Public Policy

  • April 10, 2026

    Texas Justices Say Telecom Contracts Must Follow The Law

    When the Texas Legislature changes the laws that govern how much public utilities can charge telecommunications companies to attach things to their poles, contracts that are already in effect have to fall in line, the state supreme court declared Friday in resolving a decades' long dispute involving San Antonio.

  • April 10, 2026

    Big Banks Say They Were Victims Of Tricolor Fraud Scheme

    JPMorgan, Barclays and Fifth Third have urged a New York federal judge to toss an investor suit claiming the banks ignored flaring red flags and helped conceal a sprawling subprime auto loan fraud by Tricolor Holdings, arguing that they were also victims of the fraud and not aware of the scheme despite being sophisticated financial institutions.

  • April 10, 2026

    Chest Binders Become Latest Front In Anti-Trans Litigation

    Chest binders — medical devices that can be used by individuals experiencing gender dysphoria or who want a more gender-neutral alternative to bras — have emerged as the newest target in an unfolding regulatory and legal climate that transgender advocates describe as an overtly partisan political attack against a type of product that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has deemed the least risky.

  • April 10, 2026

    SEC To Craft Exemption For Foreign Bail-In Transactions

    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins said Friday that he has directed staff to draft an exemption for securities offered and sold as part of certain foreign bail-in processes, announcing the plans as the agency said it won't take action over bail-in transactions directed by the Bank of England.

  • April 10, 2026

    FCC Says Current 'Audible Crawl' Rule Doesn't Work

    The Federal Communications Commission is thinking about ditching a requirement that video service providers ensure that nontext emergency information that pops up during a TV broadcast comes with an auditory translation for the visually impaired.

  • April 10, 2026

    Texas Judge Blocks State From Enforcing New Hemp Rules

    A Texas state court on Friday blocked state agencies from enforcing new rules restricting the sale of certain hemp products, after hemp industry groups sued the agencies over claims they illegally went past what the legislature allowed them to ban.

  • April 10, 2026

    2nd Circ. Says Skipped Appeal Dooms Deportation Challenge

    An Ecuadorian facing felony criminal charges for reentering the United States after being deported following a conviction for reckless assault cannot challenge his original deportation order because he didn't originally appeal it, the Second Circuit said Thursday.

  • April 10, 2026

    CFTC Taps Latham, Sidley Attys For Innovation Task Force

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has tapped alumni of Latham & Watkins LLP, Sidley Austin LLP and advisory firm Patomak Global Partners LLC for its task force developing regulatory framework for cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence and prediction markets.

  • April 10, 2026

    ICE Quietly Changes I-9 Offenses, Raising Employer Fine Risk

    Employers are staring down bigger fines for I-9 violations after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quietly redefined substantive violations to include common administrative errors that were previously correctable without penalty.

  • April 10, 2026

    Colo. Governor Claims Immunity In Tribe's Park Access Suit

    Colorado's governor has claimed sovereign immunity in a federal lawsuit by the Ute Indian Tribe, which alleged it is being discriminated against due to its exclusion from a state law that gives members of its sister tribes free entrance to state parks on ancestral lands.

  • April 10, 2026

    DC Circ. Scraps Foley's Atty Fee Win In 13-Year IRS Saga

    A D.C. Circuit panel on Friday vacated a district court ruling giving Foley & Lardner LLP first dibs on nearly $800,000 in fees for representing a conservative nonprofit in a 13-year-old suit against the Internal Revenue Service, giving Bopp Law Firm a chance to argue for a larger cut of the pie.

  • April 10, 2026

    FCC Fines Are Just Paper, But 'Still Tigers,' High Court Told

    AT&T and Verizon told the U.S. Supreme Court that no matter how the Federal Communications Commission portrays its fines, they amount to binding orders that run afoul of the Seventh Amendment because there's no clear path to challenge them in court.

  • April 10, 2026

    Texas REIT Discloses $53M RealPage Settlement With Renters

    A Texas-based real estate investment trust has reached a $53 million class action settlement for multidistrict litigation in Tenneseee federal court that accused the REIT and multiple landlords of using property management software company RealPage Inc.'s revenue management software for rent price-fixing.

  • April 10, 2026

    House Dems Push To Halt Russian Oil Sales, Adopt Sanctions

    Two U.S. Democratic representatives have introduced a bill to reverse the Trump administration's decision to authorize the sale of Russian oil, arguing Russia will use the proceeds to fund its war against Ukraine.

  • April 10, 2026

    Tech's AI Coding Boom On Collision Course With Copyright

    Tech companies embracing generative tools to write their software code — and boasting about it — may be running into a gap in copyright protection: the more they rely on them, the harder it may be to claim exclusive rights when that code is copied or leaked.

  • April 10, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Appears Skeptical Of Steel Co.'s Duty Challenge

    In over two hours of oral arguments across three cases on Friday, a Federal Circuit panel scrutinized a Turkish company's attempts to challenge a duty order against Turkish steel, raising concerns ranging from its failure to file a protectionary appeal to overall issues with protestations over calculations.

  • April 10, 2026

    USPTO Launches Pilot Aimed At Reducing Exam Backlog

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said it will launch a pilot program requiring some applicants at the national stage to request examination of their patent applications.

  • April 10, 2026

    Kansas City Open To Talking To Royals About $1.9B Ballpark

    Officials in Kansas City, Mo., have begun the process of talking with Major League Baseball's Royals about building a new $1.9 billion downtown ballpark, two years after voters rejected a tax hike for a stadium project.

  • April 10, 2026

    $68M Colony Ridge Deal To Proceed Without Court's Blessing

    The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday said it will move forward with a $68 million settlement reached with land developer Colony Ridge Development LLC without seeking court oversight after a Texas federal judge raised concerns about the deal.

  • April 10, 2026

    Trump Taps Personal Atty For 2nd Circ.

    President Donald Trump announced on Friday evening he's tapping Matthew Schwartz, his attorney in the New York hush money case, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 

  • April 10, 2026

    Immigration Appeals Rule Challenge Put On Hold

    Legal services groups challenging changes that would speed up deportation order appeals have agreed with the Trump administration to stay upcoming deadlines in the litigation and allow for a revised rulemaking process after a D.C. federal judge vacated the changes last month.

  • April 10, 2026

    First Phase Of Tariff Refund System To Launch April 20

    The first phase of an electronic system allowing U.S. importers to claim refunds for tariffs paid under the global regime struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court will launch April 20, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday.

  • April 10, 2026

    DOJ Sues Michigan's Washtenaw County Over ICE Policies

    The Department of Justice has sued Michigan's Washtenaw County in federal court, alleging that county officials are obstructing federal immigration enforcement in violation of the U.S. Constitution's supremacy clause.

  • April 10, 2026

    Agri Stats Atty 'More Optimistic' About Settling DOJ Case

    An attorney for Agri Stats Inc. told a Minnesota federal judge Friday that a settlement resolving the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust case could be on the horizon ahead of an early May trial accusing the company of helping major chicken, turkey and pork producers hike prices.

  • April 10, 2026

    Ed. Dept. Urges Judge Not To Broaden Admissions Data Block

    The Trump administration is urging a Massachusetts federal judge not to expand his order blocking the U.S. Department of Education's collection of detailed college admissions data for several states' public institutions to cover additional schools, including private colleges.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • What New Animal Welfare Enforcement Push Means For Cos.

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    The Trump administration's recently announced multiagency focus on violations of the Animal Welfare Act and related laws will likely lead to broader enforcement actions across industries, heightened scrutiny of compliance standards and a need for businesses to adopt effective risk management practices, says Shennie Patel at Crowell & Moring.

  • The Practical Implications Of New FDIC Stablecoin Measures

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    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s recent proposal to create a formal process for issuing payment stablecoins arrives with several practical implications for FDIC‑supervised banks pursuing digital asset strategies, including a safe harbor for early applicants and a focus on ownership and governance, say attorneys at Troutman.

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