Public Policy

  • March 18, 2026

    Ed. Dept. Flouting Mental Health Funding Order, States Claim

    The U.S. Department of Education is flouting orders that it fund K-12 mental health grants given to public schools by only partially funding the grants and threatening to withhold remaining funds, a group of state attorneys general told a Washington federal court.

  • March 18, 2026

    10th Circ. Questions Police Immunity In Colo. Taser Death

    A Tenth Circuit panel Wednesday probed attorneys representing a group of Colorado Springs, Colorado, police officers and the estate of a man the officers killed during an attempted arrest about whether the officers' actions left them without qualified immunity on several claims. 

  • March 18, 2026

    Judge Tosses Sanctions Review For HK Electronics Co.

    A D.C. federal judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Department of State's Office of Economic Sanctions Policy and Implementation lacked authority to deny a Hong Kong electronics company's bid for removal from its sanctions blacklist, sending the company's removal petition back for review by the proper official.

  • March 18, 2026

    Colo. AI Law Rewrite Targets Transparency For Consumers

    Colorado's governor has endorsed a legislative framework aimed at ensuring Coloradans are aware when artificial intelligence or automated decision-making systems are used in decisions affecting consumers.

  • March 18, 2026

    Ga. Justices To Mull Injury Suit Over Fall On Savannah Street

    Georgia's high court has agreed to hear a trip-and-fall lawsuit filed against the city of Savannah with an eye toward deciding what degree of immunity property owners should enjoy under a state law designed to limit liability during recreational activities.

  • March 18, 2026

    Macy's Judge Rules Wash. Antispam Law Is Constitutional

    Macy's must face a consumer class action accusing the retail giant of breaking a Washington state law prohibiting certain spam emails, a Seattle federal judge ruled Wednesday, declaring that Washington's Commercial Electronic Mail Act is neither unconstitutional nor preempted by federal law.

  • March 18, 2026

    Feds Say It's End Of The Line For NY, NJ Hudson Tunnel Suit

    The Trump administration has asked a Manhattan federal judge to dismiss New York and New Jersey's attempt to force the federal government to continue funneling payments for the ongoing $16 billion rehabilitation of aging commuter train tunnels under the Hudson River.

  • March 18, 2026

    NTIA Still Crafting Plans For $21B In 'Non-Deployment' Funds

    The U.S. Department of Commerce has doled out many billions of dollars for broadband projects and has been asking for public input about how to spend roughly $21 billion in unspent funds, but there is no target date to unveil any decisions, the federal official in charge of spending the money said Wednesday.

  • March 18, 2026

    Fla. Lawmakers Expanded Housing Efforts In Slow Session

    At a time when housing affordability is a major concern among constituents, Florida state lawmakers produced mixed results in the realm of real estate during their 2026 session, taking some significant actions but also not reaching consensus on numerous proposals, including the most prominent — property tax reform.

  • March 18, 2026

    DOL Tweaks ERISA Regs After Fiduciary Rule Lawsuits End

    The U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm on Wednesday published technical amendments to its fiduciary investment advice regulations, to better reflect current policy following the conclusion of two lawsuits challenging a 2024 rule that would have expanded the definition of an investment advice fiduciary under federal benefits law.

  • March 18, 2026

    Tribal Groups Back High Court Bid To Halt Ariz. Land Transfer

    Native American rights groups are backing four Apache women's bid to have the Supreme Court halt a 2,500-acre Arizona land transfer, arguing an Indigenous worship site on the property is there because of U.S. policies designed to strip tribal nations of their homelands and suppress their religions.

  • March 18, 2026

    Wash. Law Ensures Personality Rights Cover AI Deepfakes

    Washington state has adopted a law clarifying that using someone's "forged digital likeness" without their consent counts as a personality rights violation, in an effort to address broader privacy concerns stemming from the proliferation of AI-generated deepfakes.

  • March 18, 2026

    Duty Evasion Probe Eyes Steel Wheels Via Vietnam, Thailand

    The U.S. Department of Commerce has initiated investigations into steel wheels imported from Vietnam and Thailand to determine if they are circumventing U.S. countervailing and antidumping duties placed on those goods from China, according to a notice published Wednesday.

  • March 18, 2026

    DOJ Defends Labeling Anthropic A Security Risk

    The Trump administration told a California federal judge it lawfully labeled Anthropic PBC a supply chain risk to national security after the company tried to "strong-arm" the U.S. Department of Defense into usage restrictions for its artificial intelligence tools.

  • March 18, 2026

    ADA Challenge to Oregon Psilocybin Law Can Proceed

    An Oregon federal judge Tuesday rejected the state's health regulator's bid for a favorable judgment in a suit brought under federal antidiscrimination law, seeking to broaden access for homebound patients to the state's regulated psilocybin program.

  • March 18, 2026

    Ill. Panel Chides State Over 'Absurd' Reading Of Wage Law

    An Illinois appellate court had choice words Tuesday for the Illinois Department of Labor's argument that an amendment to the Wage Payment and Collection Act deems certain corporate officers "employers" that can be held personally liable for employees' unpaid wages, calling the agency's interpretation "legally unsound" and "unjust."

  • March 18, 2026

    FTC Says Amazon Seeks 'Impossible' Standard For Sanctions

    The Federal Trade Commission pressed a Washington federal judge Tuesday to sanction Amazon.com for using autodeleting Signal chats and deleting raw meeting notes to hide evidence of company policies that created an artificial pricing floor across online retail stores, arguing Amazon is fighting the motion by inventing an "impossible-to-meet standard" for imposing sanctions.

  • March 18, 2026

    IRS Summons For Man's Coinbase Info Cleared To Go Ahead

    A man who alleged that the IRS violated his privacy rights in its summons of personal financial documents from Coinbase failed to properly serve the U.S. in his attempt to block the summons, a California federal judge said Wednesday, dismissing the case.

  • March 18, 2026

    NJ Justices Say Tidelands Steward Can Modify Pierhead Lines

    The New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday held that the state's tidelands steward is permitted to modify or establish a pierhead line in front of an individual property owner's land, rejecting a challenge to the approval of two licenses permitting the expansion of a dock in Barnegat Bay.

  • March 18, 2026

    Reps. Seek Inquiry Of DHS Official's Influence Over Contracts

    Democratic lawmakers urged a U.S. Department of Homeland Security watchdog on Wednesday to investigate outgoing secretary Kristi Noem's "shadow chief of staff," whom they accuse of wielding undue influence over DHS contracting decisions.

  • March 18, 2026

    USPTO Wants 900 New Patent Examiners By October

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office plans to hire 900 patent examiners focusing on sciences and engineering by Oct. 1, two agency managers said in a Wednesday webinar.

  • March 18, 2026

    Rand Paul Goes After DHS Secretary Nom Mullin In Hearing

    Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., the nominee to replace Kristi Noem as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, faced a scathing rebuke on Wednesday from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who was chairing the confirmation hearing.

  • March 18, 2026

    9th Circ. Urged To Rehear Cannabis Dormant Commerce Case

    A California attorney who has challenged cannabis social equity programs in numerous jurisdictions asked the entire Ninth Circuit on Tuesday to reconsider whether the U.S. Constitution's dormant commerce clause applies to federally illegal marijuana.

  • March 18, 2026

    FCC Removes 4 Drone Systems From Security Risk List

    The Federal Communications Commission has authorized more drones for distribution on the U.S. market, after defense officials cleared them from posing national security risks.

  • March 18, 2026

    Wash. Tribes Dispute 'Inaccurate' Salmon Hatchery Fund Order

    Two Washington tribes are asking a federal court to reconsider a decision that denied their bid to side aside $22 million in salmon hatchery funding, arguing that despite National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration claims to the contrary, they've never said they're ineligible for the grant money.

Expert Analysis

  • What's Changed In Army Corps' Reissued Nationwide Permits

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    The final rule recently issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, renewing and revising nationwide permits for projects covered by Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, makes measured adjustments rather than sweeping revisions, addressing key operational and compliance concerns while maintaining the existing framework, say attorneys at Spencer Fane.

  • What Kalshi Cases Reveal About State Authority, Regulation

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    Prediction markets like Kalshi have ignited complex legal battles that get to the heart of how novel financial products intersect with traditional state enforcement authority, and courts are already beginning to divide over whether federal law preempts state enforcement authority restricting these offerings, say attorneys at Holtzman Vogel.

  • Parsing Clarifications On Foreign Entity Rules For Tax Credits

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    Recent U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department guidance answers taxpayer questions on several key foreign entity rules under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but questions remain over transactions with companies that have ties to covered nations such as Iran, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • What US Arms Sales Reforms Mean For Defense Industry

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    A recent executive order with the goal of increasing U.S. arms sales transparency, speed and government-industry collaboration carries both promise and risk for the defense industry as the government seeks to leverage the private sector and use commercial products for defense purposes, say attorneys at Fluet.

  • Prepping For The Future Of No Surprises Act Enforcement

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    This year is expected to be a transition point for the No Surprises Act framework from regulatory delay to operational enforcement, so stakeholders should use this time to stress-test systems, clean up processes and prepare for enforcement, say attorneys at Akerman.

  • A Tale Of 2 Self-Disclosure Policies: How SDNY, DOJ Differ

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    Though the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York’s recently announced corporate enforcement and voluntary self-disclosure policy shares many similarities with that of the U.S. Department of Justice, the two programs differ in meaningful ways, including subject matter scope and timeline to declination, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Aligning Microsoft Tools With NYC Bar AI Recording Guidance

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    The New York City Bar Association’s recently issued formal opinion, providing ethical guidance on artificial intelligence-assisted recording, transcription and summarization, raises immediate questions about data governance and e-discovery for companies that use Microsoft 365 and Copilot, say Staci Kaliner, Martin Tully and John Collins at Redgrave.

  • What Employers Should Know About Calif. PAGA Proposal

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    Recently proposed regulations concerning the Private Attorneys General Act evidence an intent by California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency to play a greater role in the prosecution of PAGA actions, including more oversight over the exhaustion notices and settlement process, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • FTC Focus: Antitrust Spotlight On 'Acqui-Hires,' Noncompetes

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    A recent Federal Trade Commission focus on labor issues, like 'acqui-hire' deals, in which only a company's workforce is acquired, and noncompetes, shows that the agency is scrutinizing these issues on a case-by-case basis, necessitating a meaningful look at these transactions, particularly in the technology and artificial intelligence industries, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • FDA's Biosimilarity Guidance Holds Uncertain Implications

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new draft guidance aimed at simplifying the biosimilarity demonstration process may not be enough to overcome the barriers that have historically constrained biosimilar competition, and could affect biosimilar access in unexpected ways, say analysts at Analysis Group.

  • Unpacking Key Themes From NY's New Healthcare Strategy

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    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's 2026 State of the State agenda, read together with the state's fiscal year 2027 executive budget, reflect a clear framework to utilize Medicaid as the state's operating platform for healthcare reform, say attorneys at Sheppard.

  • A Single DOJ Corporate Enforcement Policy Raises Questions

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's soon-to-be-released uniform corporate criminal enforcement policy could address the challenges raised by the current decentralized approach, but it will need to answer a number of potential questions amid scant details, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • WTO Most‑Favored‑Nation Reform May Hold Promise

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    When the World Trade Organization meets this month, it is expected to debate changing the most-favored-nation rule, a carefully calibrated loosening of which may be justified if it enables deeper liberalization and regulatory cooperation, says Alan Yanovich at Akin.

  • Navigating Exclusion Decisions After SEC's No-Action Change

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    Following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's November changes to the Rule 14a-8 no-action letter process, shareholder proponents have turned to litigation if companies excluded their proposals under the new framework, with three recent cases offering useful lessons for companies navigating exclusion decisions this proxy season, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • 5 Different AI Systems Raise Distinct Privilege Issues

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    A New York federal court’s recent U.S. v. Heppner decision, holding that a defendant’s use of Claude was not privileged, only addressed one narrow artificial intelligence system, but lawyers must recognize that the spectrum of AI tools raises different confidentiality and privilege questions, says Heidi Nadel at HP.

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