Public Policy

  • October 08, 2025

    Comey Pleads Not Guilty, Will Contest US Atty's Appointment

    Former FBI Director James Comey pled not guilty Wednesday to one count of false statements and another count of obstructing a congressional hearing, appearing in a Virginia federal courthouse for the first time after a shake-up at the U.S. attorney's office netted a grand jury indictment last month.

  • October 07, 2025

    Panel Said Congress Was 'Feckless,' 6th Circ. Told In FCC Row

    The Sixth Circuit should agree to a full court reconsideration of a panel's decision to back the Federal Communications Commission's expanded data breach notifications for telecom carriers, says a conservative legal organization that believes the panel assumed Congress was legislating "fecklessly."

  • October 07, 2025

    Wash. Spam Email Law Is Unconstitutional, Retailers Say

    Beauty retail giant Ulta and home improvement retailer Home Depot argued last week in separate cases that Washington state's Commercial Electronic Mail Act is unconstitutional and preempted by federal law as they seek to shed proposed consumer class actions claiming their promotional emails were misleading.

  • October 07, 2025

    Attys Urge Mass. Courts To Protect Immigrants' Court Access

    Civil rights lawyers urged the Massachusetts trial court system to better protect migrants' due process rights amid increasing arrests by federal immigration officers inside and outside courthouses, saying Tuesday the court is "well within its right" to do so.

  • October 07, 2025

    Ex-Housing Chief's Lawyers Want Out Of Conn. Fraud Suit

    Connecticut-based Spears Manning & Martini LLC has asked a state court to allow the firm to stop representing a former municipal housing authority chief in litigation accusing him of fraud and financial misconduct, pointing to a "breakdown in the attorney-client relationship."

  • October 07, 2025

    Ex-Prisoners Push Back On Bid To Decertify Debit Card Class

    Former prisoners accusing Central Bank of Kansas City of charging excessive fees on prepaid debit cards have pushed back on the bank's effort to undo their certified class, arguing they were subject to a "uniform pattern of conduct" that forced them to accept the cards.

  • October 07, 2025

    Cabinetry Co. Refiles $3.6B Merger To Give FTC More Time

    Kitchen cabinet and vanity manufacturer American Woodmark Corp. has withdrawn and refiled its intent to merge with MasterBrand in a $3.6 billion deal in order to give the Federal Trade Commission more time to scrutinize the deal for competition concerns.

  • October 07, 2025

    Goldstein's $968K Border Cash Claim To Be Admitted At Trial

    A Maryland federal jury will hear claims from prosecutors that SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein told Dulles International Airport border guards that the $968,000 in cash he brought into the country in 2018 had been gambling winnings, after a judge shot down his efforts to suppress his alleged statements Tuesday.

  • October 07, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says State Lawmakers Mostly Immune From TCPA

    State legislators in certain instances can make robocalls if they want, the Third Circuit has declared after finding that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's ban on automated and prerecorded texts and calls without consent doesn't apply to them.

  • October 07, 2025

    Ex-Conn. Official Says Contractor Was The One Seeking Cash

    The first witness in a federal corruption case against former Connecticut budget official Kosta Diamantis is a repeat liar who misled his own masonry company's president into advancing his personal year-end bonus, which he used to leverage family connections and seek the government's favor, Diamantis' attorney suggested Tuesday during cross-examination.

  • October 07, 2025

    Hemp Retailer Sues Ohio Police Department Over Seizure

    An Ohio police department seized more than half a million dollars' worth of hemp using a bad search warrant claiming that the hemp, which is legal, was marijuana, the hemp retailer told a federal court Monday.

  • October 07, 2025

    Puerto Rico Utility Bondholders Pull Out Of Reorg Deal

    A group of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bondholders Tuesday informed a bankruptcy judge that they were following through on a promise to exit a restructuring agreement and join other bondholders in supporting an alternative bankruptcy plan for PREPA.

  • October 07, 2025

    1st Circ. Left In Limbo Over FCC's Prison Phone Rate Caps

    First Circuit judges Tuesday questioned the Federal Communications Commission's turnabout in defense of its Biden-era prison phone rate caps and were unsure how to construct a legal ruling with the FCC poised to vote on a policy makeover within weeks.

  • October 07, 2025

    DC, 18 States Back Campaign Spending Caps At High Court

    The District of Columbia and 18 states urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday not to lift caps on the amount political parties may spend in coordination with candidates for federal office, saying state-level campaign finance regulations could be destabilized.

  • October 07, 2025

    Quiet Down! Calif. Law Targets Loud Streaming Platform Ads

    California enacted a new law Monday requiring video streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu to curb the volume on television commercials, making it the first state to issue regulations on commercial noise for streaming services. 

  • October 07, 2025

    FAA Drone Rule Draws Over 1M Comments As Public Weighs In

    Complex safety certification, technological and other security requirements are among the issues that U.S. regulators must still iron out before a long-awaited new rule allowing drones to fly beyond the sight line of their operators can truly take off, according to drone companies, aviation and other industry groups.

  • October 07, 2025

    Drug Tax Outdoes Biblical Punishment, 5th Circ. Judge Says

    A Fifth Circuit panel pressed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to justify the basis for the Medicare drug pricing program's steep excise tax, asking Tuesday whether the government had ever levied a higher tax in the nation's history.

  • October 07, 2025

    9th Circ. Rejects 'Kitchen Sink' Challenge To Vaccine Mandate

    A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday upheld a lower court's rejection of a lawsuit brought by dozens of former employees of a nonprofit healthcare system who claimed Washington state's requirement that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 violated their statutory and constitutional rights.

  • October 07, 2025

    Colo. Panel Weighs School's Liability In 2019 Shooting

    Colorado appellate judges on Tuesday asked attorneys representing the parents of a student who was killed during a school shooting and the school itself how to interpret a state law that allows schools to be held liable for school shootings.

  • October 07, 2025

    AGs Rip DOJ Bid To Pause Planned Parenthood Funding Suit

    The U.S. Department of Justice wants to use the ongoing government shutdown as a "shield" to stop a group of states from seeking an injunction against a halt to Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, the states told a Massachusetts federal judge in opposing a possible pause on their lawsuit.

  • October 07, 2025

    Camp Lejeune Litigation Goes On Despite Gov't Shutdown

    The consolidated litigation over water contamination at the Camp Lejeune military base will not pause during the federal government shutdown, a North Carolina federal judge ruled, saying that such a halt, for an unknown length, would cause "severe disruptions" in the case and for the "ailing and older" plaintiffs.

  • October 07, 2025

    Senate Confirms 2 DOJ Nominees, 16 US Attys

    The U.S. Senate voted 51-47 Tuesday, along party lines, to confirm a slew of nominees for the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • October 07, 2025

    Lawmakers, States Back Tribes In Supreme Court Voting Case

    A bipartisan group of 10 current and former members of Congress and 22 states have supported two North Dakota tribes in their U.S. Supreme Court bid to overturn an Eighth Circuit order that prohibits suits against states for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

  • October 07, 2025

    EMS Workers Tell 4th Circ. NC County Owes Them Wages

    Emergency medical services workers argued that a North Carolina county created a "mathematical impossibility" when it calculated their wages, urging the Fourth Circuit to flip a federal court's ruling that the county didn't owe them anything despite having violated federal law.

  • October 07, 2025

    Senate Confirms FERC Republican Nominees

    The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed President Donald Trump's picks to fill Republican slots on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, giving the GOP a 3-2 majority at the agency.

Expert Analysis

  • Considerations For Cos. Amid Wave Of CFPB Vacatur Bids

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    As some entities look to vacate prior voluntary agreements with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, there are several considerations companies should take into account before seeking to vacate their settlements in the current legal and regulatory environment, says Jasmine Jean-Louis at Goodwin.

  • 7 Document Review Concepts New Attorneys Need To Know

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    For new associates joining firms this fall, stepping into the world of e-discovery can feel like learning a new language, but understanding a handful of fundamentals — from coding layouts to metadata — can help attorneys become fluent in document review, says Ann Motl at Bowman and Brooke.

  • Reports Of Chemical Safety Board's Demise Are Premature

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    Despite the Trump administration's proposal to close down the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, companies should note that the agency recently enforced its accidental release reporting rule for the first time, is conducting ongoing investigations and expects more funding from Congress, say attorneys at Conn Maciel.

  • FTC Actions Highlight New Noncompete Enforcement Strategy

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    Several recent noncompete-related actions from the Federal Trade Commission — including its recent dismissal of cases appealing the vacatur of a Biden-era noncompete ban — reflect the commission's shift toward case-by-case enforcement, while confirming that the agency intends to remain active in policing such agreements, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Ruling On Labor Peace Law Marks Shift For Cannabis Cos.

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    Currently on appeal to the Ninth Circuit, an Oregon federal court’s novel decision in Casala v. Kotek, invalidating a state law that requires labor peace agreements as a condition of cannabis business licensure, marks the potential for compliance uncertainty for all cannabis employers in states with labor peace mandates, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Deference Ruling Could Close The FAR Loophole

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    A recent U.S. Court of Federal Claims decision may close a loophole in the Federal Acquisition Regulation that allows agencies to circumvent the Trade Agreements Act, significantly affecting federal pharmaceutical procurements and increasing protests related to certain Buy American Act waivers, say attorneys at Polsinelli.

  • Senate Bill Could Overhaul Digital Asset Market Structure

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    The Senate Banking Committee's draft Responsible Financial Innovation Act would not only clarify the roles and responsibilities of financial institutions engaging in digital asset activities but also impose new compliance regimes, reporting requirements and risk management protocols, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • How Trump's Space Order May Ease Industry's Growth

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    President Donald Trump's recent executive order aimed at removing environmental hurdles for spaceport authorization and streamlining the space industry's regulatory framework may open opportunities not only for established launch providers, but also smaller companies and spaceport authorities, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • A Look At 2 Reinvigorated DOL Compliance Programs

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    As the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division revives its Payroll Audit Independent Determination and expands its opinion letter program, employers should carefully weigh the benefits and risks of participation to assess whether it makes sense for their circumstances, say attorneys at Conn Maciel.

  • Opinion

    Congress Must Resolve PSLRA Issue For Section 11 Litigants

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    By establishing a uniform judgment reduction credit for all defendants in cases involving Section 11 of the Securities Act, Congress could remove unnecessary statutory ambiguity from the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and enable litigants to price potential settlements with greater certainty, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Stablecoin Committee Promotes Uniformity But May Fall Short

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    While the Genius Act's establishment of the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee will provide private stablecoin issuers with more consistent standards, fragmentation remains due to the disparate regulatory approaches taken by different states, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • FTC's Reseller Suit Highlights Larger Ticket Platform Issues

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    Taken together, the recent Federal Trade Commission lawsuit and Ticketmaster's recent antitrust woes demonstrate that federal enforcers are testing the resilience of antitrust and consumer-protection frameworks in an evolving, tech-driven marketplace, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.

  • Agentic AI Puts A New Twist On Attorney Ethics Obligations

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    As lawyers increasingly use autonomous artificial intelligence agents, disciplinary authorities must decide whether attorney responsibility for an AI-caused legal ethics violation is personal or supervisory, and firms must enact strong policies regarding agentic AI use and supervision, says Grace Wynn at HWG.

  • Parsing Trump Admin's First 6 Months Of SEC Enforcement

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement results for the first six months of the Trump administration show substantially fewer new enforcement actions compared to the same period under the previous administration, but indicate a clear focus on traditional fraud schemes affecting retail investors, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • HSR Compliance Remains A Priority From Biden To Trump

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    Several new enforcement actions from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice illustrate that rigorous attention to Hart-Scott-Rodino Act compliance has become a critical component of the U.S. merger review process, even amid the political transition from the Biden to Trump administrations, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

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