Public Policy

  • July 23, 2026

    Trump Admin Sued Over Fee Waiver Ban For Immigrant Youth

    Advocacy groups sued the Trump administration in California federal court Wednesday over a fee waiver ban following the enactment of the 2025 budget reconciliation bill that imposes a $250 fee for indigent youth seeking special immigrant juvenile status, even though they have no legal means of earning income.

  • July 23, 2026

    HUD Says States Aren't Harmed By Fair Housing Standards

    The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development told a California federal court to toss a suit filed by the District of Columbia and 15 states over past standards for receiving funding for fair housing enforcement, arguing that the plaintiffs lack Article III standing because they have not shown how they have been harmed by the funding standards.

  • July 23, 2026

    Lack Of Jurisdiction Dooms $273M 'Rip And Replace' Suit

    The Court of Federal Claims has tossed a complaint from a telecom that says the Federal Communications Commission wrongly denied it $273 million in "rip and replace" funds for replacing Chinese-made equipment, saying that the company's dispute belongs in federal appeals court.

  • July 23, 2026

    BIA Justice Office Says Cocaine Ring Hit SD Reservation

    The Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Justice Services says it has dismantled a trafficking operation responsible for distributing cocaine throughout South Dakota and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that has led to the indictments of 14 people and the seizure of narcotics, guns and cash.

  • July 23, 2026

    DOJ Looks To Streamline Some Merger Reviews

    The U.S. Department of Justice introduced a new model timing agreement for merger reviews on Thursday, as part of what it said was an effort to help antitrust enforcers focus their investigations on key issues early in the process.

  • July 23, 2026

    Feds Withdraw Subpoenas To NYT Over Trump Jet Reporting

    The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office on Thursday withdrew grand jury subpoenas served on four New York Times journalists who reported on security flaws aboard a jet gifted to President Donald Trump for use as Air Force One, after a federal judge threatened to quash the inquiries.

  • July 23, 2026

    7th Circ. Backs Chicago's Tenant Payout Ordinance

    The Seventh Circuit held Wednesday that a Chicago ordinance requiring owners of foreclosed rental buildings to pay tenants $10,600 to help with relocation costs is not an unconstitutional taking of property, saying that state and local authorities have broad power to regulate landlord-tenant relationships.

  • July 23, 2026

    NJ Rule Change Proposed To Shield AG's Atty Training Docs

    A potential rule change would exempt New Jersey's attorney general from having to publicly release certain government attorney training materials, like those at the center of a government watchdog's recent lawsuit.

  • July 23, 2026

    Senate Confirms 2 Judges, Advances Ohio And Colo. Picks

    The Senate on Thursday voted 48-47 to confirm Judge Daniel Traynor of the District of North Dakota to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and 49-44 to confirm Antonio M. Pozos, a partner at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, as a judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

  • July 23, 2026

    USTR Says EU's Google Actions Cast Cloud On US Trade Deal

    The U.S. trade deal with the European Union may be undermined by European Commission actions against Google owner Alphabet, including penalties totaling over $1 billion and claims that the U.S. technology giant unfairly favored its own services in certain applications, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Thursday. 

  • July 23, 2026

    Conn. Banking Dept. Says Debt Servicer Lacks Key Atty Ties

    An Illinois servicing company that says it provides administrative services to debt relief lawyers cannot avoid Connecticut Department of Banking enforcement efforts because it does not appear to be connected to licensed in-state attorneys, the department has said, urging a state judge to dismiss a challenge to its authority.

  • July 23, 2026

    2026 Marks Banner Year For AI Changes To Insurance Industry

    The first half of 2026 has seen continued development of artificial intelligence systems in the insurance industry, including new coverage terms for policyholders and evolving regulatory scrutiny for insurers. The changes promise to alter the insurance market in the months to come.

  • July 23, 2026

    Montana Judge Orders BIA To Reconsider Tribe Policing Bid

    A Montana federal judge says the Bureau of Indian Affairs must reconsider a Montana tribe's request to assume the agency's law enforcement operations on its reservation after a U.S. magistrate judge last month recommended the decision.

  • July 23, 2026

    Jack Smith's Lawyers Say Criminal Referral Twists Testimony

    Former special counsel Jack Smith's legal team has said the criminal referral a U.S. Congress member sent the Department of Justice to investigate Smith is based on a "spurious claim."

  • July 23, 2026

    ABA Rips DOJ's 'Absurd' Firm Subpoenas In Documents Fight

    The American Bar Association has blasted as "absurd" the government's move to subpoena law firms as an attempt to avoid a documents request from the organization amid allegations the Trump administration worked to intimidate law firms into conforming with his policy goals through executive orders last year.

  • July 23, 2026

    NM Tribes Move To Block Kalshi Offerings On Native Land

    Four indigenous nations have asked a New Mexico federal judge to stop Kalshi from offering sports-related contracts on their lands, arguing that the prediction market giant is plainly violating laws that give the tribes sole authority over sports betting.

  • July 23, 2026

    Trade Court Finds Bridgestone's Thai Tire Duties Justified

    The U.S. Department of Commerce correctly identified various shortcomings in Bridgestone's compliance during an antidumping duty administrative review for imported bus and truck tires from Thailand, according to a U.S. Court of International Trade opinion rejecting the company's challenge.

  • July 23, 2026

    USTR Sets Large Canadian Tariff Quotas For Sugar Products

    The U.S. will allocate a large portion of its fiscal 2027 tariff rate quotas for refined sugar products and certain sugar-containing goods to Canada, according to a notice published Wednesday by the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

  • July 23, 2026

    USDA Workers Seek Injunction Over Religious Messaging

    The National Federation of Federal Employees and a group of federal workers urged a California federal court to halt the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from sending "proselytizing" religious messages to agency employees by email, arguing the messages are unconstitutional and are causing irreparable harm.

  • July 23, 2026

    Crowell & Moring Adds Former UBS Bank USA GC

    Crowell & Moring LLP hired a former general counsel for UBS Bank USA this week to advise banks, fintechs and digital assets companies on regulatory matters.

  • July 23, 2026

    Interior Energy Pro Joins Holland & Hart In DC As Of Counsel

    The former U.S. Department of the Interior's deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management has a new role at Holland & Hart LLP's Washington, D.C., office.

  • July 22, 2026

    SpaceX May Not Escape Shareholder Suits' Orbit So Easily

    SpaceX's recent blockbuster initial public offering includes a novel and untested framework to steer shareholder disputes to Texas' Business Court and arbitration while prohibiting investor class actions, in a move attorneys said will certainly be challenged in court and could lead to the company facing an impractical number of arbitration proceedings.

  • July 22, 2026

    6 Copyright Cases To Watch In The Second Half Of 2026

    An appeal over whether an AI-powered legal research tool unlawfully used Westlaw material and a long-running fight involving a Miles Davis tattoo could produce some of 2026's most significant copyright rulings. Here is Law360's list of the most notable copyright cases to watch for the rest of the year.

  • July 22, 2026

    OpenAI Says AI Agent Hacked Startup Platform During Testing

    OpenAI disclosed "an unprecedented cyber incident" that occurred when two of its artificial intelligence models broke out of their testing environment and accessed the servers of Hugging Face, a third-party AI and machine learning startup that operates an open-source platform for developers and others to share models and datasets.

  • July 22, 2026

    House Republicans Urge Fed To Speed Up Bank M&A Reviews

    Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee are calling on the Federal Reserve to explore what else can be done to speed up its bank merger reviews, urging it to look into clearing long-delayed applications and allowing more approvals without a board vote.

Expert Analysis

  • Weighing The Implications Of The Anthropic Export Directive

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    The Trump administration recently issued an export control directive against Anthropic to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, representing one of the first uses of the regime against a frontier large language model in widespread commercial distribution, says attorney Sohan Dasgupta.

  • Series

    Moshing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Entering a mosh pit is much like entering the practice of law — it is difficult, you have to know both the written and unwritten rules, and conduct yourself according to the expectations of each community, says Christopher Deubert at Constangy Brooks.

  • Okla. Reforms Will Curb Oil, Gas Royalty Litigation Risk

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    Recent amendments to Oklahoma's Production Revenue Standards Act — the most comprehensive in decades — raise the stakes for true noncompliance with the state's oil and gas royalty payment framework, while offering operators clearer rules, defined interest boundaries and predictable exits from prolonged suspense situations, say attorneys at GableGotwals.

  • High Court Ruling Casts Doubt On Status-Based Gun Bans

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Hemani demonstrates that the justices are increasingly skeptical of broad theories of categorical disarmament and clarifies that dangerousness cannot simply be presumed from one's status or membership in a statutory category, such as illegal drug use, says Lee Francis at Widener Law.

  • Is The SEC Entering Fight Over Prediction Market Oversight?

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had remained largely silent on prediction market regulation until last week, but that trend may be changing, as many event contracts could qualify as security-based swaps, which are subject to the SEC's oversight under current definitions, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.

  • Data Reveals Pivot In Feds' Financial Fraud Priorities

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    Recent Justice Department data shows fraud prosecutions fell to their lowest rate in a decade in 2025, illustrating a move away from traditional financial cases and toward a targeted mix of healthcare, government program, consumer and sanctions matters, say Paul Hinton and Adrienna Huffman at The Brattle Group.

  • Why Highly Specialized Experts May Risk Exclusion At Trial

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    Expert witnesses with highly specific areas of focus may be vulnerable to exclusion in court, making it important for attorneys to check how potential witnesses' qualifications can be bolstered by their publications and other professional activities, say Evan Weisberg and Christopher Cunio at Hunton, and Kevin Cahill at FTI Consulting.

  • Steps For Employers After 7th Circ. BIPA Retroactivity Ruling

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    The Seventh Circuit's recent ruling in Clay v. Union Pacific sharply limits per-scan statutory damages theories in pending Biometric Information Privacy Act cases by retroactively applying a 2024 amendment, but employers should not mistake the holding for a broad safe harbor, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • How NEPA Review Has Changed Since Seven County

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    A year after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County instituted major changes to judicial review under the National Environmental Policy Act, courts are effectively applying the decision, but where things go from here may be up to agencies and project proponents, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Trump AI Order: Voluntary Framework, Mandatory Implications

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    President Donald Trump's recent executive order promoting the advancement of artificial intelligence innovation and security establishes a new framework for government collaboration with the AI industry, but its classified benchmarking criteria, prerelease framework terms and operational rules will determine whether it establishes de facto compliance expectations, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • FDIC Proposal Takes Bank-Like AML Approach To Stablecoins

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    Rather than craft a bespoke regime for stablecoin issuers, a recently proposed Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rule builds a technology-neutral Bank Secrecy Act compliance framework under the Genius Act, firmly anchoring stablecoins within the U.S. financial regulatory perimeter, says David Zaslowsky at Baker McKenzie.

  • DOJ Shifts Raise Ethics Questions For White Collar Defense

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    Recent shifts in U.S. Department of Justice clemency and charge-dismissal practices create ethical gray areas for white collar defense attorneys, who should follow risk-mitigating best practices while still forcefully advocating for their clients, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.

  • A Midyear Look At Antiterrorism Act Jurisprudence And Policy

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    Plaintiffs have filed comparably fewer new actions under the Antiterrorism Act this year, though a handful of key decisions further defined the statute’s aiding-and-abetting standard and highlighted continuing risks for financial services companies, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Opinion

    FTC's Clinical Trial Requirement Threatens Food Claim Rules

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    The Federal Trade Commission's general requirement for randomized controlled trials for most health-benefit claims, recently embraced by the National Advertising Review Board, lacks legal basis and endangers the existing statutory framework Congress created for marketing food and dietary supplements versus drugs, say attorneys at Keller & Heckman.

  • What NERC Reliability Guideline Means For Large Loads

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    The North American Electric Reliability Corporation's new reliability guideline — which addresses issues associated with large loads like data centers, cryptocurrency mining facilities and factories — is nonbinding, but hints at possible future expansion of reliability obligations for large load owners, operators, developers and equipment providers, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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