Public Policy

  • January 10, 2025

    Treasury Floats Rules For Commercial Green Vehicle Credits

    The U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service proposed rules Friday for obtaining tax credits for commercial green vehicles under provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, suggesting ways for determining the credit amount and identifying which vehicles are eligible.

  • January 10, 2025

    DHS Adds Romania To Visa Waiver Program

    U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas on Friday designated Romania as a participant in the visa waiver program, allowing most Romanian citizens to travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa. 

  • January 10, 2025

    Advocates Press For Renewed Broadband Subsidy Bill

    A public interest group on Friday pushed the new Congress to renew a broadband subsidy for low-income households that ran out of money last year.

  • January 10, 2025

    DHS Extends Temporary Protections For 4 Countries

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security extended the temporary protected status for El Salvador, Venezuela, Sudan and Ukraine on Friday for 18 months, citing a wide array of humanitarian conditions in the countries that prevent individuals from safely returning.

  • January 10, 2025

    DOJ Sues To Block Amex GBT's $570M Deal For Rival CWT

    The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to block American Express Global Business Travel Inc.'s planned $570 million acquisition of corporate travel management rival CWT Holdings LLC.

  • January 10, 2025

    Trump Avoids Jail As Judge Points To Presidential Status

    A New York state judge on Friday spared President-elect Donald Trump any incarceration for his 34-count felony hush money conviction, citing the changed legal landscape, which affords the chief executive with "extraordinary legal protections."

  • January 09, 2025

    Fox Corp. Can't Ax Smartmatic's Defamation Suit, Panel Says

    Fox Corp. will have to face a defamation claim in voting technology company Smartmatic's $2.7 billion lawsuit alleging the media company exercised control over allegedly harmful news coverage during the 2020 presidential election, a New York state appellate court ruled Thursday.

  • January 09, 2025

    Tort Report: Philadelphia Tops Annual 'Judicial Hellhole' List

    Philadelphia's designation by a tort reform group as a top "judicial hellhole" and the nation's largest medical malpractice verdict ever lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

  • January 09, 2025

    CFPB Bars Ex-Agency Attys From Revived Innovation Policies

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has said it will not consider applications for its rebooted no-action letter and compliance sandbox policies when those applications are submitted by financial service companies represented by former bureau attorneys as outside counsel.

  • January 09, 2025

    Target Brass Face Derivative Suit Over DEI Fallout

    Target Corp.'s executives and directors have been hit with a shareholder derivative suit in Florida federal court alleging that the company's diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and its offerings of LGBTQ+ merchandise harmed investors.

  • January 09, 2025

    Texas Hits TikTok With Another Suit Over Child-Online Safety

    Texas hit TikTok with another lawsuit in the Lone Star State court following similar consumer protection suits, accusing the social media giant — which is facing a ban in the U.S. — of deceptively marketing its purportedly addictive app as safe for minors despite letting explicit material run rampant on the platform.

  • January 09, 2025

    Wash. Seeks To Ease Legal Practice Path For Military Spouses

    Washington's state courts are considering rule changes to make it easier for attorneys married to military members and graduates of law schools not accredited by the American Bar Association to practice law in the state, part of a series of moves to reduce barriers to the legal profession.

  • January 09, 2025

    CFPB Hit With 2nd Suit Over Medical Debt Reporting Rule

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been hit with a second lawsuit challenging its new rule that would wipe billions of dollars in medical debt off consumer credit reports, with ACA International filing a complaint in Texas federal court arguing healthcare markets are outside the agency's regulatory authority.

  • January 09, 2025

    Amgen Says Enbrel Protected By Legit Patents, Rulings

    Amgen has asked a Virginia federal judge to permanently toss the latest version of a proposed class action accusing it of illegally entrenching and expanding patent rights to stave off cheaper competition for Enbrel, arguing the blockbuster arthritis treatment is protected by legitimate patents and court rulings of validity.

  • January 09, 2025

    Fla. Condos Tied To Sanctioned Russians Transferred To Feds

    The U.S. government has taken ownership of two Florida luxury condominiums allegedly tied to Russians sanctioned for their roles in the annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014 and for their involvement in the properties being used to launder rental proceeds.

  • January 09, 2025

    5th Circuit Wrong To Toss Subsidy Fund, FCC Tells High Court

    The Federal Communications Commission urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn last year's Fifth Circuit decision gutting the FCC's multibillion-dollar subsidy fund, arguing the appeals court got it wrong in finding Congress unlawfully relinquished its taxing powers.

  • January 09, 2025

    AT&T Settles Suit Over Faux Pine Tree Antennas

    AT&T is dropping its suit against the city of Walla Walla, Washington, over a 65-foot-tall utility pole that was slated to look like a pine tree, agreeing to use a separate location just outside the city limits.

  • January 09, 2025

    Inventor Group Warns Of Issa's Return As House IP Panel Chair

    Policy outfit US Inventor Inc. has spoken out against the return of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to head the U.S. House subcommittee overseeing intellectual property in the new Congress, warning on Thursday Issa's leadership role will have distressing affects on American startups and innovators while benefiting foreign competitors in other countries like China.

  • January 09, 2025

    Colo. Oil Co. Says Unfair Order Threatens Its Demise

    Oil and gas operator K.P. Kauffman Co. Inc. is asking a Colorado state judge to scrap a $5.8 million penalty against it, claiming regulators unlawfully imposed an unfair order that threatens to drive it into insolvency and bankruptcy.

  • January 09, 2025

    Biden's Title IX Gender Identity Rule Struck By Ky. Judge

    A Kentucky federal judge on Thursday struck down the Biden administration's expansion of Title IX to include gender identity, saying the rule "impermissibly redefines discrimination on the basis of sex" in excess of U.S. Department of Education authority.

  • January 09, 2025

    ND Voting Laws May Be Undone In 8th Circ., Justices Told

    Two local North Dakota Republican Party officials are urging the Supreme Court to take up their bid to reverse a lower court's ruling over newly created subdistricts for Native American voters, arguing that the "highly unusual" procedural posture of similar suits in the Eighth Circuit are likely to be overturned.

  • January 09, 2025

    Wash. Justices Won't Review $160M Seattle Property Tax Win

    Seattle can keep $160 million in property taxes for waterfront improvements, after Washington's Supreme Court declined to review a lower appellate court's ruling rejecting property owners' bid to recalculate the tax to reflect the hit property values had taken from COVID-19.

  • January 09, 2025

    Kroger Drops FTC Constitutionality Fight After Nixed Merger

    Kroger on Thursday voluntarily dismissed its case challenging the constitutionality of the Federal Trade Commission's in-house court, after the agency dropped its administrative case targeting the grocery chain's abandoned deal for Albertsons.

  • January 09, 2025

    4th Circ. Asked To Pause NC High Court Ballot Challenge

    North Carolina election officials have asked the Fourth Circuit to press pause on a Republican judge's efforts to plow ahead with his state Supreme Court challenge seeking to throw out votes in his race for an associate justice seat, while his Democratic challenger called for expediency.

  • January 09, 2025

    Senate Dems Help Push Sweeping Immigration Bill Toward Vote

    A majority of Senate Democrats joined Republicans Thursday to pave the way for a vote on a bill that would require detention for theft-related crimes by unauthorized immigrants, while bestowing broad powers on state attorneys general over federal immigration matters.

Expert Analysis

  • Key Rulings On Sentencing Guidelines After Loper Bright

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo raised questions as to when and whether courts should defer to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines' commentary in disputes over the guidelines' meaning — but some recent appellate court rulings provide insights for defense counsel in this area, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.

  • Data Privacy Landscape After Mass. Justices' Wiretap Ruling

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    In Vita v. New England Baptist Hospital, Massachusetts’ highest court recently ruled that the state’s wiretap law doesn’t prohibit all tracking of website user activity, but major financial and reputational risks remain for businesses that aren't transparent about customer’s web data, says Seth Berman at Nutter.

  • Ledbetter's Legacy Shines In 2024 Equal Pay Law Updates

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    The federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act turned 15 this year, and its namesake's legacy is likely to endure in 2025 and beyond, as demonstrated by 2024's state- and local-level progress on pay equity, as well as several rulings from federal appellate courts, say attorneys at Fisher Phillips.

  • The Future Of GLP-1 Policy After Drug Shortage Ends

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    If and when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration determines that GLP-1 RA drugs are no longer in short supply, regulators will face questions of how to balance access to GLP-1 RAs with statutory and policy considerations applicable to compounded drugs, say attorneys at Skadden.

  • Gov't Scrutiny Of Workplace Chat Apps Set To Keep Growing

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    The incoming Trump administration and Republican majorities in Congress are poised to open numerous investigations that include increasing demands for entities to produce communications from workplace chat apps, so companies must evaluate their usage and retention policies, say attorneys at Orrick.

  • Del. Dispatch: The 2024 Corporate Cases You Need To Know

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    The Delaware Court of Chancery in 2024 issued several decisions that some viewed as upending long-standing corporate practices, leading to the amendment of the Delaware General Corporation Law and debates at some Delaware corporations about potentially reincorporating to another state, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • 2024 Regulatory Developments For Bank-Fintech Partnerships

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    Joseph Silvia at Duane Morris reviews a handful of particularly noteworthy 2024 updates regarding bank-fintech partnerships, including federal banking agencies issuing a number of important pieces of guidance that reiterate and update previous guidance in the area of third-party risk management.

  • 2025's Midmarket M&A Terrain May Hold A Few Bright Spots

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    Attorneys at Stoel Rives assess middle-market merger and acquisition trends, and explain why many dealmakers have turned cautiously optimistic about the sector's 2025 prospects, despite potential inflation and new Federal Trade Commission rules.

  • Top 10 Whistleblowing And Retaliation Events Of 2024

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    From a Florida federal court’s ruling that the False Claims Act’s qui tam provision is unconstitutional to a record-breaking number of whistleblower tips filed with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, employers saw significant developments in the federal and state whistleblower landscapes this year, say attorneys at Proskauer.

  • The Implications Of 2024's AI Rules And Regs For Patent Attys

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    Christina Huang, John Smith and Devin Stein at Faegre Drinker review this year's new rules and regulations on the development and use of artificial intelligence — from the Biden administration, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the American Bar Association and various states — as they apply to patent attorneys.

  • When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US

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    As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.

  • How Texas Bill Would Transform Noneconomic Damages

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    Large noneconomic damage awards in personal injury cases have grown exponentially in Texas in recent years, but newly introduced legislation would cap such damages, likely requiring both the plaintiff and defense bars to recalibrate their litigation strategies, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

  • Changes To Expect From SEC Under Trump Nominee

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    President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Paul Atkins for U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair will likely lead to significant shifts in the Division of Enforcement's priorities, likely focused on protecting retail investors and the stability of the capital markets, say attorneys at Morrison Foerster.

  • Executive Orders That Could Affect Financial Services In 2025

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    The incoming Trump administration is likely to quickly revive or update a number of prior executive orders, and possibly issue new ones, that could affect financial services by emphasizing market discipline rather than regulatory initiatives to drive change in the industry, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • The State Of USPTO Rulemaking At The End Of Vidal's Term

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    As U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director, Kathi Vidal placed a particular emphasis on formal rulemaking — so as she returns to private practice this week, attorneys at Irell take stock of which of her proposals made it across the finish line, and where the rest stand on the cusp of a new administration.

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