Public Policy

  • April 24, 2026

    National Parks Signage Order Diverts Resources, Court Told

    Conservation groups looking to block an Interior Department order regarding the removal of signs containing information about slavery, Indigenous nations and climate change from national park sites say the directive has caused them to divert resources and pressured their members to self-censor or defy best practices for historical interpretations.

  • April 24, 2026

    AT&T Seeks To Shut Down Old Services Due To Roadwork

    AT&T already wants to retire older copper networks in places where wire has been stolen, and now the telecom giant also is asking for the Federal Communications Commission's go-ahead to close parts of networks where roadwork or other events would cause disruption.

  • April 24, 2026

    Fed Bill Targets Colo. Tribal Water Backlog With $10M Boost

    A coalition of Colorado federal lawmakers introduced legislation this week that will prioritize drinking water projects for tribal communities in the Upper Colorado River Basin by increasing funding for programs by $10 million annually.

  • April 24, 2026

    FCC Ready To Revoke Mont. FM License For Back Fees

    The Federal Communications Commission will consider revoking the license of a Montana FM radio station that the agency claims has not paid regulatory fees going back years and totaling thousands of dollars.

  • April 24, 2026

    11th Circ. Seems Skeptical Of Standing Args In Ga. Voter Suit

    An Eleventh Circuit panel Friday appeared wary of arguments that two men's lack of confidence in Georgia's electoral process and their attempts to contact the state's secretary of state about alleged voter registration anomalies gave them standing to sue under the National Voter Registration Act.

  • April 24, 2026

    Trump Admin Seeks Stay Of Vax Policy Suit Pending Appeal

    The Trump administration has asked a Massachusetts federal judge to press pause on a challenge to its new childhood vaccine schedule while it considers appealing the court's order blocking the changes, a request the plaintiffs called a delay tactic.

  • April 24, 2026

    Wis. Takes On Prediction Market Cos. Over 'Illegal' Betting

    Wisconsin has joined the fight with other states to regulate prediction market platforms under their respective state gambling laws, telling a Wisconsin state court that the platforms are engaging in criminal activity and creating a public nuisance.

  • April 24, 2026

    ICE Says 'Speculative' Harms Can't Block NJ Detention Center

    Federal officials are urging a New Jersey federal judge to reject a bid from the state and one of its municipalities to block work on a planned immigration detention center, arguing the plaintiffs lacked standing and relied on "highly speculative and unrealistic" environmental and infrastructure harms.

  • April 24, 2026

    11th Circ. Panel Looks Split On Ga.'s Trans Prison Care Ban

    An Eleventh Circuit panel appeared divided Friday over whether to reverse a Georgia federal judge's order blocking the state from cutting off funding for transgender prisoners' hormone therapy, with one judge insisting that the state had de facto conceded the treatment was medically necessary.

  • April 24, 2026

    DOJ's Agri Stats Trial Delayed For Deal Talks

    A Minnesota federal judge Friday pushed back a looming trial in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust case against Agri Stats, after the sides told the court they're close to working out a deal.

  • April 24, 2026

    Alleged Plea Breaches In Abuse Case Prompt New Judge Bid

    The defendant in a child sexual abuse case in which a federal judge ordered the trio of attorneys then leading the New Jersey U.S. Attorney's Office to testify about who was in charge has asked for his sentencing to be reassigned to a new judge, arguing that the federal government has repeatedly breached his plea agreement.

  • April 24, 2026

    Harvard Can't Get New Judge For DOJ Civil Rights Case

    A Boston federal judge on Friday declined to turn the U.S. Department of Justice's complaint about alleged antisemitism at Harvard University over to a colleague who reinstated the school's federal research funding last year.

  • April 24, 2026

    Judge Won't Halt Anthropic Calif. Suit Amid DC Circ. Case

    Anthropic PBC's lawsuit challenging the Pentagon's designation of the artificial intelligence company as supply chain risk to national security can proceed in California federal court while the government appeals an injunction and a parallel challenge plays out at the D.C. Circuit. 

  • April 24, 2026

    US, EU Announce Key Mineral Supply Chain Action Plan

    The U.S. and European Union announced new agreements to further coordinate on strengthening critical mineral supply chains, in press releases published Friday.

  • April 24, 2026

    Fla. Judicial Candidate Sues To Stop Gov. Appointment

    A candidate who has been campaigning for a Brevard County Court judgeship set to open next year and a local voter have asked the Florida Supreme Court to stop Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from canceling the election and appointing a judge, arguing that the sitting judge's retirement one business day before the end of his term should not trigger a judicial appointment.

  • April 24, 2026

    Feds, Utility Defend Green Light For Nebraska Power Line

    The U.S. Department of the Interior and the Nebraska Public Power District have told a federal judge that conservation groups and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe cannot justify their bid to block construction of a 226-mile, 345-kilovolt electricity transmission line in central Nebraska.

  • April 24, 2026

    Trump Makes Fresh US Tariff Threat Over UK Digital Tax

    President Donald Trump warned that his administration will impose new tariffs on the U.K. unless the British government dismantles its digital services tax targeting tech giants.

  • April 24, 2026

    Feds Lock In Cut To Community Bank Leverage Ratio

    Federal regulators on Thursday finalized a rule to relax a streamlined leverage capital requirement for community banks, a move they said will give hundreds more small banks a way to avoid more complex, risk-based capital standards.

  • April 24, 2026

    DOJ Ends Powell Probe, Clearing Way For Warsh Vote

    The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that it is dropping its criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a reversal that has cleared a path for the U.S. Senate to confirm President Donald Trump's pick to succeed him.

  • April 23, 2026

    Paul Clement, Abbe Lowell To Argue In EO Appeals

    Four BigLaw firms and a national security attorney informed the D.C. Circuit on Thursday that heavyweight litigators Paul D. Clement of Clement & Murphy PLLC and Abbe David Lowell of Lowell & Associates PLLC will present their arguments against the Trump administration's appeal seeking to reinstate executive orders that were deemed unconstitutional.

  • April 23, 2026

    Toplessness Isn't Nudity, Beach Advocates Tell Seattle Court

    A court-ordered plan to crack down on nudity at a Seattle public beach is causing confusion, according to a filing from advocates, with private security guards wrongfully targeting topless beachgoers despite police and park rangers greenlighting bare chests.

  • April 23, 2026

    GOP-Led States Back Trump In Dem AGs' Mail-In Ballot Suit

    A group of 12 Republican-led states have asked a Massachusetts federal judge to let them intervene as defendants in 23 Democratic-led states' lawsuit over President Donald Trump's March 31 executive order placing limits on mail-in voting.

  • April 23, 2026

    Ohio Justices Say Electricity Reseller Is Still A Public Utility

    A company that purchases electricity and then resells it to tenants still constitutes a public utility under Ohio law, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled, finding the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio therefore retains jurisdiction to regulate the company.

  • April 23, 2026

    Latest Squires Order Grants 5 IPRs, Denies 4 On The Merits

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires granted five America Invents Act patent challenges and denied four others in his latest bulk order making institution decisions with little commentary.

  • April 23, 2026

    Trump Orders On Renewables Get A Judicial Reality Check

    The Trump administration's antipathy toward renewable energy is hitting a courtroom wall as federal judges repeatedly block policies aimed at stymieing wind and solar projects and ding agencies for not adequately justifying their actions.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • What New Fla. Citizens Bill Means For Surplus Lines Insurers

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    A Florida bill recently passed by the Legislature as part of a continued effort to depopulate Citizens Property Insurance, the state's insurer of last resort, creates an additional pathway for commercial policies to be written by surplus lines insurers, but also presents concerns of unnecessary regulation, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • What Voluntary Calif. Carbon Reports Show About Compliance

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    While the enforcement of California's S.B. 261 is currently paused due to a Ninth Circuit injunction, more than 130 companies have nonetheless chosen to voluntarily publish climate-related financial risk disclosures, providing a useful snapshot of how the market is interpreting the law's requirements in practice, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • PTAB Memo Recenters Discretion On US Manufacturing

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    Read alongside recent Federal Circuit decisions, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires' memo on patent denial considerations emphasizes domestic manufacturing in a way that the International Trade Commission does not require, says Brandon Theiss at Volpe Koenig.

  • Why MDLs Slow Down — And How To Speed Them Up

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    Multidistrict litigation has become central to mass tort practice, but as MDLs grow in size and complexity, so do delays and costs — so tools like the new federal rule governing MDLs, targeted use of special masters and strategically deployed Lone Pine orders are more essential than ever, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

  • What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

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    My audit of 1,522 court documents from last month found that over 95% contained at least one verifiable error, with fewer than 1% showing clear indicators of artificial intelligence use — highlighting above all else that lawyers may want to focus most on strengthening their review processes, says Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich.

  • Regulators' Basel Pitch May Bring Banks Capital Relief

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    The prudential banking agencies' new proposals to implement the so-called Basel III endgame rules — which would modify the approach to risk-based capital, among other notable changes — represent a fundamental directional shift in bank capital requirements aimed at increasing lending capacity, says Chen Xu at Debevoise.

  • How SEC And CFTC Are Attempting To End Their 'Turf War'

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    Through coordinated examinations and a shared aim to end duplicative regulation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent memorandum of understanding could represent a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for market participants subject to the jurisdiction of both agencies, say attorneys at Jenner.

  • FTC Focus: Growing Emphasis On Competition In AI

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    The Federal Trade Commission's leadership has continued to highlight that competitive risks in artificial intelligence markets may arise at multiple levels simultaneously, considering not only who controls the resources necessary to build AI systems, but also how those systems function and yield outputs, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • What's Missing From Latest Gov't Claims Against Harvard

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    The most interesting thing about the Trump administration’s recent civil rights enforcement efforts targeting Harvard University is its decision not to assert violations of the False Claims Act when given the opportunity, despite signals that its enforcement efforts will include use of the federal FCA, say attorneys at Bass Berry.

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