Public Policy

  • June 03, 2026

    4th Circ. Scraps Order Blocking Chemours PFAS Dumping

    The Fourth Circuit on Wednesday wiped out an injunction blocking the Chemours Co. FC LLC from discharging forever chemicals into the Ohio River, finding the environmental group spearheading a Clean Water Act suit against the company failed to show irreparable harm.

  • June 03, 2026

    USTR Floats Double-Digit Tariffs On Basis Of Forced Labor

    Sixty economies are facing added tariffs of either 10% or 12.5% on their exports to the U.S. following investigations by the U.S. Trade Representative's Office into countries' protections against the importing of goods produced with forced labor.

  • June 03, 2026

    UK Requiring Google To Let Publishers Opt Out Of AI

    Google is giving publishers tools to prevent their content from being used to power the artificial intelligence features shown in search results, after Britain's competition enforcer imposed new requirements Wednesday.

  • June 03, 2026

    Okla. Gov. Vetoes Solar Power Property Tax Break Exclusion

    Oklahoma's governor pocket vetoed a bill that would have excluded solar power companies and battery energy storage systems from a property tax exemption for manufacturing facilities.

  • June 03, 2026

    NC Man Gets OK For $10M Wrongful Murder Conviction Deal

    A North Carolina federal judge has approved a $10 million compromise settlement that ends a North Carolina man's civil rights lawsuit alleging he was coerced as a teen into falsely confessing to the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.

  • June 03, 2026

    BIA Panel Says Special Status Doesn't Permit Release On Bond

    A Salvadoran national previously designated as an unaccompanied alien child upon arriving in the U.S. without authorization and who later obtained special immigrant juvenile status is still subject to mandatory detention during removal proceedings, the Board of Immigration Appeals has ruled.

  • June 03, 2026

    USTR Seeks Input On China Preferential Trade Mechanism

    The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced what it is calling a government-to-government mechanism that will manage bilateral trade between the U.S. and China, including by considering tariff cuts, and asked for public comments on the program's development.

  • June 03, 2026

    San Diego Ballot Measure For Empty Homes Tax Trailing

    A ballot measure in San Diego to tax vacant homes was failing Wednesday to win the majority of votes required for passage, according to unofficial preliminary results with most votes still uncounted.

  • June 02, 2026

    Feds Blocked From Divesting Wyo. Facility Stewardship

    A Colorado federal judge ruled that a Wyoming supercomputing facility used for atmospheric research must stay under a consortium of 129 universities' care pending litigation over the National Science Foundation's decision to divest the consortium of stewardship, saying the NSF failed to explain its decision and effectively ignored public comments.

  • June 02, 2026

    Justices Allow Ala. To Use 'Discriminatory' Map In Midterms

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday paused a lower court order requiring Alabama to hold this year's elections under a court-drawn map that gives Black voters a chance to elect two preferred congressional candidates, allowing the state to readopt a map that gives Black voters only one such opportunity. 

  • June 02, 2026

    'Tax 1st, Plan 2nd' School Funding Fee Unlawful, Panel Told

    Counsel for two certified classes of residents and homeowners told a North Carolina state appeals court Tuesday that they should be handed a new jury trial, as a county neglected state statute when it extracted millions of dollars in impact fees from local families without a clear plan on how to spend those funds.

  • June 02, 2026

    Finalized Trump Order Seeks Early Cyber Tests Of AI Models

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to push the developers of advanced artificial intelligence models to voluntarily share their systems with the federal government for pre-release cybersecurity testing, following changes to a previous draft that the president abruptly shelved last month due to concerns about its effect on innovation. 

  • June 02, 2026

    Feds Ask 9th Circ. To Ax 'Outdated' Flores Migrant Kids Pact

    The Trump administration urged the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to end the 30-year-old Flores settlement governing the custody of detained immigrant children, arguing there have been "enormous" changes to migration patterns and the law, and federal courts should not be micromanaging the government's immigration practices by enforcing an "outdated policy preference."

  • June 02, 2026

    Feds Say Lejeune Plaintiffs Seek Billion-Dollar 'Windfall'

    The federal government has told a North Carolina federal court that Camp Lejeune litigants are trying to rewrite the 2022 federal law that allowed them to recover damages from their exposure to toxic water on the base to give them a "windfall" of billions of dollars.

  • June 02, 2026

    Windstream Looks To Transfer Miss. Rural Broadband Aid

    Windstream is trying to shift its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund obligations in Mississippi to Uplink Internet, a telecom that is already based in the Magnolia State, and has asked for the Federal Communications Commission's blessing.

  • June 02, 2026

    FCC Overstepping Authority In Device Denials, Hikvision Says

    Congress didn't give the Federal Communications Commission the power to pull already authorized equipment off the market by placing it on the so-called covered list of equipment deemed to be a national security risk, Hikvision has told the D.C. Circuit.

  • June 02, 2026

    'Citizenship Lists' For Mail Voting Worry Mass. Judge

    A federal judge in Boston had tough questions on Tuesday for a lawyer defending President Donald Trump's executive order tightening mail voting rules, flagging concerns that voters could be disenfranchised by the changes.

  • June 02, 2026

    Texas Biz Court Says Exxon Bonus Fight Isn't 'Internal Affairs'

    The Business Court of Texas shifted the $5 million racial discrimination lawsuit of a former Exxon Mobil Corp. executive back to state district court, determining that no provision in the state's governing laws gives it jurisdiction over employment disputes.

  • June 02, 2026

    Florida Judge Says He'll Wait For FTC In Horse-Doping Case

    A horse trainer urged a Florida federal court on Tuesday to rule that the Federal Trade Commission violated his right to a jury trial after he was fined and suspended for an alleged banned substances violation, although the presiding judge indicated that he'll wait for the agency's final action before handing down an order.

  • June 02, 2026

    3rd Circ. Asks NJ To Define 'Unreasonable' Gunmaker Conduct

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday appeared skeptical of the state of New Jersey's position that The National Shooting Sports Foundation still lacked standing as it tries to renew its challenge of a Garden State law allowing it to sue gunmakers for endangering public safety, questioning what exactly is impermissible under broad statutory language like "unreasonable" conduct.

  • June 02, 2026

    Attys Worried Where ICE Will Draw Line In Asylum Crackdown

    Immigration attorneys are bracing for heightened scrutiny after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it would crack down on attorneys filing fraudulent asylum claims, expressing fears that the agency could blur the line between fraud and legitimate advocacy.

  • June 02, 2026

    Calif. Fights Federal Moves To Nix Its Truck Emissions Regs

    California's air pollution regulator has told a federal judge that Congress and the Trump administration violated separation of powers and federalism principles by passing unlawful resolutions blocking state emissions regulations for heavy-duty trucks, arguing the regulations should still take effect.

  • June 02, 2026

    Mass. Judge Says State Dept.'s Visa Pause Likely Unlawful

    A Massachusetts federal judge has blocked the U.S. Department of State from imposing a nationality-based immigrant visa pause on a Bangladeshi man seeking to come to the U.S. to support his elderly and ailing U.S. citizen father, ruling that the challenged pause is likely unlawful.

  • June 02, 2026

    Wash. Panel OKs Challenges To Seattle's Comprehensive Plan

    A Washington state appeals panel Monday revived a pair of challenges to an environmental impact statement published as part of Seattle's comprehensive plan for the city's next two decades of growth, ruling that the challenges aren't barred by recent state laws encouraging the construction of more housing.

  • June 02, 2026

    Rwanda Loses $135M Claim Against UK In Failed Migrant Deal

    The Permanent Court of Arbitration has denied Rwanda's $135 million (£100 million) claim against the United Kingdom after the U.K. scrapped a controversial migrant agreement saying it would pay the African country to take in asylum-seekers who originally appeared on British shores.

Expert Analysis

  • 'Skinny Label' Arguments Spotlight Induced Infringement Risk

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    Recent oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Hikma Pharmaceuticals v. Amarin Pharma highlight the uncertain boundary between lawful generic competition through so-called skinny labels and induced patent infringement, with potential implications for patent holders’ communication, enforcement and causation strategies across industries, says Anton Hopen at Trenam.

  • What Jury Holdouts Can Teach Trial Lawyers About Strategy

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    Though a hung jury can be a disappointment, a psychological understanding of jury holdouts can help trial lawyers shape their damages arguments and understand leadership and group composition as a function of jury selection, says Clint Townson at Townson Litigation.

  • 'Mobile' Sources For On-Site Generation May Be A Risky Bet

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    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering treating large on-site generators used at data centers as mobile rather than stationary sources under the Clean Air Act, a significant policy change that would leave developers that adopt this solution at risk of regulatory reversals, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • AI Investment Advice May Fail Investor Protection Rules

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    Based on an ongoing study of artificial intelligence platforms' investment advice given to retail investors, direct access to AI may not yield recommendations for typical households that are suitable under relevant securities rules, raising new and important issues in the regulation of financial markets, says Bruce Carlin at Rice University.

  • Startup Founder Disputes Increasingly Turn On Governance

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    Recent Delaware developments suggest that as courts place increasing emphasis on board process, independence and oversight in founder-led startups, the growing intersection of governance, technology risk and investor oversight is accelerating both the emergence and escalation of founder disputes, says mediator Frank Burke.

  • 3 AI Adoption Mistakes GCs Should Avoid

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    The pressure in-house legal teams face to quickly adopt artificial intelligence tools, combined with budget constraints and the need to evaluate a crowded market of options, sets the stage for implementation mistakes that are often difficult to undo, says former 23andMe general counsel Guy Chayoun.

  • Series

    Playing Basketball Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My grandfather used to say "I wear your jersey" as shorthand for wholly committing to support someone with loyalty and integrity — ideals that have shaped my life on the basketball court and in legal practice, says Tracy Schimelfenig at Schimelfenig Legal.

  • AG Watch: Reconciling 2 Maryland Data Privacy Statutes

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    In-house counsel should map the interplay between the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act's strictly necessary standard to deliver a requested service, and the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act's exemption of consent-based pricing within loyalty programs, before the state attorney general begins enforcement on the latter in October, says Erek Barron at Mintz.

  • EPA Listing Signals New Scrutiny Of Drugs In Drinking Water

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    The recent publication of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's latest draft drinking water contaminant list highlights pharmaceuticals as a category of concern, marking the start of a process that could shape future research priorities, monitoring requirements, and federal and state actions, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • New Cuba Sanctions Raise Risks For Foreign Banks, Cos.

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    President Donald Trump's bold move leveling secondary sanctions against Cuba expands enforcement risk for foreign banks and companies with no U.S. nexus, signaling that non-U.S. businesses should reassess related transactions, counterparties and exposure as regulators test this broader authority, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • SEC Clarifies 'Baby Shelf' Restrictions For Small Cos.

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    For smaller public companies looking to access the capital markets, the so-called baby shelf requirements can be a significant limitation, but recent guidance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission helps to alleviate the effect of subsequent baby shelf restrictions on an at-the-market facility, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • Nexstar Offers A Cautionary Tale On State-Level Deal Scrutiny

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    State-enforcement challenges to the $6.2 billion Nexstar-Tegna merger remind legal practitioners that federal approval isn't always sufficient to deliver certainty on closing, integration and timetable assumptions, says Brett Story at Britehorn Securities.

  • How 'Bundling' Enforcement Is Parsing Efficiency, Access

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    Recent antitrust enforcement actions have taken a selective view of companies' bundling of products or services — challenging it when it shuts out rivals, but tolerating it when it creates efficient scale — making the real test now less about lower prices than about whether competition is being blocked, says attorney Alan Kusinitz.

  • Series

    The Biz Court Digest: Georgia Court Has Business On Its Mind

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    Thanks to recent legislation, the Georgia State-wide Business Court will soon offer business litigants greater access to the court than ever before, further enhancing the court's emphasis on efficiency, predictability and accessibility for sophisticated commercial disputes, says former GSBC judge Walt Davis at Jones Day.

  • How Treasury's Stablecoin Test Will Shape State Oversight

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    The Treasury Department's recently proposed principles for judging whether state stablecoin regimes are "substantially similar" to the federal framework signal that issuers should expect stricter benchmarking against the bank agencies' standards, limited state flexibility and heightened pressure to reassess compliance as rules take shape, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

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