Public Policy

  • March 05, 2025

    NYC Can't Recoup $80M In FEMA Funds From Trump, For Now

    A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday refused to order the Trump administration to immediately return over $80.4 million in funds allocated to New York City to defray the costs of sheltering migrants, after the Biden-era money was clawed back without notice.

  • March 05, 2025

    Jury Mulling Judge's Murder Trial Hears More Arguments

    With jury deliberations in the murder trial of a California judge who fatally shot his wife stretching into their sixth day Wednesday, the presiding judge allowed the prosecution and defense to make additional arguments addressing the jury's question about the willfulness requirement for second-degree murder.

  • March 05, 2025

    PTAB Bar Urges Congress, Lutnick To Protect USPTO Workers

    The PTAB Bar Association is calling on intellectual property leaders in Congress, along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to spare the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from Trump administration initiatives to freeze hiring and require in-person work.

  • March 05, 2025

    Army To Disinter 19 Students From Boarding School Cemetery

    The Office of Army Cemeteries says it will honor the requests of three Oklahoma tribes and disinter the remains of 19 Indigenous children from a cemetery at the site of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

  • March 05, 2025

    Big City Mayors Testify Sanctuary Policies Keep Citizens Safe

    The mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City were grilled by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday during a daylong, oft-contentious hearing in which the city leaders were repeatedly interrupted by Republicans as they defended their cities' policies towards immigrants.

  • March 05, 2025

    MSPB Temporarily Reinstates Fired Agriculture Dept. Workers

    The Merit Systems Protection Board stayed the firings of over 5,600 probationary employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday, ordering the employees back to work while the U.S. Office of the Special Counsel continues investigating whether the dismissals were a prohibited personnel practice.

  • March 05, 2025

    Arizona's 15-Week Abortion Ban Blocked As Unconstitutional

    An Arizona state judge on Wednesday ruled that the state's abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy is "unconstitutional" and cannot be enforced.

  • March 05, 2025

    Los Angeles County Sues SoCal Edison Over Eaton Fire

    Los Angeles County joined the many dozens suing Southern California Edison over the devastating Eaton Fire on Wednesday, as the most populous county in the United States alleges in its lawsuit that the utility's faulty equipment caused the destructive blaze.

  • March 05, 2025

    Contractors Claim Constitutional Injury In USAID Cuts

    A group representing U.S. citizen personal services contractors working for the U.S. Agency for International Development insisted before a D.C. federal judge on Wednesday that their challenge to the Trump administration's dismantling of the humanitarian agency differs from another brought by workers employed directly by USAID.

  • March 05, 2025

    Agri Stats Wants Another Shot At DOJ Specifics

    Agri Stats is continuing to ask a Minnesota federal court to force the U.S. Department of Justice to identify specific data fields in the company's industry reports that allegedly allow chicken, pork and turkey producers to exchange competitively sensitive information.

  • March 05, 2025

    'Hot Damn' To FCC Taking On Pole Cost Fixes, Cable Biz Says

    A Republican on the Federal Communications Commission told cable leaders Wednesday it should be a key FCC priority to reform cost sharing rules for upgrading utility poles to accommodate broadband equipment.

  • March 05, 2025

    FCC Could Weigh Network Options To Back Up GPS

    The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote this month on whether to dig deeper into proposals to set aside spectrum for an Earth-based broadband network and backup to the Global Positioning System.

  • March 05, 2025

    Mining Co. Says Colombia Still Owes On $8.9M Award

    A British mining and metals company has brought an $8.9 million arbitral award it won against Colombia following a dispute over nickel mining royalties to federal court in Washington, D.C., arguing that the country has only paid a fraction of the amount due.

  • March 05, 2025

    Black Colo. Homeowner Joins DOJ's Race Bias Refi Suit

    A Denver homeowner joined the federal government in its suit accusing Rocket Mortgage LLC and other parties in Colorado federal court of deliberately undervaluing her home because she's a Black woman.

  • March 05, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Arizona's Wine Retailer Law Challenge

    Arizona isn't being discriminatory by requiring companies that want to ship alcohol to people's homes to have a business location in the state, the Ninth Circuit has declared in a split ruling that upheld the state's win against a challenge to the law laying down that mandate.

  • March 05, 2025

    Feds Urge Justices To Allow Nuke Waste Storage In Texas

    The federal government on Wednesday told U.S. Supreme Court justices that the Fifth Circuit wrongly inserted itself into the debate over U.S. nuclear waste policy by nixing federal approval for a temporary storage facility in Texas.

  • March 05, 2025

    GOP Bid To Nix CFPB Payment Oversight Rule Clears Senate

    The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed a measure to nullify the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Biden-era digital payments supervision rule, advancing a Republican effort to block the agency from exercising greater oversight of big payment app providers.

  • March 05, 2025

    Lawmakers Trade Blame For BEAD Program Delays

    House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blamed the other side during a congressional hearing Wednesday for mounting delays in the $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, as the Trump administration pledged to undertake a "rigorous review" that Democrats said would only slow things further.

  • March 05, 2025

    Bezos' Satellite Co. Drops Docs Fight With His Newspaper

    Jeff Bezos' satellite company has ended a public records fight with the Bezos-owned Washington Post over Washington state labor department workplace investigation records, after both sides agreed on blacking out some details to shield trade secrets.

  • March 05, 2025

    Foreign Officials Aiding Illegal Migration To Face Visa Ban

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions Wednesday, saying any foreign officials — including immigration, customs and port authorities — who knowingly facilitate illegal immigration into the U.S. will be subject to the policy.

  • March 05, 2025

    Enviro, Transit Groups Back NY In Congestion Pricing Battle

    Transit and environmental advocates have sought to join the legal fight to preserve New York City's congestion pricing, saying the Trump administration is using dubious rationale to justify terminating federal approval for the program when the decision was actually driven by political animus.

  • March 05, 2025

    Texas A&M Group Sues To Bring Back Canceled Drag Show

    A Texas A&M University student group that planned to host a drag show fundraiser later this month sued the university system on Wednesday over a recently enacted policy banning drag performances on its campuses based on an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.

  • March 05, 2025

    GSA Publishes, Then Pulls List Of Properties It Could Dispose

    The U.S. General Services Administration on Wednesday removed a list of 440 properties that it considered inessential and said warranted disposal — including several courthouses and buildings used as headquarters for various agencies — the day after announcing it had identified them as "non-core assets."

  • March 05, 2025

    Trump EPA Nominees Grilled On Climate Change Views

    President Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's air office repeatedly told Democratic senators that humans must adapt to climate change, but declined to wade into policy specifics during a nomination hearing Wednesday.

  • March 05, 2025

    DC Judge Skeptical Of Trump's Power To Oust NLRB Member

    A Washington, D.C., federal judge hearing a former National Labor Relations Board member's challenge to her January removal appeared Wednesday to buy the fired official's side of a closely watched debate over the vitality of foundational U.S. Supreme Court law on the president's power over independent agencies.

Expert Analysis

  • High Court Could Further Limit Deference With TCPA Fax Case

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    The Supreme Court's decision to hear McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, a case involving alleged junk faxes that centers whether district courts are bound by Federal Communications Commission rules, offers the court a chance to possibly further limit the judicial deference afforded to federal agency interpretations of statutes, says Samantha Duke at Rumberger Kirk.

  • Politicized OIGs Could Target Federal Employees, Contractors

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    After President Donald Trump fired nearly 20 inspectors general last week, it’s worth exploring how the administration could use Offices of Inspectors General to target federal employees and contractors, why it would be difficult to fight this effort, and one possible bulwark against the politicization of these watchdogs, says Sara Kropf at Kropf Moseley.

  • Future Of Crypto-Asset Classification Is In 2nd Circ.'s Hands

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    A definitive ruling from the Second Circuit in a rare interlocutory appeal in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's ongoing court battle with Coinbase could finally establish clear guidelines on the classification of digital assets, influencing how they are regulated and traded in the U.S., say attorneys at Manatt.

  • 5 Ways To Create Effective Mock Assignments For Associates

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    In order to effectively develop associates’ critical thinking skills, firms should design mock assignments that contain a few key ingredients, from messy fact patterns to actionable feedback, says Abdi Shayesteh at AltaClaro.

  • Overseas Investment Rule Calls For Compliance Caution

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    Investors should be leery of who and what they are investing in now that the federal outbound investment regime, effective Jan. 2, has extended the governement's regulatory reach to businesses and parties not previously subject to trade restrictions, says Thaddeus McBride at Bass Berry.

  • Opinion

    Revised Fla. Rules Of Civil Procedure Will Modernize Litigation

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    The landmark amendments to the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure that took effect on Jan. 1 may require significant adjustments to practice and case management approaches, but the changes should ultimately reduce the cost and burden of modern litigation, and foster a more efficient and equitable justice system, says retired Florida state judge Ralph Artigliere.

  • Assessing Gary Gensler's Legacy At The SEC

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    Gary Gensler's tenure as U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair is defined by a record of commonsense regulation in some areas and social activism in others, and by increasing judicial skepticism about the SEC's authority to fulfill its regulatory, enforcement, administrative law and adjudicatory functions, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Opinion

    Legal Personhood Can Give Natural Entities Their Day In Court

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    Granting legal personhood to natural entities like the River Thames, or vulnerable species like the Pacific bearded seal and Arctic ringed seal, could protect them from ecological threats and the vagaries of politics, and help us transform our relationship with nature, says Sachin Nandha at the International Centre for Sustainability.

  • 5 Factors From Biden's Final Worker Antitrust Guidelines

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    The recent Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice's joint antitrust guidelines for business activities affecting workers cap a flurry of final announcements from the Biden administration, but it's unclear whether the agencies will maintain their support for these measures in the Trump administration, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • Calif. Cannabis Decision Deepens Commerce Clause Divide

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    In Peridot Tree v. Sacramento, the Eastern District of California joined a growing minority of courts that have found the dormant commerce clause inapplicable to state-regulated marijuana, and the Ninth Circuit will soon provide important guidance on this issue, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Takeaways From DOJ Fraud Section's 2024 Year In Review

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    Attorneys at Paul Weiss highlight notable developments in the U.S. Department of Justice Fraud Section’s recently released annual report, and discuss what the second Trump administration could mean for enforcement in the year to come.

  • 4 Employment Law Areas Set To Change Under Trump

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    President Donald Trump's second term is expected to bring significant changes to the U.S. employment law landscape, including the potential for updated worker classification regulations, and challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion that are already taking shape, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Recent Suits Show Antitrust Agencies' Focus On HSR Review

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's suit this month against KKR for inaccurate and incomplete premerger filings, along with other recent cases, highlights the agency's increasing scrutiny of Hart-Scott-Rodino Act compliance for private equity firms, say attorneys at Willkie.

  • The 7th Circ.'s Top 10 Civil Opinions Of 2024

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    Attorneys at Jenner & Block examine the most significant decisions issued by the Seventh Circuit in 2024, and explain how they may affect issues related to mass arbitration, consumer fraud, class certification and more.

  • Insurance Considerations For LA Wildfire Recovery

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    Businesses and homeowners affected by the destructive Southern California wildfires must act swiftly and strategically to navigate the complexities of the insurance recovery process, including by identifying all applicable policies, documenting damage thoroughly and keeping abreast of relevant state law, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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