Public Policy

  • March 04, 2025

    DC Circ. Doubts FERC Was Wrong To OK Tennessee Pipeline

    The D.C. Circuit struggled to understand just where environmentalists think FERC messed up when approving a Tennessee pipeline project that would serve a gas-fired power plant that's set to replace a coal-fired one, expressing varying degrees of doubt Monday during arguments.

  • March 04, 2025

    Bored Ape NFT Maker, Crypto Co. Say SEC Threats Are Over

    The crypto arm of trading firm DRW Holdings LLC and the company behind the celebrity-endorsed non-fungible token project known as the Bored Ape Yacht Club say that they are the latest in a string of digital asset firms to see the back of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • March 04, 2025

    Special Master Recommends Win For UnitedHealth In FCA Suit

    A massive False Claims Act case targeting Medicare Advantage plans operated by UnitedHealth relies on "speculation and assumptions," according to a special master's report that recommends ruling in the company's favor and ending the lawsuit.

  • March 04, 2025

    3rd Circ. Says Pa. GOP Can't Challenge Biden's Voting Order

    The Third Circuit on Tuesday ruled that Republican lawmakers from Pennsylvania lack the standing to challenge former President Joe Biden's executive order expanding "get-out-the-vote" information, reasoning that the individual politicians could not bring a suit claiming an injury on behalf of the state Legislature.

  • March 04, 2025

    DC Judge Blocks Trump Admin From Removing MSPB Chair

    President Donald Trump illegally attempted to fire the Merit Systems Protection Board chair without cause, a D.C. federal judge ruled Tuesday, repudiating the administration's arguments that removal protections for board members violate the U.S. Constitution.

  • March 04, 2025

    IRS Drops Push To Penalize Ex-Braves Players For Fraud

    The federal government dropped its push Tuesday to reinstate civil fraud penalties against a partnership founded by former Atlanta Braves players John Smoltz and Ryan Klesko in their Eleventh Circuit appeal of a decision slashing their $47 million deduction for a conservation easement donation.

  • March 04, 2025

    Pa. Justices Question 'Key' Witness Test For Forum Change

    Members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court wondered Tuesday if a state appeals panel established an unfair test by requiring parties seeking a new forum to shoulder the difficult burden of proving, very early in litigation, that faraway witnesses would be "key" to their case.

  • March 04, 2025

    Bondi Taps NY Atty To Lead Northern District

    Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday that longtime Westchester County attorney John Sarcone III has been tapped to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York.

  • March 04, 2025

    PBMs Ask 8th Circ. To Pause FTC's Insulin Pricing Case

    Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx have asked the Eighth Circuit to pause the Federal Trade Commission's in-house case accusing the pharmacy benefit managers of artificially inflating insulin prices as they push their constitutional claims against the agency.

  • March 04, 2025

    Paxton Retaliation Case In 'Untested Territory,' Judge Says

    A Travis County judge said Tuesday that she was inclined to reopen evidence before approving a multimillion-dollar judgment proposed by four former deputies of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, noting that a recent appellate ruling left the court "in untested territory."

  • March 04, 2025

    Dispensary Fights Counties' Extra Pot Tax In Mo. High Court

    A Missouri appellate court correctly found that counties wrongfully imposed a 3% additional sales tax on cannabis sales that were already subject to tax by a local government, a dispensary told the state Supreme Court.

  • March 04, 2025

    Colo. House Committee Advances Bill To Add 15 State Judges

    The Colorado House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to advance a bill that would add 15 state judges over the next two years, after Senate lawmakers scaled back the proposal to address concerns about the bill's cost in a tight budget year.

  • March 04, 2025

    NY Creates Framework For County Tax On Short-Term Rentals

    New York established a framework for counties to impose tax on short-term rentals as part of a bill signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

  • March 04, 2025

    FCC Dismisses Bid To Revisit Local Unbundling Rules

    The Federal Communications Commission has dismissed a petition to restore local telecom unbundling rules, reiterating the agency's 2020 reasons for lifting a number of restrictions on local incumbents and restating that those limitations are no longer necessary.

  • March 04, 2025

    Trump's Mexico, Canada Tariffs To Face Legal Tests, Pros Say

    President Donald Trump placed 25% tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, citing drug trafficking as the core reason he used untested emergency tariff powers, a course of action that will face legal scrutiny, tax professionals told Law360.

  • March 04, 2025

    NY Judicial Complaints Hit New High Amid Public 'Anger'

    New York's judicial watchdog on Tuesday reported a record number of complaints against judges in 2024, receiving about as many grievances as the state court system has judges.

  • March 04, 2025

    Pa. Justices Wary Of 'Limitless Liability' Without Damages Cap

    Pennsylvania's $250,000 damages limit on injury claims involving state entities is too low in cases involving catastrophic injuries, the lawyer for a woman hit by a bus told the state Supreme Court on Tuesday, drawing questions from the justices about the potential for state agencies to be crippled by "limitless liability."

  • March 04, 2025

    Trump Asks 2nd Circ. To Take Over Hush Money Appeal

    President Donald Trump asked the Second Circuit to take over his New York state court appeal of his hush money conviction, saying the "extraordinary" case implicated official acts from his first term.

  • March 04, 2025

    FERC Enforcement Case Is Constitutionally Valid, DOJ Says

    The Trump administration has told a North Carolina federal judge that a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission market manipulation case against an energy-efficiency aggregator complies with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision curbing the enforcement authority of federal agencies.

  • March 04, 2025

    HHS Cuts Hit Attys Tackling Medicare Appeals Backlog

    The Department of Health and Human Services is terminating more than a dozen attorneys charged with reducing a massive backlog of Medicare appeals at an internal administrative board. The cuts may slow an already cumbersome administrative process.

  • March 04, 2025

    Calif. Bar Staff Asks Board To Ditch Meazure's July Exam

    The State Bar of California recommended to its board of trustees to forgo its current partnership with bar exam administer ProctorU Inc., doing business as Meazure Learning, ahead of the July 2025 test following the disastrous rollout of its February exam, which prompted a nationwide class action filed in California federal court last week.

  • March 04, 2025

    Kan. Man Says 80s Pot Conviction Can't Block Gun Purchase

    A man who was convicted of a cannabis crime in 1984 is suing the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, alleging he was wrongly denied an application to purchase a firearm even though he completed his sentence in 1987 and his conviction was expunged in 2018.

  • March 04, 2025

    Career DOJ Atty, Civil Division Chief Of Staff Joins Jenner

    Jenner & Block LLP has hired the former chief of staff of the Justice Department's Civil Division, who is joining the firm after spending her entire career in public service, the firm announced Tuesday. 

  • March 04, 2025

    Colo. Biotech, Founders Owe SEC $14.3M Over Fraud Claims

    A Colorado federal judge has ordered a biotech startup and two of its founders to pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission roughly $14.3 million and barred them from serving as officers and directors of public companies after finding that they fraudulently raised over $10 million by overstating their own investments in the company.

  • March 04, 2025

    Holland & Hart Adds Alaska US Rep And Her Chief Of Staff

    Holland & Hart LLP has expanded its federal affairs group with Alaska's former U.S. representative, who is joining the team in Anchorage alongside her prior chief of staff, the firm announced Monday.

Expert Analysis

  • Patent Policy Changes To Track Under New Gov't Leadership

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    The new federal government will likely bring pivotal shifts in U.S. patent policy through legislation and initiatives that reflect a renewed focus on strengthening intellectual property rights, fostering innovation and enhancing the nation's competitive edge, says PK Chakrabarti at Butzel Long.

  • How Trump Presidency May Influence NLRB's Next Phase

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    Attorneys at Paul Hastings discuss how last year’s key National Labor Relations Board developments may progress once President-elect Donald Trump takes office, including the wave of lawsuits challenging the board’s constitutionality and two landmark board decisions that upset decades of precedent.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q4

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    Douglas Thompson at Snell & Wilmer highlights a number of recent and pending issues, actions and potentially pivotal federal regulatory and legislative developments on deck that will affect California banks and financial institutions.

  • Opinion

    Congress Should Finally Add Clarity To Section 101

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    With both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate introducing bills to provide guidance on what qualifies as patentable subject matter under the Patent Act, Congress will hopefully put an end at last to 10 years of uncertainty surrounding the question, says David Carstens at Carstens Allen.

  • Hydrogen Regs Will Provide More Certainty — If They Survive

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    Newly finalized regulations implementing the Section 45V clean hydrogen tax credit allow producers more flexibility, and should therefore help put the industry on more solid footing — but the incoming Trump administration and Republican Congress will have multiple options for overturning or altering the regulations, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • Top 10 Noncompete Developments Of 2024

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    Following an eventful year in noncompete law at both state and federal levels, employers can no longer rely on a court's willingness to blue-pencil overbroad agreements and are proceeding at their own peril if they do not thoughtfully review and carefully enforce such agreements, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

  • 5 E-Discovery Predictions For 2025 And Beyond

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    In the year to come, e-discovery will be shaped by new and emerging trends, from the adoption of artificial intelligence provisions in protective orders, to the proliferation of emojis as a source of evidence in contemporary litigation, say attorneys at Littler.

  • NY Plastic Pollution Verdict May Not Bode Well For Other Suits

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    The dismissal of New York state's public nuisance complaint against PepsiCo over pollution of the Buffalo River with the company's single use plastic bottles may not augur well for similar lawsuits filed by Baltimore and Los Angeles County, although tort law varies from state to state, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

  • Key Ethical Issues For Gov't Attys Moving To Private Practice

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    Transitioning from government service to private practice presents complex ethical challenges for attorneys, including navigating conflicts of interest, confidential information rules and post-employment restrictions, say attorneys at HWG.

  • Climate Disclosure Spotlight Shifts To 2 Calif. Laws

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    With Donald Trump's election spelling the all-but-certain demise of the proposed federal climate disclosure rules, new laws in California currently stand as the nation's only broadly applicable climate disclosure requirements — and their brevity is both a blessing and a curse, say attorneys at Davis Polk.

  • A Deep Dive Into DOJ's Proposed FARA Shake-Up

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    The U.S. Department of Justice's recently published and long-awaited proposed amendments to the Foreign Agents Registration Act's implementing regulations, if adopted, would mark dramatic changes to the commercial exemption and new requirements for labeling informational materials, says Tessa Capeloto at Wiley.

  • Preparing For Mexican Drug Cartels' Terrorist Designation

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    In the event President-elect Donald Trump designates Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, businesses will need to consider how their particular industry is affected and evaluate previously legitimate practices given the cartels' involvement so many sectors of the economy, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • Final Hydrogen Tax Credit Regs Add Flexibility For Producers

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    The recently released final regulations implementing the Inflation Reduction Act's clean hydrogen production tax credit offer taxpayers greater flexibility, reducing risk and creating more certainty for investments in the industry, thus diminishing — but not eliminating — the risk of legal challenges to the regulations, say attorneys at Steptoe.

  • Where Payments Law And Regulation Are Headed In 2025

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    The Trump administration will likely bring significant changes to payments regulations in 2025, but maintaining internal compliance efforts in the absence of robust federal oversight will remain key as state authorities and private plaintiffs step into the breach, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • What To Expect From Federal Cybersecurity Policy In 2025

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    There are 12 cyber policy questions to keep an eye on as the new administration and Republican control of Congress present an opportunity to advance less regulatory approaches and revisit some choices from the prior administration, say attorneys at Wiley.

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