Public Policy

  • August 18, 2026

    Ex-DOJ Atty Says Trump's University Probes Were Political

    Trump administration officials forged ahead with investigations into Harvard, Columbia and other universities despite its own lawyers raising legal concerns and, in some cases, finding "little to no factual predicate justifying opening them," according to a whistleblower disclosure from a former U.S. Department of Justice lawyer made public Tuesday.

  • August 18, 2026

    DC Circ. Backs EPA Forever Chemicals Rules

    The D.C. Circuit Tuesday backed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's designation of the two most common forms of forever chemicals as hazardous substances under federal Superfund law, rejecting arguments from industry that the agency didn't have a legal basis to do so.

  • August 18, 2026

    Feds Bring New Charges Over $3.4B Iran-Backed Cybertheft

    Manhattan federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced new charges against a group of Iranians accused of running a global, state-backed hacking campaign against private companies, government agencies and universities, in a wide-ranging cybertheft conspiracy that stole at least $3.4 billion in academic data and intellectual property.

  • August 18, 2026

    SEC Proposes Long-Awaited Crypto Offering Exemptions

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday unveiled plans to exempt some cryptocurrency offerings from its registration requirements and to create a safe harbor for some projects to eventually shed securities law obligations altogether.

  • August 18, 2026

    DOI, Enviro Groups Trade Punches Over Wildlands Policy

    The U.S. Department of the Interior has received pushback from conservation groups that oppose five comment processes among three federal agencies as the DOI reviews policies affecting wilderness areas on public lands nationwide.

  • August 18, 2026

    Uber Eats To Pay $4.4M To End Seattle Wage Theft Claims

    Uber Eats will again fork out millions of dollars to settle allegations from Seattle officials that the food delivery giant failed to pay its couriers what they're owed under municipal app-based worker laws, the Seattle Office of Labor Standards announced Tuesday.

  • August 18, 2026

    Journalist Sues DHS, CBP Over Phone Seizure After Iran Trip

    An American journalist says the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection violated his constitutional rights and federal privacy law when agents seized his phones at Dulles Airport after returning from a reporting trip to Iran, according to a suit filed Monday in Virginia federal court.

  • August 18, 2026

    At DC Circ., Pharma's Latest Pricing Loss Has Silver Linings

    The pharmaceutical industry's far-flung crusade against Medicare's new negotiation powers suffered a fresh setback Tuesday as the D.C. Circuit joined sister circuits in upholding the landmark pricing program, but the defeat contained consolation prizes that will fuel further litigation.

  • August 18, 2026

    Zuckerberg Waved Off Filter Criticism, Tenn. Jury Hears

    A former Meta executive overseeing responsible innovation testified Tuesday that Mark Zuckerberg iced out her thoughts regarding the harm to teens of cosmetic surgery image filters, but said generally the company's employees are well intentioned when it comes to user safety.

  • August 18, 2026

    'Profits Won': States Say Meta Targeted Kids As Trial Opens

    An attorney for more than two dozen states told a California federal jury during opening statements Tuesday that Meta hid what it knew about social media's mental health harms and prioritized profits over safety in a yearslong effort to hook kids on its platforms, while Meta defended its safety practices as best-in-class.

  • August 18, 2026

    Hesai Deprived Due Process Over DOD List, DC Circ. Says

    A D.C. Circuit panel held Tuesday that a Department of Defense decision to include Shanghai lidar-maker Hesai on a list of Chinese military companies didn't give the company due process, reversing a lower court's ruling while also allowing the designation to remain in effect.

  • August 18, 2026

    Big Tech, PTAB Attys Urge Justices To Fix USPTO Power Grab

    The Federal Circuit's refusal to curb the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director's power over instituting Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges has allowed leaders to "wreak havoc" without accountability, top tech companies have warned the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • August 18, 2026

    11th Circ. Says Clerk's Notice Fail Sank Fla. Funds Seizure

    The Eleventh Circuit ruled Monday that a Florida county court clerk violated the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments by taking funds deposited in a court registry as part of an eviction proceeding, because the clerk's notice to the owner of the funds was not reasonably calculated to reach him.

  • August 18, 2026

    Texas AG Asks 1st Circ. To Revive ActBlue Suit

    The Texas attorney general has asked the First Circuit to revive his Texas-based lawsuit against Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue after a Massachusetts federal court blocked it, saying the federal judge improperly stymied his state-based fraud claims.

  • August 18, 2026

    Microsoft Harvests K-12 Student Data, Class Action Claims

    Microsoft Corp.'s partnerships with K-12 schools in Washington have allowed the technology giant to collect and profit from swaths of personal student data in violation of state and federal law, according to a proposed class action filed by four minor students who attend public schools in Spokane, Washington.

  • August 18, 2026

    5th Circ. Rejects Texas Water Case Against River Authority

    The Fifth Circuit refused Tuesday to revive a private water utility's antitrust case targeting Texas' San Jacinto River Authority contract fees designed to reduce groundwater use, concluding that the contract was not designed to fix prices.  

  • August 18, 2026

    ATF's Ghost Gun Rule Found Unconstitutional By Texas Judge

    A Texas federal judge has ruled that a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rule restricting so-called ghost gun kits violates the Second Amendment because it runs counter to America's colonial tradition of home gunsmithing.

  • August 18, 2026

    Trump Admin Moves To Cut Roadless Rule Forest Protections

    The U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday said it's moving ahead with a plan to repeal a decades-old rule that has protected tens of millions of acres of national forest from road building and logging, asserting it has unacceptably hampered efforts to reduce wildfire risk.

  • August 18, 2026

    Trump Names 9 Judicial Picks Across 6 States

    President Donald Trump announced nine nominees Tuesday for judicial spots in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Alaska. 

  • August 18, 2026

    Squires Says RPIs Must Be Named If They Can Control Cases

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director explained why he rejected Viance LLC's challenge of a Koppers Performance Chemicals Inc. patent, faulting Viance for failing to disclose real parties in interest and writing that a company's mere ability to control a challenger makes it an RPI.

  • August 18, 2026

    Conn. Pans DOJ's Injury Claims In Use-Of-Force Law Dispute

    The state of Connecticut has challenged the U.S. Department of Justice's attempt to invalidate recent laws on use of force, identification and face covering that two state officials said could affect federal officers, arguing the DOJ failed to allege "concrete harm" or validly claim federal officers can't be prosecuted for crimes.

  • August 18, 2026

    Ex-Meta Worker Says His EB-2 Letter Concerns Got Him Fired

    A former Meta Platforms Inc. product design manager sued the social media giant and his former supervisor in New Jersey federal court, claiming that he was fired after refusing to sign an immigration support letter for a colleague because he believed it contained inaccurate or unsupported facts.

  • August 18, 2026

    House GOP Still Pushing For Broadband Permit Bill This Year

    Despite months of delays, Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are still pressing for legislation that would compel local governments to act faster on broadband permit applications, a top congressional aide said Tuesday.

  • August 18, 2026

    Alaska Judge Voids 500-Acre Land Swap For Refuge Road

    A district court judge vacated an Interior Department decision to exchange 500 acres to allow road construction on Izembek National Wildlife Refuge lands for failing to comply with the provision of a federal Alaskan land law, saying in a Tuesday order that the transaction has no "force or effect."

  • August 18, 2026

    10th Circ. Revisits Banks' Challenge To Colo. Opt-Out Law

    The Tenth Circuit on Tuesday reconsidered a challenge from banking groups to a Colorado law intended to curb high-cost lending by out-of-state banks, pressing counsel on the practicality of Colorado's law and the history of a federal interest rate law.

Expert Analysis

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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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.

  • High Court, SEC Proposals Set Stage For Further Fund Reform

    Author Photo

    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in FS Credit Opportunities v. Saba Capital Master Fund and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed rulemaking packages aimed at public market reforms provide a constructive backdrop for considering additional innovations to the listed fund structure, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • AG Watch: Minn. Defends Prediction Markets Ban

    Author Photo

    Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has aggressively defended the state's landmark statute banning prediction markets, but the court's July 27 temporary injunction in U.S. v. Minnesota blocking the law from taking effect could set the template for state authority across the country, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • Series

    Judges On AI: Examining Administrative, Organizational Uses

    Author Photo

    U.S. District Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas examines how artificial intelligence could transform a court's ability to deal with administrative work and organize materials when preparing for hearings or drafting opinions, thereby affording judges more time to resolve contested issues.

Want to publish in Law360?


Submit an idea

Have a news tip?


Contact us here
Can't find the article you're looking for? Click here to search the Public Policy archive.