Public Policy

  • January 23, 2026

    Ill. High Court Won't Grant Posthumous Innocence Certificate

    The Illinois Supreme Court denied a posthumous certificate of innocence for a man who spent over two years in prison for drug charges due to Chicago police corruption, finding Friday that the certificate is a "personal statutory right" that cannot survive the petitioner's death.

  • January 23, 2026

    $7B Grain Belt Power Line Project Can Move Forward In Ill.

    The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday allowed Grain Belt Express LLC to move forward with plans to stretch a high-voltage direct current transmission line across nine southern Illinois counties as part of a $7 billion power supply project, reversing a lower court that said the company behind the project hadn't properly shown that it could finance it.

  • January 23, 2026

    DC, States Back Flowers Foods Driver In High Court Arb. Case

    Whether a worker qualifies for an arbitration exemption depends on what they do, not on the legal structure of their work, 14 states and the District of Columbia told the U.S. Supreme Court, backing a driver for Flowers Foods seeking to keep his wage suit out of arbitration.

  • January 23, 2026

    Instacart, DoorDash, Uber Can't Block NYC's Delivery Laws

    Two New York federal judges rejected requests by delivery companies Instacart, DoorDash and Uber to halt New York City laws regulating tipping options, minimum wage and disclosure requirements, saying that the companies didn't support their arguments that the laws violate the First Amendment and federal preemption principles.

  • January 23, 2026

    Feds Appeal Ruling On ICE Detainee Bond Hearings

    The government is appealing a Massachusetts federal court's finding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees whom the agency apprehended in the state are entitled to a bond hearing.

  • January 23, 2026

    Massachusetts Macy's Store Overvalued, Tax Board Says

    A Macy's store in Massachusetts was overvalued by a local assessor, the state's Appellate Tax Board said Friday, reducing assessed values for the store for years 2020-2022.

  • January 23, 2026

    Lawmakers Float Bill To Track Content Used In Training AI

    A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would give musicians, artists, writers and copyright holders the ability to determine if their works were used to train artificial intelligence without their permission.

  • January 23, 2026

    Bipartisan House Bill Would Regulate Hemp-Derived CBD

    Members of Congress on Thursday unveiled a bipartisan bill to legalize and regulate the manufacture and sale of hemp-derived CBD products, while a federal ban on virtually all consumable hemp products is still due to take effect in approximately 10 months.

  • January 23, 2026

    Enviros Seek Quick Win In Mont. National Forest Logging Row

    A group of environmental nonprofits is asking a federal district court for a summary judgment win in their challenge to a plan to clear-cut 12,331 acres in Montana's Flathead National Forest, saying the project's biological opinion does not reflect the litany of construction that is already underway adjacent to the property.

  • January 23, 2026

    Voter Groups Ask To Renew Halt On Ga.'s Food & Water Ban

    Voting rights groups asked a federal judge Thursday to reinstate an injunction against Georgia enforcing a ban on handing out food and water to voters in line outside of polling places, arguing a recent Eleventh Circuit opinion vacating the injunction didn't undermine any of their substantive arguments.

  • January 23, 2026

    News Rating Org. Latest To Fight 'Ideological' FTC Subpoena

    News rating organization NewsGuard became the latest group to challenge a Federal Trade Commission subpoena looking for censorship of conservative viewpoints, asking the agency to quash information demands it said was born of FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson's "ideologically motivated effort to censor and otherwise discriminate" against it.

  • January 23, 2026

    Split 4th Circ. Sides With Feds In DHS Grant Termination Row

    A split Fourth Circuit panel ruled Friday that a district court did not abuse its discretion in finding a challenge to the federal government's termination of a citizenship preparation grant program likely belongs in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

  • January 23, 2026

    EU To Suspend US Tariff Countermeasures Another 6 Months

    The European Union will suspend tariff countermeasures covering more than €93 billion ($110 billion) of U.S. goods another six months after President Donald Trump backed down from tariff threats this week in reaching a preliminary agreement on U.S. security interests in Greenland, an official said Friday.

  • January 23, 2026

    Judge Imposes Higher Bar To Deport Professors And Students

    The Trump administration will now face a higher evidentiary burden to deport certain noncitizens after a Massachusetts federal court ruled it violated professors' and students' free speech rights for trying to remove them for their Palestinian advocacy.

  • January 23, 2026

    DJI Challenges Broad FCC Ban On Sales Of Its Drones

    Drone-maker DJI has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider a December decision the company says effectively bars many of its products from being marketed, sold or imported into the U.S., arguing the agency exceeded its authority and violated the company's constitutional rights.

  • January 23, 2026

    Feds Say NY School's Native American Mascot Rebrand Illegal

    A Long Island school district is facing a federal Civil Rights Act violation for complying with New York's ban on the use of Indigenous mascots and imagery in public schools.

  • January 23, 2026

    FCC Considers Revoking Texas Radio Station Licenses

    The Federal Communications Commission has designated for hearing a proposed transfer of control involving three Texas radio stations, citing substantial questions about unauthorized foreign control, misrepresentations, and lack of candor that could ultimately lead to license revocation.

  • January 23, 2026

    Mass. Judge Seeks Input On Kalshi Sports Ban

    A Massachusetts state court judge said Friday he is still grappling with how to craft an order barring prediction market Kalshi from promoting sports-related event offerings in the state without infringing on the rights of existing contract holders, asking counsel for the company and the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General for help hammering out the details.

  • January 23, 2026

    Hawaii House Bill Would Legalize, Tax Cannabis

    Hawaii would allow adult-use cannabis sales in the state and tax the sales under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.

  • January 23, 2026

    DOJ Alumni Back Maurene Comey In Effort To Keep Suit Alive

    U.S. Department of Justice alumni and a group that includes attorneys, law professors and former judges have filed briefs supporting former Manhattan federal prosecutor Maurene Comey's call for a New York federal court to reject the DOJ's bid to dismiss a suit over her firing.

  • January 23, 2026

    Convicted Ex-Budget Official Gives Up Conn. Law License

    With a second corruption trial looming, former Connecticut school construction official Konstantinos Diamantis has agreed to give up his license to practice law in the state and waive his ability to reapply to the bar.

  • January 23, 2026

    Dems Push For Another Round Of Jack Smith Testimony

    Following former special counsel Jack Smith's congressional appearance, Democrats are looking for him to return once he is able to speak about the second volume of his report on President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents after he left office.

  • January 23, 2026

    Ethiopian TPS Holders Sue To Halt Status Termination

    Ethiopian immigrants on Friday sued for emergency relief to stop the Trump administration from ending their temporary protected status next month, arguing discrimination fueled the decision and ignored the armed conflict and humanitarian crises in their country.

  • January 23, 2026

    1st Circ. Says Mass. Residents' Zoning Suit Lacks Standing

    The First Circuit backed the dismissal of a suit filed by residents of a Massachusetts town who sued over the local planning board's proposed high-density multifamily zoning district, ruling that they lacked standing to sue.

  • January 23, 2026

    Ex-Mass. Pol's Sister Cops To Obstructing Benefit Fraud Case

    The sister of a former Massachusetts state senator pled guilty to attempting to interfere in a grand jury investigation into the politician's allegedly fraudulent collection of unemployment benefits, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

Expert Analysis

  • What 2025 Transpo And Logistics Legal Trends Mean For 2026

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    2025 was challenging for the transportation and logistics sector, with emergent trends including dramatic federal policy shifts, developments in tort risk, and a host of mergers and acquisitions — but a review of these themes offers a useful playbook for where the industry is headed in 2026, says Jonathan Todd at Benesch.

  • How Cos. Can Roll With NY's New Algorithmic Pricing Rules

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    Despite uncertainty from New York’s new ban on artificial intelligence and computer algorithms for setting rents, and efforts to further restrict individualizing prices based on consumers' personal data, property managers, software providers and merchants can take several steps to stay compliant, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • 2025 State AI Laws Expand Liability, Raise Insurance Risks

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    As 2025 nears its end, claims professionals should be aware of trends in state legislation addressing artificial intelligence use, as insurance claims based on some of these liability-expanding statutes are a certainty, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: Practical Problem Solving

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    Issue-spotting skills are well honed in law school, but practicing attorneys must also identify clients’ problems and true goals, and then be able to provide solutions, says Mary Kate Hogan at Quarles & Brady.

  • Crypto In 2025: From Federal Deregulation To State Action

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    The cryptocurrency enforcement landscape evolved in 2025, marked by federal deregulatory trends and active state attorney general enforcement, creating both opportunity and risk for businesses navigating the digital asset market, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.

  • How CFTC Enforcement Shifted In 2025 And What's Next

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission pivoted sharply under acting Chairman Caroline Pham in 2025, resulting in a pared-back enforcement docket, sweeping policy changes intended to provide greater transparency, and a renewed focus on fraud prevention and maintaining market integrity for the CFTC's core markets, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Learning From 2025 FCA Trends Targeting PE In Healthcare

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    False Claims Act enforcement trends and legislative developments from this year signal intensifying state and federal scrutiny of private equity's growing footprint in healthcare, and the urgency of compliance, says Lisa Re at Arnold & Porter.

  • Reviewing 2025's State And Federal AI Regulations

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    In light of increasing state and federal action to oversee the use of artificial intelligence, companies that develop or deploy the technology should keep abreast of current and forthcoming AI laws and consider their applicability to their business activities, says Jessica Brigman at Spencer Fane.

  • Software Patents May Face New Eligibility Scrutiny

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    November guidance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, along with recent litigation trends from the Federal Circuit, may encourage new challenges in the USPTO and district courts to artificial intelligence and software patents that rely on generic computing functions without concrete details, say attorneys at Venable.

  • What Trump Order Limiting State AI Regs Means For Insurers

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    Last week's executive order seeking to preclude states from regulating artificial intelligence will likely have minimal impact on insurers, but the order and related congressional activities may portend a federal expectation of consistent state oversight of insurers' AI use, says Kathleen Birrane at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    A Uniform Federal Rule Would Curb Gen AI Missteps In Court

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    To address the patchwork of courts’ standing orders on generative artificial intelligence, curbing abuses and relieving the burden on judges, the federal judiciary should consider amending its civil procedure rules to require litigants to certify they’ve reviewed legal filings for accuracy, say attorneys at Shook Hardy.

  • Investment Advisers Should Stay Apprised Of New AI Risks

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently issued annual examination priorities reiterate a host of regulatory implications for investment advisers using artificial intelligence tools, highlighting that meaningful ongoing due diligence can help mitigate both operational and regulatory surprises amid AI's rapid evolution, says Christopher Mills at Sidley.

  • New Rule Shows NRC Willing To Move Fast To Reform Regs

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    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decision to forgo public comment and immediately rescind certain rules governing adjudicatory procedures, federal tort claims and disclosure of licensee information signals the agency's intent to accelerate the regulatory streamlining efforts ordered by the president this spring, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • AG Watch: Texas Junk Fee Deal Shows Enforcement Priorities

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    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's recent $9.5 million settlement with online travel agency website Booking Holdings for so-called junk fee practices follows a larger trend of state attorneys general who have taken similar action and demonstrates the significant penalties that can follow such allegations, say attorneys at Kelley Drye.

  • 10th Circ. Dissent May Light Path For Master Account Access

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    While the Tenth Circuit's majority in Custodia Bank v. Federal Reserve Board recently affirmed Federal Reserve banks' control over master account access, the dissent raised constitutional questions that could support banks seeking master accounts in future litigation, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

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