Public Policy

  • January 20, 2025

    On Day 1, Trump Begins Dismantling Biden's Enviro Legacy

    President Donald Trump signed a host of environmental executive orders shortly after taking office Monday, rolling back numerous Biden climate-related policies, including bans on Arctic drilling and the revocation of the Keystone XL Pipeline permit, while also nixing the federal government's net-zero emissions goals.

  • January 20, 2025

    Trump Ends Biden Moratorium That Limited LNG Exports

    President Donald Trump on Monday lifted former President Joe Biden's moratorium on approvals of liquefied natural gas exports to countries that don't have free-trade agreements with the U.S., fulfilling a promise he made repeatedly on the campaign trail.

  • January 20, 2025

    Trump Delays TikTok Ban To Hammer Out Deal

    President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday that will keep TikTok from going dark in the U.S. while he works to broker a deal that would override the legislative mandate for the popular social media app to cut ties with its Chinese parent company or face a nationwide ban.

  • January 20, 2025

    Trump Reinstates Ban on Transgender Military Service

    President Donald Trump on Monday issued an executive order effectively bringing back a ban on transgender people serving openly in the military.

  • January 17, 2025

    Law360 Names Practice Groups Of The Year

    Law360 would like to congratulate the winners of its Practice Groups of the Year awards for 2024, which honor the attorney teams behind litigation wins and significant transaction work that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year.

  • January 17, 2025

    Law360 Names Firms Of The Year

    Eight law firms have earned spots as Law360's Firms of the Year, with 54 Practice Group of the Year awards among them, steering some of the largest deals of 2024 and securing high-profile litigation wins, including at the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • January 20, 2025

    Trump Names Immigration Official As Acting Attorney General

    President Donald Trump on Monday designated a longtime immigration official at the U.S. Department of Justice to be acting attorney general until his pick Pam Bondi, former Florida attorney general, can be confirmed.

  • January 20, 2025

    Trump, Musk Sued By Nonprofits Over DOGE Transparency

    Public Citizen and other nonprofits hit the Trump administration with multiple lawsuits seeking to shut down the new Department of Government Efficiency in D.C. federal court Monday, alleging the Elon Musk-led advisory committee targeting government waste lacks requisite transparency guardrails to prevent DOGE from solely advancing private interests.

  • January 20, 2025

    Trump Taps EEOC's Sole Republican As Acting Chair

    President Donald Trump selected the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's sole Republican appointee to lead the agency for now, but the new acting head will contend with a Democratic majority slated to keep hold of the five-seat agency through 2026.

  • January 20, 2025

    Trump Announces 2nd Exit From Paris Climate Agreement

    President Donald Trump announced upon being sworn in Monday that for a second time, he will pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord.

  • January 17, 2025

    Split 6th Circ. OKs FERC's Revocation Of Ohio Utility Grid Perk

    A split Sixth Circuit panel Friday backed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to revoke an incentive for power companies that are required to be members of a regional transmission organization, ruling that federal law requires that utilities voluntarily participate in an RTO to receive the incentive.

  • January 17, 2025

    Red States Challenge DOE Rule On Gas Heater Efficiency

    Several red states and industry groups are challenging the Biden administration in its waning days over a final rule the U.S. Department of Energy has issued on making certain natural gas water heaters more energy efficient, asking the Eleventh Circuit to toss the rule in a petition for review filed Friday.

  • January 17, 2025

    FDIC Missed Some Crypto 'Pause' Letters, Coinbase Ally Says

    The research consultancy suing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on behalf of Coinbase for documents on the regulator's internal views on crypto said Friday that it intends to update its complaint with new allegations that the FDIC did not conduct a thorough search and may be engaging in unlawful practices, based on purported whistleblower reports.

  • January 17, 2025

    DOJ Says Ga. County's Districts Disenfranchised Black Voters

    Federal prosecutors have hit middle Georgia's Houston County with a voting rights lawsuit alleging that the county's "history of official discrimination" has continued to the present day by gerrymandering Black citizens out of representation in their local government.

  • January 17, 2025

    9th Circ. Revisits Board Members' Blocks On Social Media

    An attorney for two California school board members on Friday urged the Ninth Circuit to reverse a lower court's ruling that his clients violated the First Amendment by blocking two constituents from their Facebook page, saying that new rules outlined by the U.S. Supreme Court when it remanded the case call for it.

  • January 17, 2025

    5th Circ. Finds DACA Unlawful, Limits Ruling To Texas

    The Fifth Circuit on Friday affirmed a Texas federal court's finding that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is unlawful but limited its ruling to Texas, saying the state was the only one to show it was injured due to DACA.

  • January 17, 2025

    CFPB Inks $1.5M Redlining Deal As Biden Era Ends

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is poised to collect a $1.5 million fine from an Illinois mortgage company as part of a settlement unveiled late Friday over claims it engaged in redlining, a form of residential lending discrimination.

  • January 17, 2025

    NHTSA Defends Fuel-Economy Regulations In 6th Circ.

    The U.S. Department of Transportation told the Sixth Circuit on Friday that its new fuel-economy standards are technologically feasible and properly account for a variety of alternative-fuel vehicles, rejecting claims from Republican-led states and fuel industry groups that the stringent standards amount to an unlawful electric vehicles mandate.

  • January 17, 2025

    DC Circ. Unsure On Restoring CFTC's Election Betting Ban

    The D.C. Circuit seemed hesitant Friday to reimpose a ban that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission had placed on gambling over the fate of U.S. elections, as the judges spent over an hour trying to parse what Congress meant when it said that gaming on derivatives platforms was prohibited.

  • January 17, 2025

    Biden Says Equal Rights Amendment Is 'The Law Of The Land'

    President Joe Biden said Friday that he believes the Equal Rights Amendment has effectively become part of the U.S. Constitution and is "the law of the land," according to a statement from the White House.

  • January 17, 2025

    Google Judge Says Apple Intervention Could Open 'Floodgates'

    A D.C. federal judge seemed skeptical Friday about allowing Apple Inc. to intervene in legal wrangling between Google and the U.S. Department of Justice over the proper fix for Google's search monopoly, raising concerns that granting intervention would pave the way for other companies to do the same.

  • January 17, 2025

    Immigrant Military Members OK To Ax Time-In-Service Appeal

    Immigrant members of the military challenging a since-rescinded U.S. Department of Defense requirement to serve for one year before becoming eligible for citizenship told the D.C. Circuit on Thursday that they would not oppose the dismissal of the agency's appeal on its terms.

  • January 17, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Vacating Some Trump-Era Oil And Gas Leases

    A split Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that an Idaho federal court, but not a Montana federal court, abused its discretion in striking down oil and gas leases sold during the Trump administration, but halted "surface-disturbing activity" while the federal government reconsiders the leasing decisions.

  • January 17, 2025

    NM Justices Reject Utility Challenges To Solar Rule

    New Mexico's top court issued a slip opinion explaining its decision to back a community solar rule enacted by state regulators and to reject arguments by an Xcel Energy unit and other utilities claiming the rule ran afoul of a Community Solar Act passed by lawmakers.

  • January 17, 2025

    Red States And Oil Groups Attack Biden's Coastal Drilling Ban

    Louisiana-led states and fossil fuel groups are asking a federal judge in the Pelican State to scrap a pair of Biden administration memos that recently banned new oil and gas leasing across more than 625 million acres of federal waters.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Notable Information Security Events In 2024

    Author Photo

    B. Stephanie Siegmann at Hinckley Allen discusses 2024's largest and most destructive data breaches seen yet, ranging from ransomware disrupting U.S. healthcare systems on a massive scale, to tensions increasing between the U.S. and China over cyberespionage and the control of U.S. data.

  • Opinion

    Trump Should Pass On Project 2025's Disparate Impact Plan

    Author Photo

    The Trump administration should reject Project 2025's call to eliminate the disparate impact doctrine because, as its pro-business Republican creators intended, a focus on dismantling unnecessary barriers to qualified job candidates serves companies' best interests more successfully than the alternatives, says Susan Carle at American University.

  • Opinion

    Laken Riley Act Will Not Advance Immigration Reform

    Author Photo

    By granting states legal standing to sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for immigration violations, the Laken Riley Act enables states to block all kinds of federal actions they don't like but provides little reason for them to be invested in positive change, says Jacob Hamburger at Cornell University Law School.

  • Series

    Playing Rugby Makes Me A Better Lawyer

    Author Photo

    My experience playing rugby, including a near-fatal accident, has influenced my legal practice on a professional, organizational and personal level by showing me the importance of maintaining empathy, fostering team empowerment and embracing the art of preparation, says James Gillenwater at Greenberg Traurig.

  • How 2025 NDAA May Affect DOD Procurement Protests

    Author Photo

    A bid protest pilot program included in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act shifts litigation costs onto unsuccessful bid protesters and raises claim-filing thresholds, which could increase risks to U.S. Department of Defense contractors who file protests, and reduce oversight of DOD procurement awards, say attorneys at Venable.

  • Looking Back At 2024's Noteworthy State AG Litigation

    Author Photo

    State attorneys general across the U.S. took bold steps in 2024 to address unlawful activities by corporations in several areas, including privacy and data security, financial transparency, children's internet safety, and other overall consumer protection claims, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • What Broker-Dealers Must Know Before Selling Bitcoin ETPs

    Author Photo

    Interest in bitcoin exchange-traded products is already high, and only expected to grow in light of the incoming Trump administration's pro-crypto stance, but broker-dealers must still consider numerous regulatory requirements before recommending a bitcoin ETP to a client, say Frank Weigand and Justine Woods at Cahill Gordon.

  • Opinion

    A Federal Insurance Mandate For Private Aviation Is Overdue

    Author Photo

    A recent private plane crash in California that killed two people and injured 19 others spotlights the dangers of such occurrences — and serves as a reminder that because there is no federal requirement for general aviation pilots to carry insurance, the victims of these accidents are often unable to obtain fair compensation, says Timothy Loranger at Wisner Baum.

  • Updated FWS Regs Will Streamline Right-Of-Way Permitting

    Author Photo

    Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's final rule covering rights-of-way across lands administered by the service will bring increased up-front fees and stricter permit terms and conditions, it also provides a clearer application process and should reduce permitting delays and total costs, say attorneys at Holland & Hart.

  • Cyber Disclosure Is A Mainstay In 2025 SEC Exam Priorities

    Author Photo

    Despite a new administration and a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chair incoming, the SEC's 2025 examination priorities signal that cybersecurity disclosures and risk management practices will remain important due to the growing threat of cyberattacks, says Anjali Das at Wilson Elser.

  • Reviewing 2024's Evolving EdTech Privacy Regulations

    Author Photo

    Lawmakers are trying to keep up with the privacy and security risks of the increasingly prevalent education technology, with last year's developments including the Federal Trade Commission's proposed amendments to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and the U.S. Senate passing two new children's privacy acts, say attorneys at McDermott.

  • Opinion

    No, Litigation Funders Are Not 'Fleeing' The District Of Del.

    Author Photo

    A recent study claimed that litigation funders have “fled” Delaware federal court due to a standing order requiring disclosure of third-party financing, but responsible funders have no problem litigating in this jurisdiction, and many other factors could explain the decline in filings, say Will Freeman and Sarah Tsou at Omni Bridgeway.

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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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

    Author Photo

    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.

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!