Public Policy

  • April 24, 2026

    DOJ Ends Powell Probe, Clearing Way For Warsh Vote

    The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday that it is dropping its criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a reversal that has cleared a path for the U.S. Senate to confirm President Donald Trump's pick to succeed him.

  • April 23, 2026

    Paul Clement, Abbe Lowell To Argue In EO Appeals

    Four BigLaw firms and a national security attorney informed the D.C. Circuit on Thursday that heavyweight litigators Paul D. Clement of Clement & Murphy PLLC and Abbe David Lowell of Lowell & Associates PLLC will present their arguments against the Trump administration's appeal seeking to reinstate executive orders that were deemed unconstitutional.

  • April 23, 2026

    Toplessness Isn't Nudity, Beach Advocates Tell Seattle Court

    A court-ordered plan to crack down on nudity at a Seattle public beach is causing confusion, according to a filing from advocates, with private security guards wrongfully targeting topless beachgoers despite police and park rangers greenlighting bare chests.

  • April 23, 2026

    GOP-Led States Back Trump In Dem AGs' Mail-In Ballot Suit

    A group of 12 Republican-led states have asked a Massachusetts federal judge to let them intervene as defendants in 23 Democratic-led states' lawsuit over President Donald Trump's March 31 executive order placing limits on mail-in voting.

  • April 23, 2026

    Ohio Justices Say Electricity Reseller Is Still A Public Utility

    A company that purchases electricity and then resells it to tenants still constitutes a public utility under Ohio law, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled, finding the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio therefore retains jurisdiction to regulate the company.

  • April 23, 2026

    Latest Squires Order Grants 5 IPRs, Denies 4 On The Merits

    U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires granted five America Invents Act patent challenges and denied four others in his latest bulk order making institution decisions with little commentary.

  • April 23, 2026

    Trump Orders On Renewables Get A Judicial Reality Check

    The Trump administration's antipathy toward renewable energy is hitting a courtroom wall as federal judges repeatedly block policies aimed at stymieing wind and solar projects and ding agencies for not adequately justifying their actions.

  • April 23, 2026

    Judges Call Ruling On USAID Shutdown Standing Unusual

    At least two D.C. Circuit judges on Thursday appeared to take some issue with a lower court's ruling that Oxfam and the union for U.S. Agency for International Development workers couldn't bring their challenges to the agency's dismantling in district court, with one panelist calling the district judge's ruling "unconventional."

  • April 23, 2026

    Amazon Gets OK To Sell Leo Routers Despite Covered List

    The Federal Communications Commission continues to make exceptions for certain foreign-made routers after issuing a blanket ban on their being sold in the United States earlier this year by placing them on the so-called covered list.

  • April 23, 2026

    Acting Patent Commissioner To Retire From The USPTO

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's acting patent division leader is leaving the agency and will be replaced by a current deputy commissioner, Law360 confirmed Thursday.

  • April 23, 2026

    Unions Urge Judge To Keep AI Surveillance Case Alive

    Unions challenging the Trump administration's alleged surveillance of noncitizens' viewpoints to find targets for immigration enforcement urged a New York federal judge Wednesday to reject the government's dismissal bid, saying First Amendment injuries to their members give them standing.

  • April 23, 2026

    NTSB's LaGuardia Crash Probe Flags Lack Of Runway Alerts

    Fire truck crew members didn't know that air traffic controllers' instructions to stop were directed at them before they collided with an Air Canada passenger jet landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport last month, and the lack of a transponder on the truck prevented a runway collision warning system from sending out alerts, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

  • April 23, 2026

    Apache Group Amends Suit To Reverse Arizona Land Transfer

    An Apache nonprofit amended its challenge to the federal government and Resolution Copper Co. over the exchange of nearly 2,500 acres within Arizona's Tonto National Forest, arguing the land transfer, which contains a sacred Indigenous worship site, was rushed in violation of religious freedom and constitutional laws.

  • April 23, 2026

    Judge Orders Media Matters To Give X Its Employee Lists

    A Texas federal judge on Thursday ordered left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters for America to hand over employee lists and editorial process information to X Corp. as part of a business disparagement suit, ending a lengthy battle between the parties over the documents.

  • April 23, 2026

    Fake Patients Got Braces Approved In Medicare Scheme

    An investigator with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told jurors on Thursday that a telemedicine doctor signed off on unnecessary orthotic braces for two fake personas he created to test out a software system that the government claims bilked Medicare out of nearly half a billion dollars.

  • April 23, 2026

    DC Circ. Doubts Legality Of Trump's Ouster Of VOA Chief

    A D.C. Circuit panel appeared Thursday not to buy the Trump administration's argument that the president had free rein to summarily fire the head of Voice of America last year and suggested that Congress had directly stipulated that the VOA director could only be removed by its board.

  • April 23, 2026

    FCC Rejects SpaceX, Iridium Bids To Change 'Big LEO' Rules

    The Federal Communications Commission's staff has turned down requests from SpaceX and Iridium Communications Inc. to revamp spectrum sharing rules in the "Big LEO" bands that sought to let the companies expand mobile satellite services.

  • April 23, 2026

    Bar Complaint Calls Out EEOC Chair's Law Firm DEI Letters

    A legal advocacy group asked the Virginia State Bar to investigate whether U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Andrea Lucas violated ethics rules by declining to investigate LGBTQ+ bias complaints and sending letters demanding information from law firms on their diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

  • April 23, 2026

    8th Circ. Ends 1st Amend. Challenge To Iowa 'Ag-Gag' Law

    The Eighth Circuit has rejected an appeal by animal rights groups alleging that Iowa's trespass-surveillance law criminalizing recording on trespassed property is unconstitutional, ruling Thursday that the state can apply the law to forbid the conduct since recording could implicate a substantial government interest to protect its citizens' property and privacy rights.

  • April 23, 2026

    Dems Back Sen. Kelly In DOD Fight Over Illegal Orders Video

    Five Democrats in Congress who previously served in the military and intelligence communities backed U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., in his challenge to the Trump administration's retaliation for warning service members not to carry out illegal orders.

  • April 23, 2026

    Cos. Say Permit Delays Could Drag Out 'Rip And Replace'

    The government's multibillion-dollar effort to pull Chinese-made gear from U.S. telecom networks is almost done, but a carriers' group told the agency this week it was concerned that permit delays could set project timelines back.

  • April 23, 2026

    Ill. House Passes Bill Aiming To Keep Chicago Bears In-State

    The Illinois General Assembly has approved a bill amended to provide more tax incentives for the site of a proposed stadium for the Chicago Bears, who are also considering a stadium offer from neighboring Indiana.

  • April 23, 2026

    Cannabis Cos. Use Opponents' Playbook In Latest Ballot Fight

    A campaign to repeal the legalization of retail cannabis in Massachusetts via ballot initiative — the first campaign of its kind in the country — has triggered a legal action from cannabis business owners akin to the sort pushed by legalization opponents for years.

  • April 23, 2026

    Senators Seek Oversight Of DOL Benefits Agency Probes

    A pair of Republican senators introduced legislation that would require the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits arm to give Congress more information about its enforcement efforts, an action lawmakers say is necessary to ensure investigations are conducted in a timely manner.

  • April 23, 2026

    Fla. Subpoenas Cos., Green Groups In Plastics Antitrust Probe

    Florida's attorney general has subpoenaed several major corporations, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, Target, Nestle and Mondelez International, and a number of environmental groups as part of an investigation into whether their involvement in organizations aiming to reduce plastic waste might run afoul of antitrust and consumer protection laws.

Expert Analysis

  • What Texas Anti-Boycott Ruling Means For ESG Landscape

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    A Texas federal court's recent ruling in American Sustainable Business Council v. Hegar that Texas' anti-ESG law is unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds will likely embolden legal challenges to similar laws in other states that have adopted fossil fuel boycott statutes, say attorneys at ArentFox Schiff.

  • How To Wield The Clarity Act As A Litigation Defense Tool

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    The Clarity Act is being discussed as a future compliance statute, but for litigators it can be used as a present-day defense tool to strengthen fair‑notice framing, argue for forward‑looking remedies rather than punitive ones and reprice settlement leverage as statutory clarity approaches, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Series

    Law School's Missed Lessons: The Human Element

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    Law school teaches you to quickly apply intellect and logic when handling a legal issue, but every fact pattern also involves a person, making the ability to balance expertise with empathy critical to the growth of relationships with clients, colleagues and adversaries, says Rachel Adcox at Adcox Strategies.

  • As Justices Mull Suncor, Cos. Face New Climate Suit Realities

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to hear Suncor Energy v. Boulder County — its first case analyzing the litigation impact of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's rescission of its 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding — companies must consider new preemption questions surrounding climate lawsuits after the rescission, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

  • 7 Steps For Gov't Contractors In Post-IEEPA Tariff Landscape

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    In response to U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down tariffs issued by the Trump administration under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, there are several actions federal contractors should take to preserve their place in any refund waterfall, and to manage audit, overpayment and False Claims Act risk, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • How DExit, Mandatory Arbitration Could Alter IPO Outlook

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    As companies continue to leave Delaware and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission begins allowing companies to implement mandatory arbitration provisions, these developments could have a major impact on the initial public offering, securities class action, and directors and officers insurance landscapes, says Walker Newell at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

  • How High Court Recast State Sovereign Immunity In Galette

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in Galette v. New Jersey Transit, asserting that the state-chartered transit agency has independent corporate personhood and sole obligation to pay judgments against it, turned on substance rather than form — and its analysis should be carefully reviewed in courthouses and statehouses, say attorneys at McCarter & English.

  • Get Smart: Navigating The Genius Act's Regulatory Gaps

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    While some recent Genius Act rulemaking has covered consumer protection issues within the stablecoin market, the context is generally narrow and the final outcome remains uncertain for financial institutions or companies in the evolving landscape, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

  • Opinion

    Ga. HOA Reform Bills Risk Undermining Local Governance

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    Lawmakers considering several bills in Georgia that would centralize regulation of homeowners associations should acknowledge that effective reform needs to protect homeowners’ rights while preserving the financial and governance structures that allow communities to function, says Julie Howard at NowackHoward.

  • Why Prediction Market Regulation Is At Major Inflection Point

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    As prediction markets experience tremendous growth and rapid mainstream adoption, regulators have begun to exercise enforcement authority to ensure market integrity and protect participants, though forthcoming guidance will shed light on how aggressively the agencies will police the fast-changing landscape, say attorneys at Latham.

  • How Cos. Should Prepare For NY RAISE Act Compliance

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    With the New York Responsible AI Safety and Education Act taking effect March 19, state regulators will expect subject artificial intelligence governance policies to understand whether appropriate safeguards and protocols are in place to prevent or mitigate discriminatory or adverse outcomes by frontier models, says Michael Paulino at Gordon Rees.

  • Compliance Takeaways Amid Increased Auto Finance Scrutiny

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    Recent supervisory focus on consumer protection in auto finance by agencies such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. provides meaningful signals regarding areas of heightened regulatory scrutiny for lenders, including data accuracy, AI risk management and vendor oversight, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • The Benefits Of Choosing A Niche Practice In The AI Age

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    As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly accessible, lawyers with a niche practice may stand out as clients seek specialized judgment that automation cannot replicate, but it is important to choose a niche that is durable, engaging and a good personal fit, says Daniel Borneman at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • How PBMs Can Adapt To Plan Sponsors' Disclosure Demands

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    As federal reforms, growing state regulation and litigation threats push plan sponsors to expect visibility into revenue streams, pharmacy benefit managers should leverage transparency strategically, including by simplifying how they get paid, offering clients audit-ready data and co-designing contracts that are easy for fiduciaries to explain and defend, says Kristie Blase at Frazer + Blase.

  • Section 122 Tariffs Show Shift In Strategy, Not Trade Policy

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    By imposing temporary tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act as a stopgap measure while it pivots to less transitory statutory authorities, the Trump administration sent a clear message that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Learning Resources v. Trump, invalidating duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, will not precipitate a change in policy direction, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

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