Public Policy

  • March 05, 2025

    NYC Can't Recoup $80M In FEMA Funds From Trump, For Now

    A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday refused to order the Trump administration to immediately return over $80.4 million in funds allocated to New York City to defray the costs of sheltering migrants, after the Biden-era money was clawed back without notice.

  • March 05, 2025

    Jury Mulling Judge's Murder Trial Hears More Arguments

    With jury deliberations in the murder trial of a California judge who fatally shot his wife stretching into their sixth day Wednesday, the presiding judge allowed the prosecution and defense to make additional arguments addressing the jury's question about the willfulness requirement for second-degree murder.

  • March 05, 2025

    PTAB Bar Urges Congress, Lutnick To Protect USPTO Workers

    The PTAB Bar Association is calling on intellectual property leaders in Congress, along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to spare the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from Trump administration initiatives to freeze hiring and require in-person work.

  • March 05, 2025

    Army To Disinter 19 Students From Boarding School Cemetery

    The Office of Army Cemeteries says it will honor the requests of three Oklahoma tribes and disinter the remains of 19 Indigenous children from a cemetery at the site of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.

  • March 05, 2025

    Big City Mayors Testify Sanctuary Policies Keep Citizens Safe

    The mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City were grilled by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday during a daylong, oft-contentious hearing in which the city leaders were repeatedly interrupted by Republicans as they defended their cities' policies towards immigrants.

  • March 05, 2025

    MSPB Temporarily Reinstates Fired Agriculture Dept. Workers

    The Merit Systems Protection Board stayed the firings of over 5,600 probationary employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday, ordering the employees back to work while the U.S. Office of the Special Counsel continues investigating whether the dismissals were a prohibited personnel practice.

  • March 05, 2025

    Arizona's 15-Week Abortion Ban Blocked As Unconstitutional

    An Arizona state judge on Wednesday ruled that the state's abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy is "unconstitutional" and cannot be enforced.

  • March 05, 2025

    Los Angeles County Sues SoCal Edison Over Eaton Fire

    Los Angeles County joined the many dozens suing Southern California Edison over the devastating Eaton Fire on Wednesday, as the most populous county in the United States alleges in its lawsuit that the utility's faulty equipment caused the destructive blaze.

  • March 05, 2025

    Contractors Claim Constitutional Injury In USAID Cuts

    A group representing U.S. citizen personal services contractors working for the U.S. Agency for International Development insisted before a D.C. federal judge on Wednesday that their challenge to the Trump administration's dismantling of the humanitarian agency differs from another brought by workers employed directly by USAID.

  • March 05, 2025

    Agri Stats Wants Another Shot At DOJ Specifics

    Agri Stats is continuing to ask a Minnesota federal court to force the U.S. Department of Justice to identify specific data fields in the company's industry reports that allegedly allow chicken, pork and turkey producers to exchange competitively sensitive information.

  • March 05, 2025

    'Hot Damn' To FCC Taking On Pole Cost Fixes, Cable Biz Says

    A Republican on the Federal Communications Commission told cable leaders Wednesday it should be a key FCC priority to reform cost sharing rules for upgrading utility poles to accommodate broadband equipment.

  • March 05, 2025

    FCC Could Weigh Network Options To Back Up GPS

    The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote this month on whether to dig deeper into proposals to set aside spectrum for an Earth-based broadband network and backup to the Global Positioning System.

  • March 05, 2025

    Mining Co. Says Colombia Still Owes On $8.9M Award

    A British mining and metals company has brought an $8.9 million arbitral award it won against Colombia following a dispute over nickel mining royalties to federal court in Washington, D.C., arguing that the country has only paid a fraction of the amount due.

  • March 05, 2025

    Black Colo. Homeowner Joins DOJ's Race Bias Refi Suit

    A Denver homeowner joined the federal government in its suit accusing Rocket Mortgage LLC and other parties in Colorado federal court of deliberately undervaluing her home because she's a Black woman.

  • March 05, 2025

    9th Circ. Upholds Arizona's Wine Retailer Law Challenge

    Arizona isn't being discriminatory by requiring companies that want to ship alcohol to people's homes to have a business location in the state, the Ninth Circuit has declared in a split ruling that upheld the state's win against a challenge to the law laying down that mandate.

  • March 05, 2025

    Feds Urge Justices To Allow Nuke Waste Storage In Texas

    The federal government on Wednesday told U.S. Supreme Court justices that the Fifth Circuit wrongly inserted itself into the debate over U.S. nuclear waste policy by nixing federal approval for a temporary storage facility in Texas.

  • March 05, 2025

    GOP Bid To Nix CFPB Payment Oversight Rule Clears Senate

    The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed a measure to nullify the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Biden-era digital payments supervision rule, advancing a Republican effort to block the agency from exercising greater oversight of big payment app providers.

  • March 05, 2025

    Lawmakers Trade Blame For BEAD Program Delays

    House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blamed the other side during a congressional hearing Wednesday for mounting delays in the $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, as the Trump administration pledged to undertake a "rigorous review" that Democrats said would only slow things further.

  • March 05, 2025

    Bezos' Satellite Co. Drops Docs Fight With His Newspaper

    Jeff Bezos' satellite company has ended a public records fight with the Bezos-owned Washington Post over Washington state labor department workplace investigation records, after both sides agreed on blacking out some details to shield trade secrets.

  • March 05, 2025

    Foreign Officials Aiding Illegal Migration To Face Visa Ban

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced new visa restrictions Wednesday, saying any foreign officials — including immigration, customs and port authorities — who knowingly facilitate illegal immigration into the U.S. will be subject to the policy.

  • March 05, 2025

    Enviro, Transit Groups Back NY In Congestion Pricing Battle

    Transit and environmental advocates have sought to join the legal fight to preserve New York City's congestion pricing, saying the Trump administration is using dubious rationale to justify terminating federal approval for the program when the decision was actually driven by political animus.

  • March 05, 2025

    Texas A&M Group Sues To Bring Back Canceled Drag Show

    A Texas A&M University student group that planned to host a drag show fundraiser later this month sued the university system on Wednesday over a recently enacted policy banning drag performances on its campuses based on an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.

  • March 05, 2025

    GSA Publishes, Then Pulls List Of Properties It Could Dispose

    The U.S. General Services Administration on Wednesday removed a list of 440 properties that it considered inessential and said warranted disposal — including several courthouses and buildings used as headquarters for various agencies — the day after announcing it had identified them as "non-core assets."

  • March 05, 2025

    Trump EPA Nominees Grilled On Climate Change Views

    President Donald Trump's pick to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's air office repeatedly told Democratic senators that humans must adapt to climate change, but declined to wade into policy specifics during a nomination hearing Wednesday.

  • March 05, 2025

    DC Judge Skeptical Of Trump's Power To Oust NLRB Member

    A Washington, D.C., federal judge hearing a former National Labor Relations Board member's challenge to her January removal appeared Wednesday to buy the fired official's side of a closely watched debate over the vitality of foundational U.S. Supreme Court law on the president's power over independent agencies.

Expert Analysis

  • Insights For Finance Firms, Regulators From House AI Report

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    Though a U.S. House of Representatives report encourages the financial sector to embrace artificial intelligence tools, its focus on ensuring high-quality datasets, transparent development and equitable access underscores that firms and regulators must strike a delicate balance between technological innovation and responsible implementation, says Brendan Palfreyman at Harris Beach.

  • LA Wildfires' Effect On Calif. Insurer Of Last Resort

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    Attorneys at Willkie discuss the background of California's insurer of last resort — known as the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan — and examine the process of assessing member insurers and relevant recent property insurance market developments in light of the destruction from the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires.

  • How PAGA Reform Can Inform Employer Strategies In 2025

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    While recent changes to California's Private Attorneys General Act will not significantly reduce PAGA claims, employers can use the new law to potentially limit their future exposure, by taking advantage of penalty reduction opportunities and more, say attorneys at Thompson Coburn.

  • Takeaways From FDA's Updated Confirmatory Trial Guidance

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's latest draft guidance about accelerated drug approval indicates the FDA's intent to address the significant lag time between accelerated approval and full approval of drugs and may help motivate the industry to complete confirmatory trials, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.

  • Key Trends In PFAS Regulation And Litigation For 2025

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    The critical policy milestones for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances expected in 2025 will not only shape the trajectory of PFAS regulation, but also set key precedents for environmental accountability, potentially reshaping the corporate approach to these "forever chemicals" for decades to come, say attorneys at MG+M.

  • Inside New Commerce Tech Restrictions: Key Risk Takeaways

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    While there are a few limitations on the scope of a new final rule restricting certain foreign adversary products and technologies, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security retains sweeping authority to regulate an array of risk areas, says Peter Jeydel at Troutman.

  • The Most Important Schedule I Drug Regulatory Shifts Of 2024

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    In 2024, psychedelics and cannabis emerged as focal points in medical research, marking a pivotal year in their legal and regulatory journey, but these developments presented both opportunities and challenges within this evolving field, say Kimberly Chew at Husch Blackwell and Stephen Kim at Avicanna.

  • California's New Homeowner Law Could Hamper Foreclosures

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    While A.B. 2424, which took effect this month in California, gives homeowners in default additional protections, it also provides loopholes that can be used to delay foreclosure auctions, and the cost of these delays will likely be passed on to the borrower, says Stephen Britt at Severson & Werson.

  • Series

    Coaching Little League Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    While coaching poorly played Little League Baseball early in the morning doesn't sound like a good time, I love it — and the experience has taught me valuable lessons about imperfection, compassion and acceptance that have helped me grow as a person and as a lawyer, says Alex Barnett at DiCello Levitt.

  • How Fintechs Can Respond To New CFPB Supervisory Rule

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    Even though a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule pulling large payment apps into supervision faces an uncertain fate in the new administration, providers should still examine the rule's definitions and prepare for increased compliance costs and more consumer-friendly practices, say attorneys at DLA Piper.

  • Ruling Shows High Court Willing To Limit Immigration Review

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Bouarfa v. Mayorkas is the latest demonstration of the court’s readiness to limit judicial review in the immigration space, a notable break from other recent decisions that expanded judicial review of agency decisions in other areas, says Mark Fleming at WilmerHale.

  • 5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025

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    Lawyers and their clients must be prepared to navigate an evolving litigation funding market in 2025, made more complicated by a new administration and the increasing overall cost of litigation, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.

  • Despite Political Divide, FEC Found Common Ground In '24

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    The Federal Election Commission, although evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, reached consensus in consequential advisory opinions, enforcement actions and regulations last year, offering welcome clarity on some key questions facing campaigns, PACs and parties, say attorneys at Covington.

  • How FTC Sent A $5.6M Warning Against Jumping The Gun

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent record $5.6 million "gun jumping" action against Verdun Oil, for allegedly exerting control over EP Energy before the mandatory waiting period under U.S. antitrust law expired, warns companies that they must continue to operate independently during review, say attorneys at Ballard Spahr.

  • How Deregulation Could Undermine Trump's Anti-DEI Agenda

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    While rolling back federal agency power benefited conservative policies during the Biden administration, it will likely undermine President Donald Trump's ability to wield agencies like the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives beyond the federal workforce and into the private sector, says Ally Coll at the Purple Method.

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