Public Policy

  • August 11, 2026

    9th Circ. Would Lose 5 States In Latest Reorganization Bid

    Republicans are once again trying to break up the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has long been dominated by judges appointed by Democratic presidents.

  • August 11, 2026

    FCC Again Weighs Carrier Status For Tribal Utility

    The Federal Communications Commission is again thinking about designating a telecom owned by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe an eligible telecommunications carrier, which would open the door for the company to receive federal telecom aid.

  • August 11, 2026

    Mich. County Urges Panel To Clarify FOIA Duties

    Wayne County, Michigan, asked a state appeals court Tuesday to determine whether separate offices within the same county must each respond to duplicate public records requests, arguing multiple responses could unnecessarily expose taxpayers to attorney fees and costs.

  • August 11, 2026

    Domino's Franchisee, IRS Near Deal In Penalty Dispute

    A Domino's Pizza franchisee and the federal government have mostly agreed in principle on a deal to settle the franchisee's suit alleging the IRS owes it $1.6 million in tax refunds for penalties related to failures to report its employee health coverage plan, the company told a Hawaii federal magistrate judge.

  • August 11, 2026

    Judge Probes 7th Circ. Fallout Of Ending Gender Care Fight

    An Illinois federal judge questioned Tuesday what would become of a pending appeal before the full Seventh Circuit if he allows the American Academy of Pediatrics to voluntarily dismiss, without prejudice, its challenge to a Florida racketeering probe over the medical group's gender-affirming care guidelines, an issue one attorney predicted would be "hotly contested."

  • August 11, 2026

    'ICEBreakers' Sue Fla. College Over Violating Right To Protest

    Several students sued Miami university officials in a First Amendment action brought Tuesday in Florida federal court, alleging they were wrongly disciplined for participating in a silent protest against federal immigration enforcement tactics during a campus event earlier this year.

  • August 11, 2026

    NJ Gov. Sherrill Signs 3 Social Media Child Safety Bills

    New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed three bills into law Tuesday aimed at protecting the state's children online and addressing the potentially harmful effects of social media on children.

  • August 11, 2026

    Denver Says DOJ Misuses Police Law In Gun Ban Challenge

    The city of Denver urged a Colorado federal judge to dismiss the U.S. Department of Justice's challenge to the city's assault weapons and large-capacity magazine bans, arguing that the government is stretching a police-misconduct statute beyond its reach to attack local gun laws.

  • August 11, 2026

    DC Circ. Says FERC Properly Allowed Grid Project Cost Shift

    The D.C. Circuit on Tuesday backed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission orders greenlighting the exemption of a Kansas electricity cooperative's transmission projects from a regional grid operator's process to determine how project costs are divided before they're approved.

  • August 11, 2026

    Nations Concerned By Nexus For Service Fees In UN Tax Pact

    Some nations expressed concern that overlapping claims to source-taxation rights could arise under the nexus rules within the United Nations framework tax convention's draft protocol on cross-border services, according to negotiations Tuesday.

  • August 11, 2026

    1st Circ. Won't Immediately Stay TPS Work Permit Cap

    The First Circuit has declined to administratively stay the federal government's move to limit work authorization for immigrants with temporary protected status, but set a Friday deadline to complete briefing and indicated a swift ruling is coming.

  • August 11, 2026

    FTC Tells DC Circ. No Harm From Dropped NewsGuard Probe

    The Federal Trade Commission told the D.C. Circuit that NewsGuard has not shown irreparable harm from a subpoena that was later withdrawn, or from the terms of a merger settlement, in a case accusing the commission of retaliating against the news rating group.

  • August 11, 2026

    DOJ Drops 3rd Circ. Bid For Pa. Hospital Trans Patient Info

    The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its request for the Third Circuit to review a district court's order quashing its demand for records on patients who received gender-affirming care at a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center children's hospital, effectively ending its subpoena fight in the district.

  • August 11, 2026

    Kalshi Loss Dooms Coinbase's Bid To Block Conn. Enforcers

    A Connecticut federal judge has denied Coinbase's request to keep state gaming regulators from cracking down on its sports offerings, tying the decision to a nearly identical ruling he made against Kalshi earlier in the day.

  • August 11, 2026

    Ga. Justices Call For Balancing Privacy Rights In Herpes Suit

    Georgia's top court ruled Tuesday that the privacy rights of a man accused of giving his ex-girlfriend genital herpes must be balanced against her interest in obtaining medical records to support her claims, resolving what the justices called a novel question.

  • August 11, 2026

    SEC Prepared To Introduce Crypto Regulations This Week

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to hold a meeting Friday during which it could issue a proposed rule outlining a path forward for the trading of crypto-assets under the agency's oversight.

  • August 11, 2026

    NYC Keeps 2nd Home Tax On Target After Court Halts Rollout

    New York City moved to halt a judge's ruling that temporarily paused the rollout of its tax on high-value second homes, preserving the tax's implementation and current deadline for individuals to challenge the city's initial determinations about which properties may be subject to the levy.

  • August 11, 2026

    Renewed Gold Mining In Mojave National Preserve Halted

    A federal district court judge has halted gold mining within the Mojave National Preserve, saying the National Park Service violated a law designed to protect sensitive ecosystem by authorizing an Australian company to resume operations in the preserve based on an outdated plan without requiring compliance with current environmental regulations.

  • August 11, 2026

    Fed. Circ. Says Floor Importers Forfeited Duty Rate Appeal

    Importers forfeited arguments in an appeal to the U.S. Court of International Trade's ruling that sustained revised antidumping duties on Chinese wood flooring, according to an opinion in favor of the U.S. government published Tuesday.

  • August 11, 2026

    Feds Say Snapper Suit Moot After Permits Were Nixed

    A lawsuit challenging expanded recreational red snapper fishing permits the National Marine Fisheries Service issued to four states is "dead in the water" now that the permits have been canceled, the U.S. Department of Commerce told a D.C. federal judge.

  • August 11, 2026

    Virginia Says Hemp Cos. Can't Block New THC Limits

    The day before a court hearing on a motion for a temporary restraining order, Virginia officials are urging a federal judge not to halt enforcement of the state's new THC potency caps, saying the hemp businesses' request to do so "rests on a distorted premise."

  • August 11, 2026

    DOJ Says Executive Privilege May Apply To Private Advisers

    The president's communications with outside advisers may be shielded by executive privilege, so long as they are confidential and relate to official decision-making, the U.S. Department of Justice said in its latest advisory opinion.

  • August 11, 2026

    911 Providers Push FCC For Uniform Next-Gen Framework

    Emergency response organizations are urging the FCC to let 911 authorities drive interoperability between state systems rather than impose stand-alone federal testing mandates.

  • August 11, 2026

    Ohio Justices Advance Possible Ashville Data Center Vote

    An emergency resolution the village of Ashville passed to support a data center project failed to spell out any actual emergency justification for the measure, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled, clearing a path for a possible voter referendum.

  • August 11, 2026

    Blue States Say OCC Overstepped On Escrow Interest Rules

    An Oregon-led coalition of nearly a dozen states sued Tuesday to overturn the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recent rules that exempt national banks from state laws requiring the payment of interest on homeowners' escrow account funds.

Expert Analysis

  • At The Intersection Of Right-To-Repair Laws And IP Rights

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    Right-to-repair legislation passing through Congress highlights a broad tension between manufacturers' security measures and consumer autonomy, with important repercussions for the automotive industry's intellectual property rights, says Keith Noe at Lando & Anastasi. 

  • Opinion

    States Should Reconsider Forced PBM Divestiture Laws

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    State legislatures are attempting to enact policies intended to force pharmacy benefit managers to divest from pharmacies, but these laws would have the practical effect of reducing patient access and competition, potentially violating the U.S. Constitution in the process, says former Utah Attorney General John Swallow.

  • HSR Deals Proceed More Steadily Than Narratives Suggest

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    The most recent Hart-Scott-Rodino Act data show that transaction volume remained relatively stable, transaction values continued to increase and enforcement activity remained low, suggesting that enforcement rates have been relatively consistent across presidential administrations despite widely differing public rhetoric regarding merger enforcement, says Amanda Wait at Michael Best.

  • Assessing The Benefits Of Fla.'s Newest Business Structure

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    As of July 1, Florida business owners can create protected series LLCs to shield assets from liability while avoiding increased costs and wasted time, but burdensome recordkeeping obligations are crucial to maintaining the very protection that makes them attractive in the first place, says Gregory Ritter at Moritt Hock.

  • Key Post-Proposal Shifts Likely In CFPB Loss Mitigation Rule

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    Mortgage servicers, borrowers and consumer advocates should prepare for a likely narrowed version of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's loss mitigation rule, which is likely to permit sequential reviews, defer to investor guidelines, extend compliance timelines and preempt conflicting state standards, say attorneys at Goodwin.

  • Series

    Teaching SEC Investigations Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Instructing a law school course on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations has made me a more thoughtful, deliberate practitioner because it requires me to continually reassess and challenge what I know about securities law enforcement, how I know it and how best to explain it, says David Chase at Miami Law.

  • Noncompete Laws Show States Focusing On Bans, Healthcare

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    The first half of 2026 confirms that state legislatures are driving the most consequential changes in noncompete law, including a few state bans and several healthcare-specific laws, making a one-size-fits-all approach increasingly untenable for multistate employers, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • What's Inside Proposed, Expanded NY Stablecoin Regulations

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    New York's recently proposed regulations for payment stablecoin issuers would, if adopted, increase the regulatory burdens of a state license, and midsize issuers considering a conversion to a federal charter should weigh the associated costs of both options, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Justices' Tax Sale Ruling Tees Up Auction Fairness Battles

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Pung v. Isabella County, Michigan, that taxpayers are not entitled to fair market value of real property seized to satisfy a tax debt shifts attention to the fairness of state and local auction procedures, and whether taxpayers claiming surplus proceeds face unwarranted hurdles, say attorneys at Miller Canfield.

  • What Corporate Counsel Can Learn From OpenAI Test Breach

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    The significance of the recent artificial intelligence testing breach involving OpenAI and Hugging Face lies in what it reveals about the path of AI’s evolution, because legal professionals must translate that trajectory into actionable governance, contractual and advisory frameworks, says Jason Mueller at Vorys.

  • Patent Eligibility Reforms Keep Chasing The Wrong Fixes

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    Repeated efforts to create a consistent, predictable patent eligibility standard under Section 101 have centered on replacing judge-made exceptions with new statutory language, but the better fix is to align examination standards with how courts actually apply eligibility doctrine, says former Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge Amee Shah.

  • Opinion

    Qualified Immunity Bill's Reach Goes Beyond Federal Officers

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    The federal Qualified Immunity Abolition Act, introduced earlier this year and described by the bill sponsors as a federal-officer measure, would in actuality reach the entire universe of Section 1983 defendants, a distinction that matters as much to defense counsel as to plaintiffs, says attorney V. James DeSimone.

  • State Of Insurance: Q2 Notes From Pennsylvania

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    Todd Leon at Marshall Dennehey highlights notable second-quarter insurance developments in Pennsylvania, including federal court opinions providing guidance on first-party and third-party insurance coverage principles, and a pending bill seeking to regulate health insurers' use of artificial intelligence.

  • Assessing DOJ Antitrust's New, Faster Merger Review Option

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    The U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division's recently announced targeted second request option and new model timing signal a commercially friendly stance and a departure from the prior administration's position, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

  • NRC Proposal May Reshape Radiation Protection Framework

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    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposal to drop the long-standing requirement to keep radiation exposure "as low as reasonably achievable," alongside the U.S. Department of Energy's removal of ALARA from its own rules, suggests a broader federal reassessment of radiation protection policy, say attorneys at Womble Bond.

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