Public Policy

  • April 11, 2025

    Permit Suit Can't Sidestep ICE's Immunity, GEO Group Says

    GEO Group Inc. told a New Jersey federal judge that the city of Newark's lawsuit aiming to block development of an immigration detention facility over permitting and inspections can't proceed without naming U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a defendant.

  • April 11, 2025

    EchoStar Wants FCC To Cut Satellite Cos.' Political File Reg

    Dish Network parent company EchoStar Corp.'s wishlist to curb Federal Communications Commission regulations includes a proposal to drop a requirement that satellite providers keep tabs on paid political ads.

  • April 11, 2025

    Seattle Port Says Housing Project 'Poor Fit' In Industrial Core

    The Port of Seattle has gone to court to block a rezoning ordinance that allows nearly 1,000 new residential units near the city's sports stadiums, a project the port said threatens to snarl the nearby movement of cargo from a seaport that is a key driver of the region's economy.

  • April 11, 2025

    DOJ Torches Biden-Era Enviro Justice Deal With Alabama

    The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday terminated a groundbreaking civil rights law-based environmental justice settlement intended to improve water infrastructure in a low-income Black community in Alabama, calling it another step in the Trump administration's effort to eliminate anti-discrimination initiatives.

  • April 11, 2025

    Feds Still Mulling Wartime Removal Notice And Process

    The Trump administration hasn't worked out what kind of notice it will give alleged Venezuelan gang members subject to removal under the 1878 Alien Enemies Act in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that it must do so, a government attorney told a Texas federal judge Friday.

  • April 11, 2025

    FTC Starts Process That May Nix Chevron, Exxon Deal Limits

    The Federal Trade Commission took the first steps Friday toward potentially lifting bans on the CEOs of Hess and Pioneer Natural Resources serving on the boards of Chevron and Exxon, respectively, under agreements assailed by the FTC's Republican leadership who want to permit the Chevron-Hess and Exxon-Pioneer mergers without those restrictions.

  • April 11, 2025

    Live Nation, Ticketmaster Can't Nix Consumer Antitrust Suit

    A California federal judge Friday denied a bid from Live Nation and Ticketmaster to toss an antitrust case from consumers alleging monopolization of the concert ticketing market, following a tentative ruling issued earlier this week while finding a recent antitrust win for Amazon doesn't translate to the case before him.

  • April 11, 2025

    Prosecutors Seek 18 Years For Ex-CFO's 'Extreme' $40M Fraud

    The former Detroit Riverfront Conservancy CFO who pled guilty to embezzling about $40 million from the nonprofit spent the money on a lavish lifestyle as part of a crime "borne out of avarice so extreme that it remains difficult to fully grasp," federal prosecutors said in recommending an 18-year prison sentence.

  • April 11, 2025

    USDA, White Farmers Clash Over Disaster Aid Remedy

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture and a group of white Texas farmers are clashing over how the agency should remedy its allegedly unlawful prioritization of minority groups as a part of a distribution scheme for disaster assistance and pandemic relief programs.

  • April 11, 2025

    7th Circ. Asks For Ill. Justices' Input On Pollution Exclusion

    A Seventh Circuit panel considering whether an insurer for Sterigenics and its former parent company could avoid paying $150 million in legal costs for defending the company from a torrent of pollution suits has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to weigh in on how to apply a pollution exclusion in the relevant policy.

  • April 11, 2025

    Native Villages Say It's Time To Vacate $70M Broadband Grant

    Now that a federal court has found that Alaskan native villages are tribal lands in the same way reservations are, that court is being told it's time for it to grant two such villages summary judgment on their claims that the government wrongly gave away $70 million in broadband funds meant for them.

  • April 11, 2025

    Ala. Justices Nix Owner Property Tax Break For LLC

    An Alabama condominium was correctly reclassified for property tax purposes because the couple who own the property had transferred ownership to a limited liability company, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.

  • April 11, 2025

    Ill. Sens. OK Bill Nixing Pot Odor As Grounds For Car Search

    Illinois lawmakers have advanced a bill that would ensure the smell of marijuana on its own does not allow law enforcement to search a vehicle.

  • April 11, 2025

    Rebuffed Medical Pot Patient Can Pursue Disability Bias Claim

    A Pennsylvania federal judge has reinstated a medical marijuana user's disability bias claim in a lawsuit against a Cleveland-based construction company after revisiting a prior order, finding the company might have failed to explore alternative accommodations for the man's disabilities — apart from cannabis use — before rescinding a job offer.

  • April 11, 2025

    China Hikes US Tariffs To 125%, Saying No More Tit-For-Tat

    China's government said Friday it has raised its tariffs on U.S. goods to 125% and won't match future tariff rate increases by President Donald Trump, who according to the White House has set the rate for most Chinese goods at 145%.

  • April 11, 2025

    Feds Seek Release Of Informant Who Falsely Accused Bidens

    California federal prosecutors are seeking the release of a former FBI informant who is serving a six-year prison sentence for falsely telling agents that former President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden had accepted bribes from a Ukrainian energy company.

  • April 11, 2025

    Prison Reform Advocate Can Sue Over Access To Inmates

    A D.C. federal judge ruled on Friday that a prison reform advocate can largely proceed with a suit accusing the Federal Bureau of Prisons of illegally blocking her from exchanging messages with inmates as part of an alleged campaign to stifle her work.

  • April 11, 2025

    Family Should Face Charges In $81M Tax Scheme, US Says

    The U.S. government urged a New York federal court not to trim its complaint against the former shareholders of a family holding company accused of participating in an $81 million tax scheme, saying the family illegally avoided paying capital gains on its sale of the company.

  • April 11, 2025

    House Bill Would Fund Satellite, Fixed Wireless Broadband

    An Ohio Republican has introduced House legislation to use some of the funds from the $42.5 billion Congress set aside for broadband expansion in 2021 to help defray the costs of obtaining satellite or fixed wireless broadband equipment and service.

  • April 11, 2025

    FTC Says Chamber's Merger Notice Rule Suit Belongs In DC

    The Federal Trade Commission has asked a Texas federal judge to transfer a U.S. Chamber of Commerce regulation challenge to Washington, D.C., arguing that the only claims to Lone Star State jurisdiction are vague assertions that a local chamber's members could be affected by a new overhaul of merger filing requirements.

  • April 11, 2025

    Landlords Look To Exit DOJ's RealPage Antitrust Case

    The residential building owners accused by federal and state enforcers of violating antitrust law through their use of RealPage's software to set rental prices told a North Carolina federal court it's not against the law for companies to use the same software.

  • April 11, 2025

    Texas Justices Uphold City's Wastewater Release Permit

    A Central Texas city can move forward with its treated wastewater discharge operations, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday, rejecting a challenge to an environmental permit that was based on an increase in dissolved oxygen in a nearby stream.

  • April 11, 2025

    Trump Grid Order Threatens To Roil Electricity Sector

    President Donald Trump's directive to keep struggling power plants on the grid is an unusual use of the U.S. Department of Energy's authority to ensure power delivery during emergencies, and it could invite lawsuits while upending wholesale electricity markets.

  • April 11, 2025

    Pot Co. Brings Calif. Labor Peace Law Challenge To 9th Circ.

    A cannabis retailer challenging the constitutionality of a California law that requires marijuana businesses to have labor peace agreements is bringing its legal battle to the Ninth Circuit.

  • April 11, 2025

    Another Calif. Tribe Files Suit Over $700M Casino Project

    A California Native American tribe alleged in District of Columbia federal court that the federal government unlawfully placed land in a trust and approved a $700 million, 160-acre casino resort project that was proposed by another California tribe.

Expert Analysis

  • Avoiding Pitfalls Around New Calif. Commercial Lease Law

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    A California law that became effective this year requires commercial landlords to extend certain protections previously afforded to residential tenancies, and a few key provisions of the law especially warrant reexamination of leasing and operational processes, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • How BigLaw Executive Orders May Affect Smaller Firms

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    Because of the types of cases they take on, solo practitioners, small law firms and public interest attorneys may find themselves more dramatically affected by the collective impact of recent government action involving the legal industry than even the BigLaw firms named in the executive orders, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Filial Consortium Claims' Future After Conn. High Court Ruling

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    While the Connecticut Supreme Court recently ruled for defendants in rejecting parents’ attempt to recover loss of companionship damages in a severe child injury case, there is still potential for the plaintiffs bar to lobby for a law that would allow filial consortium claims, Glenn Coffin at Gordon Rees.

  • 5 Tools To Help Existing Gov't Contracts Manage Tariff Costs

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    Five pointers can help government contractors scrutinize their existing contracts for protections like equitable adjustment and duty-free entry clauses, which may help insulate them from tariff-related cost increases, say attorneys at Covington.

  • 4th Circ. Health Data Ruling Opens Door To State Law Claims

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    In Real Time Medical v. PointClickCare, the Fourth Circuit recently clarified that state law claims can rest in part on violations of a federal law that prohibits electronic health information blocking, expanding legal risks for health IT companies and potentially creating exposure to a range of competitive implications, say attorneys at BCLP.

  • Opinion

    Lawsuits Shouldn't Be Shadow Assets For Foreign Capital

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    Third-party litigation financing amplifies inefficiencies from litigation and facilitates national exposure to foreign influence in the U.S. justice system, so full disclosure of financing arrangements should be required as a matter of institutional integrity, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

  • 2 Del. Rulings Reinforce Proof Needed For Records Demands

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    Two recent Delaware Court of Chancery decisions involving Amazon and Paramount Global illustrate the significance of the credible basis standard on books and records requests, underscoring that stockholders seeking to investigate wrongdoing must come forward with actual evidence of misconduct — not mere allegations, say attorneys at Cleary.

  • How To Accelerate Your Post-Attorney Career Transition

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    Professionals seeking to transition to nonattorney careers may encounter skepticism as nontraditional candidates, but there are opportunities for thought leadership and to leverage speaking and writing to accelerate a post-attorney career transition, say Janet Falk at Falk Communications and Evgeny Efremkin at Toronto Metropolitan University.

  • Key Takeaways From The 2025 Spring Antitrust Meeting

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    Leadership changes, shifting priorities and evolving enforcement tools dominated the conversation at the recent American Bar Association Spring Antitrust Meeting, as panelists explored competition policy under a second Trump administration, agency discretion under the 2023 merger guidelines and new frontiers in conduct enforcement, say attorneys at Freshfields.

  • 3 Action Items For Innovators Amid Fintech Regulatory Pivot

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    As the federal banking agencies seek to smooth the way for banks to engage in crypto-related activities, banks and technology companies should take note of this new chapter in payments services, especially as leadership in digital financial technology becomes a national priority, says Jess Cheng at Wilson Sonsini.

  • What PFAS-Treated Clothing Tariff Bill Would Mean For Cos.

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    In keeping with a nationwide trend of greater restrictions on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, legislation pending in the U.S. House of Representatives would remove tariff advantages for PFAS-treated clothing — so businesses would be wise to proactively adapt their supply chains and review contracts to mitigate liability, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.

  • How Tariffs May Affect Proxy Contests This Season

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    While global tariffs imposed by the Trump administration will certainly chill at least some activity this proxy season, and make defending contests significantly easier, there will likely be many new activist investments once there is more economic certainty, meaning more proxy fights this fall, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Running A Compliant DEI Program After EEOC, DOJ Guidance

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    Following recent guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice that operationalized the Trump administration's focus on ending so-called illegal DEI, employers don't need to eliminate DEI programs, but they must ensure that protected characteristics are not considered in employment decisions, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

  • A Closer Look At New NYSE, Nasdaq Listing Rule Changes

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has recently approved changes to the New York Stock Exchange's and the Nasdaq's listing rules on reverse stock splits, minimum share price requirements and required liquidity for initial listings, meaning listed companies facing delisting will have fewer means to regain compliance, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Opinion

    GENIUS Act Can Bring Harmony To Crypto-Banking Discord

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    ​​​​​​​By embracing crypto innovation while establishing appropriate guardrails, the so-called GENIUS Act charts a path forward that promotes financial inclusion and technological advancement without compromising stability or constitutional rights, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School.

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