Public Policy

  • March 12, 2025

    ND Lawmakers OK Recommending Tribal Land Taxation Study

    North Dakota would direct state lawmakers to consider studying issues related to the taxation of land owned by enrolled tribal members who reside on Native American reservations under a bill passed by the state Legislative Assembly and headed to the governor.

  • March 12, 2025

    NY Judge Tees Up Bail, Venue Fights For Columbia Activist

    A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday ordered expedited briefing on whether a Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student who was arrested on Saturday should be granted bail pending his release petition, and on where the case belongs, saying there's "some need for speed here."

  • March 12, 2025

    DOL Escapes Writers' Suit Over Contractor Rule, For Now

    A Tennessee federal judge tossed a suit from two freelance writers seeking to block the U.S. Department of Labor's new rule regulating whether workers are independent contractors or employees under federal law, saying the writers can't show that the regulation would hurt their career opportunities.

  • March 11, 2025

    Payday Lenders Want One More High Court Bout With CFPB

    Payday lender groups have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to again take up their challenge to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule finalized during President Donald Trump's first term, this time seeking an appeal focused on the rule's allegedly "tainted" origin.

  • March 11, 2025

    Feds Unsure When It Can Resume Refugee Program

    A "deterioration of functions" in the federal government's refugee program means the U.S. Department of State can't currently tell how long it will take to restore the program under a recent order in Washington federal court, the Trump administration informed the court.

  • March 11, 2025

    DOGE Must Quickly Cough Up Records To Watchdog Group

    A D.C. federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency to promptly hand over requested records on its role in mass firings and "dramatic disruptions" to federal programs to a watchdog group, finding that the public will likely be "irreparably harmed" if DOGE keeps dragging its feet.

  • March 11, 2025

    Dems Rip Trump's 'Sham' Invasion Claim As Power Grab

    Democratic lawmakers led by the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded on Tuesday that President Donald Trump rescind his Jan. 20 proclamation promising states "protection against invasion" by migrants, arguing that Trump is illegally using the "sham" claim of invasion as a pretext to expand executive power unconstitutionally.

  • March 11, 2025

    NJ Justices Say NY Doc Can't Be On Med Mal Verdict Form

    The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that an anesthesiologist accused of causing a patient's death during surgery can't have the verdict sheet at the upcoming trial apportion blame to a New York doctor who was never named as a party in the suit.

  • March 11, 2025

    USPTO Acting Director To Review Bitcoin, Railway Patents

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's current acting director made some of her first moves wading into patent board rulings, deciding last week to take a closer look at two board decisions involving blockchain mines and railway signs.

  • March 11, 2025

    Conn. Judge Puzzled By Agency's 'Flip-Flop' On Rehab Permit

    A Connecticut appellate judge said Tuesday that a state agency's recommendation to reject a residential substance use treatment facility in the town of Kent, followed by its "flip-flop" to approve the plan without any changes to the underlying facts, "truly puzzles me."

  • March 11, 2025

    Trump Admin Shutters EPA's Enviro Justice Office

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday dissolved its more than 30-year-old environmental justice and civil rights office, the latest in a string of EPA actions targeting efforts to ease pollution burdens on historically disadvantaged communities.

  • March 11, 2025

    Insurer Says It's Off The Hook For Pay Transparency Suit

    Houston Casualty Co. said Tuesday that its liability insurance policy does not cover an underlying lawsuit accusing a Washington company that owns McDonald's franchises of violating the state's pay transparency law for job postings.

  • March 11, 2025

    Perkins Coie Slams Trump's Executive Order Retaliation

    Perkins Coie LLP sued the Trump administration Tuesday over an executive order targeting the firm for its diversity-focused hiring efforts and its representation of certain political figures including former Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, calling the order "an affront to the Constitution" that aims to chill future representation of certain clients.

  • March 11, 2025

    'Congress Never Came Up' In CFPB Firing Talks, Worker Says

    A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employee recounted before a D.C. federal judge on Tuesday a frantic effort to fire 1,200 agency staffers before a court order halted it, saying the prospect of first securing congressional approval was never mentioned.

  • March 11, 2025

    Pharmacies To Appeal In Bid To Keep Making Weight Loss Drug

    A group of compounding pharmacies said Monday they would appeal to the Fifth Circuit after a Texas federal judge denied an injunction that would allow compounding pharmacies to produce a lucrative weight loss drug.

  • March 11, 2025

    NTSB Flags Helicopters Near DCA As 'Intolerable Risk'

    The National Transportation Safety Board recommended Tuesday that helicopter flights near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport be permanently restricted following January's deadly midair collision over the Potomac River, saying helicopter traffic in the vicinity of a key airport runway poses an "intolerable risk to aviation safety."

  • March 11, 2025

    Trade Court Affirms Use Of Indian Data For Catfish Duties

    The U.S. Court of International Trade upheld the Department of Commerce's decision to use Indian data over Indonesian data to determine antidumping duties for Vietnamese catfish, despite protests to the contrary from the Catfish Farmers of America.

  • March 11, 2025

    Utilities Want FCC To Clarify TCPA Prior Consent Rule

    Power utilities asked the Federal Communications Commission to clarify that federal law allows companies to contact customers about participating in company demand management programs, particularly by calling and texting customers during peak load periods encouraging them to shift energy consumption to nonpeak times.

  • March 11, 2025

    Hedge Fund Group Sends SEC Its Regulatory Wish List

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should reevaluate rules that impose "significant, unjustified costs and burdens on investors and other market participants with little to no corresponding benefits," the Managed Funds Association said in a letter to the regulator Tuesday.

  • March 11, 2025

    NJ Residents Push To Repackage Contaminated Water Claims

    Residents of National Park, New Jersey, asked a state appellate court panel for permission to revive and amend their proposed class claims over contaminated water, arguing Tuesday that the allegations are a matter for tort law, not contract law.

  • March 11, 2025

    Judge Rules Tribal Immunity Bars Minn. Casino Lawsuit

    A federal district court judge on Tuesday dismissed a challenge by a commercial casino and horse racetrack operator that claimed several Minnesota tribal entities are illegally dominating the state's gambling industry through Class III gaming.

  • March 11, 2025

    Feds Push Back On Enviro Orgs., Tribes In Yellowstone Bison Case

    The Interior Department is asking a federal court to reconsider orders that allowed environmental groups to intervene and add two more federal agencies as necessary parties to a challenge over the management of the bison population in Yellowstone National Park, arguing the move is an attempt to hijack the litigation.

  • March 11, 2025

    NY's Banking Regulator Hangs 'Help Wanted' Sign In DC

    At a Washington, D.C., appearance on Tuesday, New York's top financial services regulator Adrienne Harris had a message for the legions of federal financial agency employees who have been cut loose by the Trump administration in recent weeks: She's hiring.

  • March 11, 2025

    EPA Officially Cuts $20B In Funding For Climate Projects

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday canceled $20 billion in congressionally approved grant funding for climate change projects that it had frozen for weeks and criticized as wasteful and out of step with the Trump administration's priorities.

  • March 11, 2025

    Trump, Ontario Back Down After Two-Day Trade Flare-Up

    President Donald Trump called off additional tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum Tuesday after the Ontario government dropped a briefly imposed surcharge on electricity exports, the White House told Law360 on Tuesday evening. 

Expert Analysis

  • What To Expect In Crypto Banking After SEC Nixed Guidance

    Author Photo

    With the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently rescinding its controversial cryptocurrency accounting guidance, the industry's focus will turn to the potentially significant hurdle to crypto banking posed by the federal banking regulators, say attorneys at Duane Morris.

  • Antitrust In Retail: Rude Awakening For FTC In Tempur Sealy

    Author Photo

    A Texas federal court's recent denial of a Federal Trade Commision order to stop a giant mattress merger because of lack of evidence on market segments shows that such definitions are only a viable path for regulating vertical mergers if antitrust agencies provide adequate documentation, says David Kully at Holland & Knight.

  • Fund Names Rule FAQs Leave Some Interpretative Uncertainty

    Author Photo

    Although recently released FAQs clarify many specific points of the 2023 expansion to the Investment Company Act's fund names rule, important questions remain about how U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff will interpret other key terms when the end-of-year compliance date arrives, say attorneys at Dechert.

  • How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work

    Author Photo

    Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.

  • Justices' Certiorari Denial Leaves Interstate Tax Questions

    Author Photo

    Since the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to review a Philadelphia resident’s claim that her Delaware state income taxes should be credited against her city wage tax liabilities, constitutional questions about state and local tax distinctions linger, and some states may continue to apply Supreme Court precedent differently, say attorneys at Dentons.

  • The Fate Of Biden-Era Clinical Study Guidance Under Trump

    Author Photo

    Draft guidance about the study of sex and gender differences in medical product development issued by the outgoing Biden administration currently faces significant uncertainty and litigation potential due to the Trump administration's executive orders and other actions, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Biden-Era M&A Data Shows Continuity, Not Revolution

    Author Photo

    While the federal antitrust agencies under former President Joe Biden made broad claims about increasing merger enforcement activity, the data tells a different story, with key claims under Biden coming in at the lowest levels in decades, say attorneys at Covington.

  • What Travis Hill's Vision For FDIC Could Portend For Banks

    Author Photo

    If selected to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in a permanent capacity, acting Chairman Travis Hill is likely to prioritize removing barriers to innovation and institution-level growth, emphasizing the idea that eliminating rules, relaxing standards and reducing scrutiny will reinvigorate the industry, say attorneys at Mitchell Sandler.

  • 10 Issues To Watch In Aerospace And Defense Contracting

    Author Photo

    This year, in addition to evergreen developments driven by national security priorities, disruptive new technologies and competition with rival powers, federal contractors will see significant disruptions driven by the new administration’s efforts to reduce government spending, regulation and the size of the federal workforce, say attorneys at Thompson Hine.

  • Will Independent Federal Agencies Remain Independent?

    Author Photo

    For 90 years, members of multimember independent federal agencies have relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1935 ruling in Humphrey's Executor v. U.S. establishing the security of their positions — but as the Trump administration attempts to overturn this understanding, it is unclear how the high court will respond, says Harvey Reiter at Stinson.

  • High Court Sentencing Case Presents Legal Fork In The Road

    Author Photo

    On Feb. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Esteras v. U.S. about the factors trial courts may consider when imposing a sentence of imprisonment after revoking supervised release, and the justices’ eventual decision may prioritize either discretion or originalism, says Michael Freedman at The Freedman Firm.

  • 5 Major Crypto Developments From The Trump Admin So Far

    Author Photo

    The early weeks of the Trump administration have set the stage for a significant transformation in U.S. digital asset policy by prioritizing regulatory clarity, innovation and a shift away from enforcement-heavy tactics, but many of these changes will require congressional support and progress may be gradual, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Compliance Pointers For DOJ's Sweeping Data Security Rule

    Author Photo

    A new Justice Department rule broadly restricts many common data transactions with the goal of preventing access by countries of concern, and with an effective date of April 8, U.S. companies must quickly assess practices related to employee, customer and vendor data, says Sam Castic at Hintze Law.

  • Opinion

    Admin Change May Help Reduce PTAB Invalidation Rates

    Author Photo

    It is not good for the U.S. patent system that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board finds all challenged claims to be unpatentable 70% of the time — but new leadership at the Commerce Department and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may foster pro-patent policies and provide some relief, says Stephen Schreiner at Carmichael IP.

  • What To Expect From The New FCC Chair

    Author Photo

    As a vocal critic of the Federal Communications Commission's recent priorities, newly appointed chair Brendan Carr has described a vision for the agency that would bring significant changes to telecommunication regulation and Telephone Consumer Protection Act enforcement in the U.S., say attorneys at BCLP.

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.
Hello! I'm Law360's automated support bot.

How can I help you today?

For example, you can type:
  • I forgot my password
  • I took a free trial but didn't get a verification email
  • How do I sign up for a newsletter?
Ask a question!