Public Policy

  • August 21, 2025

    Fla. Judge Orders Wind Down Of Everglades Detention Center

    A Florida federal judge Thursday ordered the government to stop bringing new detainees to the Everglades immigration detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" and to begin winding down operations after finding the plaintiffs challenging the center are likely to prevail on their environmental claims.

  • August 21, 2025

    9th Circ. Dissenters Rip Judge's 'Weaponization Of Sanctions'

    A half-dozen Ninth Circuit judges Thursday denounced six-figure sanctions against attorneys for prominent politicians challenging Arizona election procedures, accusing a lower court of "twisting and contorting" allegations in order to punish lawyers "based on the nature of the complaint and the clients that they represented."

  • August 21, 2025

    FTC Warns Tech Cos. To Honor Data Vows In Foreign Dealings

    The head of the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday cautioned Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon and other major tech companies to refrain from weakening data security protections or censoring content in response to pressure from foreign governments, reminding them that reneging on promises they make to U.S. consumers could land them in hot water with the agency.

  • August 21, 2025

    Pa. Court Revives Fired County Worker's Whistleblower Claim

    A Pennsylvania appeals court on Thursday sent back a dispute to a lower court over a fired county employee's whistleblower allegation tied to her reporting that a union representative secretly taped meetings, determining the union official acted as a county employee when she made the recordings.

  • August 21, 2025

    Pa. Biz Groups, Providers, Uber Want Fault Loophole Closed

    Uber and a coalition of organizations often targeted by injury lawsuits urged a Pennsylvania appeals court to close a legal loophole that they claim largely undermines the purpose of the Fair Share Act, which limits a defendant's liability to their portion of fault.

  • August 21, 2025

    Challenge To Fed. Layoffs A 'Fishing Expedition,' 9th Circ. Told

    A federal government attorney told a Ninth Circuit panel Thursday that a group of unions, nonprofits and cities challenging President Donald Trump's massive layoffs of federal workers have no right to communications and documents showing what went into the layoff decisions, saying it's a "fishing expedition in search of a viable legal theory."

  • August 21, 2025

    SBA Proposes Increasing Small Business Size Thresholds

    The Small Business Administration has proposed increasing the monetary thresholds for what it considers to be a small business across 263 industries, creating a larger pool of small businesses for federal agencies to secure services from.

  • August 21, 2025

    Appeals Court Says Dallas Must Release Discrimination Records

    A Texas appeals court ruled Thursday that the city of Dallas has to turn over records on a federal housing discrimination investigation to The Dallas Morning News, saying the information was not exempt from public disclosure.

  • August 21, 2025

    Biz Groups Appeal Calif. Climate Reporting Ruling To 9th Circ.

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have appealed a court order rejecting their bid to block new California state regulations requiring large companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks that they claim violate their First Amendment rights.

  • August 21, 2025

    Consumer Advocates Blast FERC Inaction On Power Auction

    Consumer advocates and municipal utilities have told the D.C. Circuit that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can't use a Third Circuit ruling to claim it is powerless to prevent the rerunning of a flawed electricity capacity auction that overcharged consumers by $183 million.

  • August 21, 2025

    DC Circ. Lets Trump's NCUA Board Purge Stand Amid Appeal

    A D.C. Circuit panel said Thursday that the Trump administration can continue blocking two ousted National Credit Union Administration leaders from returning to the agency's board while it appeals a lower-court ruling reinstating them.

  • August 21, 2025

    Property Owners Say SF Vacancy Tax Violates Rights

    A San Francisco levy on vacant residential units is not a tax, but a penalty, and violates property owners' constitutional rights to keep their private property from being taken for public use without just compensation, the owners told a California appellate court.

  • August 21, 2025

    Pro-Israel Group Seeks Sanctions Against Fired Emory Prof

    A pro-Israel foundation has demanded a Georgia federal court sanction a Palestinian-American former Emory University professor who said the foundation was complicit in her ouster from the school, arguing the professor and her attorney have baselessly blamed "an imaginary Jewish conspiracy" for her firing.

  • August 21, 2025

    DC Judge Leaves Travel Ban Intact, But Blocks No-Visa Policy

    A D.C. federal judge ruled Thursday that federal immigration law gives President Donald Trump the authority to implement a ban restricting travel from 19 countries, but does not authorize the executive branch to implement a ban on issuing visas.

  • August 21, 2025

    9th Circ. Rejects Rehearing On Alaskan Willow Oil Project

    A Ninth Circuit panel won't undo its ruling to uphold the federal government's decision to only move forward with alternative versions of the ConocoPhillips Willow project that strayed from its original plans and that Alaskan Native and environmental advocacy groups say will result in full development of the Arctic oil reservoir.

  • August 21, 2025

    CFPB Calls For Input On Open-Banking Fees, Access Issues

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is taking a first step toward reopening its Biden-era open-banking rule, issuing a fresh call for comment on key sticking points that have divided banks and fintech firms and become a focus of industry litigation.

  • August 21, 2025

    GTCR Deal A 'Smokescreen' For Coatings Merger, FTC Says

    GTCR BC Holdings LLC's $627 million bid to buy the nation's largest medical device coatings company is a blatant attempt to overwhelmingly dominate an already highly concentrated market, and the "smokescreen" of a partial divestiture shouldn't convince anyone otherwise, the Federal Trade Commission told an Illinois federal judge Thursday.

  • August 21, 2025

    Trump Urges DC Circ. Not To Review Its Foreign Aid Decision

    The Trump administration is urging the D.C. Circuit to leave its panel's split decision that nonprofits can't force the government to release foreign aid in place, arguing that full en banc review is unnecessary and that private enforcement of the Impoundment Control Act would run afoul of the law.

  • August 21, 2025

    Texas AG Can't Question NGO Over Alleged Border Crossing Aid

    A Texas appellate court shot down the state attorney general's request to take a presuit deposition from an aid organization that allegedly helped unauthorized immigrants cross the southern border, saying in a Thursday split decision the attorney general failed to show adequate evidence.

  • August 21, 2025

    CVS, Drugmakers Illegally Inflated Insulin Prices, City Claims

    Drugmakers Eli Lilly and Co., Novo Nordisk Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis US LLC, pharmacy benefit managers CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx, and others have been hit with civil racketeering and state unfair trade practices law claims by the city of Torrington, Connecticut, over an alleged scheme to inflate insulin prices.

  • August 21, 2025

    FCC Seeks Feedback On New Pole Attachment Deadlines

    The Federal Communications Commission wants industry and interested parties to share what they think about a set of rule changes the agency has proposed to make pole attachment regulations less complicated and hopefully to speed up the deployment of broadband.

  • August 21, 2025

    9th Circ. Lets DHS End More Temporary Protections, For Now

    A Ninth Circuit panel put on hold for now a district court ruling postponing the Trump administration's bid to end temporary protected status for 60,000 people from Nicaragua, Honduras and Nepal, but denied the government's bid to halt the lower court proceedings.

  • August 21, 2025

    Democratic Sen. Urges Trump Admin To Plan For Tariff Refunds

    Senate Small Business Committee ranking member Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., sent a letter Thursday to agency leaders in President Donald Trump's administration requesting the government prepare a tariff refund plan in case federal courts strike down Trump's emergency tariffs.

  • August 21, 2025

    DOJ Gets Backing In Fight Over Public Benefits

    A group that fights to restrict immigration into the U.S. is urging a Rhode Island federal court to let the Trump administration narrow noncitizens' access to programs like Head Start, homeless shelters and food banks, arguing Thursday that a coalition of 20 states is trying to obstruct immigration enforcement and give benefits to "illegal aliens."

  • August 21, 2025

    NHTSA Looking Into Tesla Crash Report Tardiness

    Tesla Inc. must explain why many crashes involving its advanced driver-assistance systems or self-driving vehicles are not being timely reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to a notice filed by federal regulators who are now investigating the company's compliance.

Expert Analysis

  • Fla. Law Is Part Of State Trend On Curbing Foreign Influence

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    A recently effective Florida law that broadly prohibits charities from receiving or soliciting funds from individuals and entities associated with certain foreign countries, the first of its kind in the nation, follows a growing state-level focus on foreign influence regulation, say attorneys at Venable.

  • 4 In-Flux Employment Law Issues Banks Should Note

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    Attorneys at Ogletree provide a midyear update on employment law changes that could significantly affect banks and other financial service institutions — including federal diversity equity and inclusion updates, and new and developing state and local artificial intelligence laws.

  • New DOJ Penalty Policy Could Spell Trouble For Cos.

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    In light of the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently published guidance making victim relief a core condition of coordinated resolution crediting, companies facing parallel investigations must carefully calibrate their negotiation strategies to minimize the risk of duplicative penalties, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • IPR Decisions Clarify Stewart's 'Settled Expectations' Factor

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    Recent discretionary denial decisions from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acting Director Coke Morgan Stewart have begun to illuminate the contours of her "settled expectations" doctrine, informing when it might be worth petitioning for inter partes review if the patent at issue has been in force for a few years, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Mulling Worker Reclassification In Light Of No Tax On OT

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    The One Big Beautiful Bill Act's no-tax-on-overtime provisions provide tax relief for employees who regularly work overtime and are nonexempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, but reclassifying employees may lead to higher compliance costs and increased wage and hour litigation for employers, says Steve Bronars at Edgeworth Economics.

  • Clean Energy Tax Changes Cut Timelines, Add Red Tape

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    With its dramatic changes to energy tax credits, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will reshape project financing and investment planning — and wind and solar developers, especially those in the early stages of projects, face stricter timelines and heightened compliance challenges, says Dan Ruth at Balch & Bingham.

  • 5 Consumer Protection Compliance Issues In NY State Budget

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    Companies that engage with New York consumers should promptly familiarize themselves with new state budget provisions that require finance and retail companies to make certain business practices more transparent and easier for customers to execute, say attorneys at Mintz.

  • Balancing The Promises And Perils Of Tokenizing Securities

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    Tokenizing listed securities offers the promise of greater efficiency, accessibility and innovation, but a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission statement makes clear that the federal securities laws continue to apply to tokenized securities, so financial institutions and technology developers must work together to create clear rules, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • How To Increase 3rd-Party Preissuance Patent Submissions

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    Attorneys Marian Underweiser and Marc Ehrlich, who helped draft the America Invents Act, discuss changes that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could potentially implement to facilitate its hopes for increased participation in front-end patent challenges.

  • How Cos. In China Can Tailor Compliance Amid FCPA Shifts

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s recently updated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement guidelines create a fluid business environment for companies operating in China that will require a customized compliance approach to navigate both countries’ corporate and legal systems, say attorneys at Dickinson Wright.

  • 7 Ways Employers Can Avoid Labor Friction Over AI

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    As artificial intelligence use in the workplace emerges as a key labor relations topic in the U.S. and Europe, employers looking to reduce reputational risk and prevent costly disputes should consider proactive strategies to engage with unions, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • Open Banking Is On Ice As CFPB Seeks To Toss Its Own Rule

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    Even as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's efforts to toss its open banking rule play out in Kentucky federal court, it remains statutorily required to effectuate consumer access to data, raising questions about how it would replace the previously finalized standard, say attorneys at Cooley.

  • SEC, FINRA Obligations In Changing AI Regulatory Landscape

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    Despite the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent withdrawal of its proposed artificial intelligence conflict rules, financial regulators remain focused on firms developing the correct AI compliance framework, as well as continuously testing and supervising them to ensure they're fit for purpose, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Trump Air Emissions Carveouts Cloud The Regulatory Picture

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    President Donald Trump's new proclamations temporarily exempting key U.S. industries from air toxics standards, issued under a narrow, rarely-used provision of the Clean Air Act, will likely lead to legal challenges and tighter standards in some states, contributing to further regulatory uncertainty, say attorneys at GableGotwals.

  • Opinion

    DOJ's HPE-Juniper Settlement Will Help US Compete

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    The U.S. Department of Justice settlement with Hewlett Packard Enterprise clears the purchase of Juniper Networks in a deal that positions the U.S. as a leader in secure, scalable networking and critical digital infrastructure by requiring the divestiture of a WiFi network business geared toward small firms, says John Shu at Taipei Medical University.

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