Public Policy

  • September 08, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Trump Donor's Tax, Foreign Agent Convictions

    A venture capitalist whose 12-year prison term for evading taxes and making illegal campaign contributions through foreign clients was commuted by President Donald Trump did not plead guilty to the crimes involuntarily, the Ninth Circuit found in affirming his convictions, rejecting his claim that his attorney hid information from him.

  • September 08, 2025

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    Last week at the Delaware Court of Chancery, a bankruptcy administrator for a generic drugmaker formerly known as Teligent was told he can proceed with duty of oversight claims against most former officers and directors of the company, who the administrator said was complicit in the company's collapse. In an opinion, the Court of Chancery cites its 1996 decision In re Caremark International Inc. Derivative Litigation, which refined director duties of care and oversight.

  • September 08, 2025

    Most Criminal Summonses In NYC Get Tossed, Study Finds

    The vast majority of criminal summonses issued in New York City get dismissed in court, usually due to insufficiency of the information police officers provide in them, and they are issued disproportionately more to Black and Hispanic people, according to a study of official data released Monday.

  • September 08, 2025

    Conn. Tax Atty Wants Full Appeals Court To Rethink Her Firing

    Connecticut's former tax legal director has asked the full Connecticut Appellate Court to reconsider an appellate panel's ruling that found her firing was proper after she used her work computer to send unauthorized draft legislation to a lobbyist, arguing that as a case of first impression it is important for the full court to weigh in.

  • September 08, 2025

    Appeal Limited To NJ US Atty DQ Ruling, 3rd Circ. Told

    The federal government and defense counsel have agreed that the scope of a Third Circuit appeal is limited to the disqualification of New Jersey Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba from overseeing two cases.

  • September 08, 2025

    Dems Again Ask NY Ethics Body To Investigate Bove

    Two Democratic senators filed an updated ethics complaint with the New York State Courts' attorney ethics body against recently confirmed Third Circuit Judge Emil Bove, citing what they called his "quid pro quo deal" to drop criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams and other alleged ethical violations.

  • September 08, 2025

    NC High Court Snapshot: Pot Smell Test, Atty's Divorce Feud

    North Carolina's top court will return from its summer hiatus in September to address whether law enforcement can rely on the smell of marijuana alone in the age of legalized hemp to justify a warrantless search. Here are some highlights of the high court's September lineup.

  • September 08, 2025

    Idaho Developer Looks To Defend $2B Gold Mine Project

    The developer of a proposed $2 billion Idaho gold mine wants to intervene in a tribe's challenge that looks to block the project, saying it has already invested more than $400 million in the endeavor and has an interest in developing and moving the effort forward without delay.

  • September 08, 2025

    Tracking The Copyright Fights Between Creators And AI Cos.

    In the three years since ChatGPT burst onto the scene, artificial intelligence developers like OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic have faced dozens of lawsuits accusing them of infringing the intellectual property of authors, artists, news organizations and the like.

  • September 08, 2025

    FCC Ready To Kick Off Review Of Cox-Charter Deal

    The Federal Communications Commission has set into motion its public interest review of the $34.5 billion deal to combine Charter Communications Inc. and Cox Communications into a powerhouse offering broadband, video and mobile services.

  • September 08, 2025

    Lawmakers Push To Finalize Tribal Water Rights Settlements

    A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging congressional leaders to make a move on several tribal water rights settlement bills that are pending before the U.S. Senate, saying that doing so will prevent costly litigation and ensure tribes and others have access to water.

  • September 08, 2025

    Ex-Judge Says Wash. DA, Court Sabotaged Election Bid

    A Washington state attorney and former pro tem judge in Seattle has filed a lawsuit alleging she was racially discriminated against when a county prosecutor's office had her disqualified from hearing cases due to rulings she made from the bench.

  • September 08, 2025

    Pa. Bill Aims To Stop Reassessments For Small Improvements

    Pennsylvania would allow small property improvements without the trigger of a reassessment under a bill introduced in the state Senate. 

  • September 08, 2025

    Justices Let ICE Raids Continue In LA Without Restrictions

    A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Monday lifted a temporary injunction on indiscriminate immigration stops in Los Angeles, after a lower court ruled in July that racial traits alone such as appearance and accent are not enough to question individuals.

  • September 08, 2025

    Chief Justice Pauses FTC Commissioner's Reinstatement

    Chief Justice John Roberts issued an order Monday temporarily staying the reinstatement of Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter while the Trump administration fights to bring a case challenging her removal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • September 08, 2025

    Trump Loses 2nd Circ. Appeal Of $83M Carroll Verdict

    A Second Circuit panel on Monday upheld an $83.3 million award against President Donald Trump for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in 2019 in the wake of her sexual assault allegations, rejecting his claims of presidential immunity.

  • September 07, 2025

    Stewart Says New Patent Policies Aim To Bring Stability

    Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart said Sunday that new patent review policies the office has implemented are aimed at making the patent system more stable, saying that in her view, repeated patent challenges can result in "the antithesis of stability."

  • September 05, 2025

    SEC Lost Year's Worth Of Gary Gensler Texts, Watchdog Says

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made "avoidable errors" that caused the agency to lose all text messages sent and received by former chair Gary Gensler for nearly a year of his tenure, some of which haven't been recovered, according to a report from the SEC's Office of Inspector General.

  • September 05, 2025

    DC Circ. Won't Halt Order Releasing Billions In Foreign Aid

    Both a divided D.C. Circuit panel and a district court judge Friday refused to hit pause on the judge's recent order requiring the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in frozen foreign aid.

  • September 05, 2025

    Feds Say Supreme Court Trumps 9th Circ.'s UC Grant Ruling

    The Trump administration has urged the Ninth Circuit to reconsider a panel decision that upheld an order to reinstate University of California research grants terminated by the White House, saying the U.S. Supreme Court subsequently contradicted the panel's holding in a "materially identical" case.

  • September 05, 2025

    Stewart Tackles Markets, Injunctions In Newest PTAB Reviews

    Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart released 14 institution decisions in the last week, providing more insight on the scope of settled expectations and the impact of a district court preliminary injunction.

  • September 05, 2025

    Trump Admin Says Enviro Groups Can't Block GHG Report

    The Trump administration has told a Massachusetts federal judge that a lawsuit challenging its formation of a climate change science advisory panel is a misguided ploy to undermine the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's impending reconsideration of the harms of greenhouse gases.

  • September 05, 2025

    Temu Hit With $2M Penalty In FTC's 1st INFORM Act Case

    The operator of Chinese e-commerce platform Temu has agreed to pay $2 million to resolve the Federal Trade Commission's inaugural enforcement action under the INFORM Consumers Act, which requires online marketplaces to provide customers with certain information and tools to combat counterfeit goods offered by high-volume third-party sellers. 

  • September 05, 2025

    Trump Plan For Nat'l Guard In Chicago Sparks Legal Concerns

    President Donald Trump's plan to send the National Guard to Chicago over the objections of Illinois' governor could face similar legal hurdles as his use of the military in Los Angeles to quell protests over immigration raids, with some experts and local officials suggesting he may try to use an impending immigration crackdown in the city to justify a similar deployment.

  • September 05, 2025

    Democrat Slaughter Asks Justices To Let Her Stay On FTC

    Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday not to pause her reinstatement while the Trump administration challenges lower court decisions holding that her firing was illegal, saying those decisions were plainly correct and she's in no danger of sowing "chaos."

Expert Analysis

  • Stablecoin Bills Present Opportunities, Challenges For Banks

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    Stablecoin legislation that Congress is expected to adopt in the coming weeks — the GENIUS and STABLE Acts — would create openings for banks to engage in digital asset activities, but it also creates a platform for certain tech-savvy nonbanks to directly compete, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • New FCPA Guidance May Flip The Whistleblowing Script

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s updated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act guidelines lay out a new incentive structure that may put multinational U.S.-based companies in an unusual offensive whistleblowing position, potentially spurring them to conduct external investigations of their foreign rivals, says Markus Funk at Perkins Coie.

  • Opinion

    GENIUS Act Could Muck Up Insolvency Proceedings

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    While some of the so-called GENIUS Act's insolvency provisions are straightforward, others run the risk of jeopardizing the success of stablecoin issuers' insolvency proceedings and warrant another look from Congress, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • A Look At Florida's New Protected Series LLC Legislation

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    A new law in Florida enhances the flexibility of using limited liability companies as the entities of choice for most privately held businesses, moving Florida into a small group of states with reliable uniform protected series legislation for series LLCs, says Louis Conti at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter saw California become a more active protector of consumers in response to federal regulatory pullback, with regulators proposing a licensing framework for digital asset businesses, ending an enforcement exemption and otherwise signaling further expansions of oversight and enforcement, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    New USPTO Leadership Must Address Low-Quality Patents

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    With John Squires in line to become the new director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the agency has an opportunity to refocus its mission on prioritizing quality in patent examination and taking a harsher stance against low-quality patents and patent trolls, says Jill Crosby at Engine Advocacy & Foundation.

  • Harmonized Int'l Framework May Boost Advanced Aircraft

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    International differences in the certification process for advanced air mobility aircraft make the current framework insufficient — but U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy's recent announcement of a standards harmonization effort may help promote these innovative aviation technologies, while maintaining safety, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Capital One Deal Approval Lights Up Path For Bank M&A

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    The federal banking regulators' recent approval of Capital One's acquisition of Discover signals the agencies' willingness to approve large transactions and a more favorable environment generally for bank mergers under the Trump administration, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Bills' Defeat Means Brighter Outlook For Texas Renewables

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    The failure of a trio of bills from the recently concluded Texas legislative session that would have imposed new burdens on wind, solar and battery storage projects bodes well for a state with rapidly growing energy needs, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Opinion

    State Bars Must Probe Misconduct Claims, Even If It's The AG

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    The Florida Bar’s recent refusal to look into misconduct allegations against Attorney General Pam Bondi is dangerous for the rule of law, and other lawyer disciplinary bodies must be prepared to investigate credible claims of ethical lapses against any lawyer, no matter their position, say attorneys James Kobak and Albert Feuer.

  • New FCPA Guidance Creates 5 Compliance Imperatives

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    In light of new Foreign Corrupt Practices Act guidelines that mark a fundamental shift in enforcement priorities, companies should consider several specific steps to ensure compliance, from enhanced due diligence to robust whistleblower protections, says Andrew Wirmani at Reese Marketos.

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