LLC Act

    Author Photo

    Following the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recent changes to beneficial ownership information reporting under the federal Corporate Transparency Act — dramatically reducing the number of companies required to make disclosures — the utility of New York's LLC Transparency Act becomes less apparent, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • The Risks Of Trump's Plan To Fast-Track Deregulation

    Author Photo

    A recent memorandum issued by President Donald Trump directing the repeal of so-called unlawful regulations, and instructing that agencies invoke the good cause exception under the Administrative Procedure Act, signals a potentially far-reaching deregulatory strategy under the guise of legal compliance, say attorneys at GableGotwals.

  • Deregulation Memo Presents Risks, Opportunities For Cos.

    Author Photo

    A recent Trump administration memo providing direction to agencies tasked with rescinding regulations under an earlier executive order — without undergoing the typical notice-and-review process — will likely create much uncertainty for businesses, though they may be able to engage with agencies to shape the regulatory agenda, say attorneys at Blank Rome.

  • Action Steps To Prepare For Ramped-Up Export Enforcement

    Author Photo

    In light of recent Bureau of Industry and Security actions and comments, companies, particularly those with any connection to China, should consider four concrete steps to shore up their compliance programs given the administration's increasingly aggressive approach to export enforcement, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Mastering Discovery

    Author Photo

    The discovery process and the rules that govern it are often absent from law school curricula, but developing a solid grasp of the particulars can give any new attorney a leg up in their practice, says Jordan Davies at Knowles Gallant.

  • DOJ Signals Major Shift In White Collar Enforcement Priorities

    Author Photo

    In a speech on Monday, an official outlined key revisions to the U.S. Department of Justice’s voluntary self-disclosure, corporate monitorship and whistleblower program policies, marking a meaningful change in the white collar enforcement landscape, and offering companies clearer incentives and guardrails, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.

  • Understanding Compliance Concerns With NY Severance Bill

    Author Photo

    New York's No Severance Ultimatums Act, if enacted, could overhaul how employers manage employee separations, but employers should be mindful that the bill's language introduces ambiguities and raises compliance concerns, say attorneys at Norris McLaughlin.

  • What New Study Means For Recycling Compliance In Calif.

    Author Photo

    Companies must review the California recycling agency's new study to understand its criteria for assessing claims of product and packaging recyclability under a law that takes effect next year, and then decide whether the risks of making such claims in the state outweigh the benefits, say attorneys at Keller & Heckman.

  • Mergers Face Steeper Slopes In State Antitrust Reviews

    Author Photo

    The New York Supreme Court's recent summary judgment in New York v. Intermountain Management, blocking the acquisition and shuttering of a ski mountain in the Syracuse area, underscores the growing trend among state antitrust enforcers to scrutinize and challenge anticompetitive conduct under state laws, say attorneys at Robins Kaplan.

  • Opinion

    The IRS Shouldn't Go To War Over Harvard's Tax Exemption

    Author Photo

    If the Internal Revenue Service revokes Harvard's tax-exempt status for violating established public policy — a position unsupported by currently available information — the precedent set by surviving the inevitable court challenge could undercut the autonomy and distinctiveness of the charitable sector, says Johnny Rex Buckles at Houston Law Center.

  • Balancing Deep-Sea Mining Executive Order, Int'l Agreements

    Author Photo

    President Donald Trump's recent executive order directing exploration and exploitation of deep-sea mineral resources appears to conflict with the evolving international framework regulating such activities, so companies and investors should proceed with care and keep possible future legal challenges in mind, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • CFTC Memos Clarify When 'Sorry' Still Gets You Subpoenaed

    Author Photo

    A pair of Commodity Futures Trading Commission advisories released in February and April open a new path to self-reporting but emphasize that serious breaches still warrant a trip to the penalty box, prompting firms to weigh whether — and how — to disclose potential violations in the future, say attorneys at Pryor Cashman.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Public Policy archive.