Public Policy

  • April 24, 2026

    Trump Makes Fresh US Tariff Threat Over UK Digital Tax

    President Donald Trump warned that his administration will impose new tariffs on the U.K. unless the British government dismantles its digital services tax targeting tech giants.

  • April 24, 2026

    Feds Lock In Cut To Community Bank Leverage Ratio

    Federal regulators on Thursday finalized a rule to relax a streamlined leverage capital requirement for community banks, a move they said will give hundreds more small banks a way to avoid more complex, risk-based capital standards.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • Ohio Case Reflects States' Aggressive Criminal Antitrust Turn

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    The Ohio Attorney General's Office’s recent bid-rigging indictment of an online auctioneer is the latest signal that states, through attorneys general pursuing more kickback cases and legislators expanding the reach of antitrust laws, are shedding their historical reluctance to wield their criminal antitrust enforcement powers, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Justices' Geofence Ruling May Test 4th Amendment's Future

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    When the U.S. Supreme Court decides in Chatrie v. U.S. whether law enforcement may use geofence warrants to compel Google to disclose location history data, the ruling is likely to become an important statement about the future of Fourth Amendment law in data-driven investigations, says Duncan Levin at Levin & Associates.

  • Series

    NY Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q1

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    In the first quarter of 2026, New York's banking developments were headlined by initiatives to expand oversight of financial institutions and strengthen consumer protection laws, including a new framework for buy now, pay later lenders, a sweeping debt collection rule and a revised corporate self-disclosure program for financial crimes, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • Seeking A Policy Fix As Merger Reporting Fight Continues

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    A recently announced request by the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice for public comment on the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger reporting requirements, as litigation challenging the commission's updated requirements continues, suggests the government's willingness to address how best to support modern merger enforcement without unduly burdening filing parties, say attorneys at Baker Botts.

  • What New Fla. Citizens Bill Means For Surplus Lines Insurers

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    A Florida bill recently passed by the Legislature as part of a continued effort to depopulate Citizens Property Insurance, the state's insurer of last resort, creates an additional pathway for commercial policies to be written by surplus lines insurers, but also presents concerns of unnecessary regulation, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • What Voluntary Calif. Carbon Reports Show About Compliance

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    While the enforcement of California's S.B. 261 is currently paused due to a Ninth Circuit injunction, more than 130 companies have nonetheless chosen to voluntarily publish climate-related financial risk disclosures, providing a useful snapshot of how the market is interpreting the law's requirements in practice, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • PTAB Memo Recenters Discretion On US Manufacturing

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    Read alongside recent Federal Circuit decisions, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director John Squires' memo on patent denial considerations emphasizes domestic manufacturing in a way that the International Trade Commission does not require, says Brandon Theiss at Volpe Koenig.

  • Why MDLs Slow Down — And How To Speed Them Up

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    Multidistrict litigation has become central to mass tort practice, but as MDLs grow in size and complexity, so do delays and costs — so tools like the new federal rule governing MDLs, targeted use of special masters and strategically deployed Lone Pine orders are more essential than ever, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

  • What A Court Doc Audit Reveals About Erroneous Filings

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    My audit of 1,522 court documents from last month found that over 95% contained at least one verifiable error, with fewer than 1% showing clear indicators of artificial intelligence use — highlighting above all else that lawyers may want to focus most on strengthening their review processes, says Elliott Ash at ETH Zurich.

  • Regulators' Basel Pitch May Bring Banks Capital Relief

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    The prudential banking agencies' new proposals to implement the so-called Basel III endgame rules — which would modify the approach to risk-based capital, among other notable changes — represent a fundamental directional shift in bank capital requirements aimed at increasing lending capacity, says Chen Xu at Debevoise.

  • How SEC And CFTC Are Attempting To End Their 'Turf War'

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    Through coordinated examinations and a shared aim to end duplicative regulation, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent memorandum of understanding could represent a significant shift in the regulatory landscape for market participants subject to the jurisdiction of both agencies, say attorneys at Jenner.

  • FTC Focus: Growing Emphasis On Competition In AI

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    The Federal Trade Commission's leadership has continued to highlight that competitive risks in artificial intelligence markets may arise at multiple levels simultaneously, considering not only who controls the resources necessary to build AI systems, but also how those systems function and yield outputs, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • What's Missing From Latest Gov't Claims Against Harvard

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    The most interesting thing about the Trump administration’s recent civil rights enforcement efforts targeting Harvard University is its decision not to assert violations of the False Claims Act when given the opportunity, despite signals that its enforcement efforts will include use of the federal FCA, say attorneys at Bass Berry.

  • How Cos. Can Prepare For 'Made In America' Ad Scrutiny

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    The Trump administration's executive order to combat fraudulent "Made in America" claims in consumer-facing advertising, along with actions by the Federal Trade Commission, suggest a potential increased focus on consumer protection and pricing-related matters, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Opinion

    FTC Case Risks Redefining Price Discrimination

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    Federal Trade Commission v. Southern Glazer puts a spotlight on the blurry line between illegal price discrimination and ordinary competition, and could potentially set a precedent that puts nearly any manufacturer at risk of Robinson-Patman Act enforcement, says Jeremy Sandford at Econic Partners.

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