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Public Policy

  • August 04, 2025

    Fla. Tribe Joins Suit Over 'Alligator Alcatraz' In Everglades

    A Florida tribe has joined green groups in hitting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and state officials with environmental claims that the immigration detention center known as "Alligator Alcatraz" constructed in the Everglades violates a slew of federal statutes.

  • August 04, 2025

    Mississippi Judge Won't Explain TRO Errors In Suit Over DEI

    A Mississippi federal judge won't explain how his decision pausing enforcement of a state law barring diversity, equity and inclusion in public schools contained nonexistent allegations, wrongly identified plaintiffs and defendants and quoted terms that don't appear in the legislative text, ruling that the court isn't obligated to do so.

  • August 04, 2025

    FinCEN Urges Industry To Stay 'Vigilant' On Crypto ATM Fraud

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on Monday cautioned about rising fraud involving crypto ATMs, saying criminals are increasingly using the kiosks to launder money and scam vulnerable consumers, especially seniors.

  • August 04, 2025

    DC Circ. Upholds FCC's Foreign Sponsorship Rule

    The D.C. Circuit upheld the Federal Communications Commission's 2024 foreign sponsorship disclosure rule for broadcasters Friday, rejecting arguments that the rule violated First Amendment speech protections and even reprimanding the premature leaking of nonpublic rulemaking details to broadcasters, calling the process a "new low" of industry capture.

  • August 04, 2025

    DOJ Fights Md. Judges' Bid To Ax Suit Over Habeas Orders

    The Department of Justice is standing by its lawsuit challenging a standing order in the District of Maryland that temporarily blocks the deportation of detained noncitizens who file habeas petitions, saying a recent dismissal bid misses the mark because "even a small delay" is "irreparable harm to sovereign interests."

  • August 04, 2025

    Moderna Seeks To Be Cleared In $5B COVID Vax Patent Case

    Moderna has urged a Delaware federal judge to clear it in a rival mRNA developer's $5 billion patent suit over the company's COVID-19 vaccines, saying it is shielded because it made them for the federal government.

  • August 04, 2025

    Conn. Justices Block Rehab Center's Bid To Halt Rival Permit

    A northwestern Connecticut drug rehabilitation facility lacks standing to challenge the state Department of Public Health's approval of a small-town rival's permit, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Monday, holding that a statute does not require regulators to consider effects on local competition when OK'ing new healthcare facilities.

  • August 04, 2025

    EU Court To Hear Digital Nomad Case Against VAT Rules

    A European Union court will hear the case of an online short-term rental company against the bloc's deemed supplier rules for value-added tax on the grounds that the provisions disadvantage the industry, according to a notice issued Monday.

  • August 04, 2025

    Lawmakers Jumpstart Work On Telecom Subsidy Reform

    A working group of U.S. senators focused on reforms to the nation's telecommunications subsidy system has started gathering the public's views on legislation.

  • August 04, 2025

    Texas Bill Seeks Lower Voter-Approval Property Tax Rate

    Texas would reduce its voter-approval property tax rate, or the rate that a local government unit may adopt without voter approval, for large taxing units under a bill introduced in the state Senate.

  • August 04, 2025

    DuPont Inks $2.5B Deal With NJ Over PFAS Pollution

    E.I. du Pont de Nemours and New Jersey have reached a more than $2 billion landmark deal to remedy long-standing "forever chemical" contamination at the company's manufacturing sites across the Garden State, including a longtime facility in Salem County.

  • August 02, 2025

    9th Circ. Backs Limits On ICE Immigration Sweeps In LA

    The Ninth Circuit preserved most of a district court's temporary block on the Trump administration making immigration arrests in the Los Angeles area without probable cause, rejecting the government's request for a stay during its appeal.

  • August 01, 2025

    States Can't Block Trump Admin's Cuts To Science Grants

    A Manhattan federal judge on Friday rejected a request from 16 states to block the Trump administration from cutting millions of dollars in grant funds from the National Science Foundation for scientific research and programs aimed at enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM fields and environmental justice.

  • August 01, 2025

    9th Circ. Lifts Order Halting Trump From Curbing Fed Unions

    The Ninth Circuit on Aug. 1 granted the Trump administration's bid to halt an injunction blocking enforcement of President Donald Trump's executive order axing labor contracts covering agencies with "national security" aims, saying in a published opinion that the government was likely to succeed against six unions' First Amendment retaliation claim.

  • August 01, 2025

    NC Man Warns Justices Of 'Odor Alone' Pot-Search Dangers

    A North Carolina man who pled guilty to firearms charges after police found a weapon in his vehicle after smelling cannabis is urging the state's Supreme Court to find that the odor alone is not enough to establish probable cause, saying the current state of the law means anyone carrying state-legal hemp effectively gives up their Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches.

  • August 01, 2025

    IP Owners Largely Win In Stewart's Newest Discretion Orders

    Acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Coke Morgan Stewart dismissed most of the 50 petitions for inter partes review addressed in her latest decisions over discretionary denials at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

  • August 01, 2025

    NJ Court Will Mull Legality Of Habba's US Atty Appointment

    If Alina Habba was illegally appointed acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, a pair of defendants in a drug trafficking case are not entitled to dismissal of the indictment, but it "appears appropriate" that Habba would be barred from prosecuting them, a federal judge ruled Friday.

  • August 01, 2025

    Right-Wing Duo Cop To Robocall Voter Suppression Charges

    Two Virginia-based right-wing activists accepted a plea on felony charges on Friday for leading a misinformation robocall campaign that discouraged Black voters from voting by mail in the 2020 election, the Michigan attorney general's office announced.

  • August 01, 2025

    DC Circ. Upholds FERC's Limited Review Of Texas Pipeline

    The D.C. Circuit on Friday backed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's decision to limit its review of a Texas pipeline to a 1,000-foot section near the U.S.-Mexico border, saying the agency had reasonably explained why a broader review wasn't required.

  • August 01, 2025

    USPTO Tightens Rules On Patent Challengers' Arguments

    Patent challengers at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board will no longer be able to skirt a requirement that they must identify where all the elements of the patent are found in prior art patents or printed publications, according to a notice from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  • August 01, 2025

    GOP Reps Eye Reforms To Landmark Bank Data Privacy Law

    Republican lawmakers have kicked off a review that could lay the groundwork for new financial data privacy legislation, soliciting public input on whether and how to overhaul a law that governs financial institutions' handling of consumer financial records.

  • August 01, 2025

    Judge Suspends Expedited Removals Of Parolees

    A D.C. federal judge on Friday paused the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's ability to subject noncitizens who were paroled into the country to expedited removal proceedings, finding that DHS' use of the practice on this population exceeded the agency's authority.

  • August 01, 2025

    Trade Deals And Tariff Delays Leave Some Details Unclear

    President Donald Trump again delayed higher tariff rates that were set to take effect Friday, pushing their implementation another week as trade lawyers seek technical details associated with the latest announced framework trade deals, including how transshipped goods will be defined.

  • August 01, 2025

    AGs Sue Trump Over 'Onslaught Of Pressure' On Trans Care

    The Trump administration has improperly "weaponized" federal laws against drug misbranding, false claims and female genital mutilation as part of a pressure campaign to undermine state protections for gender-affirming care, a coalition of state attorneys general argued in a new suit Friday.

  • August 01, 2025

    SEC To Explore Internal Use Of AI With New Task Force

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday that it plans to ramp up its internal use of artificial intelligence tools with a new task force led by a veteran staffer who's recently led the agency's fintech efforts.

Expert Analysis

  • Practical Implications Of SEC's New Crypto Staking Guidance

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent staff guidance that protocol staking does not constitute securities offerings provides a workable compliance blueprint for crypto developers, validators and custodial platforms willing to keep staking strictly limited to protocol-driven rewards, say attorneys at Cahill.

  • Stablecoin Bills Present Opportunities, Challenges For Banks

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    Stablecoin legislation that Congress is expected to adopt in the coming weeks — the GENIUS and STABLE Acts — would create openings for banks to engage in digital asset activities, but it also creates a platform for certain tech-savvy nonbanks to directly compete, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery

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    E-discovery has reached a turning point where document review is no longer just about procedural tasks like identifying relevance and redacting privilege — rather, generative artificial intelligence tools now allow attorneys to draw connections, extract meaning and tell a coherent story, says Rose Jones at Hilgers Graben.

  • New FCPA Guidance May Flip The Whistleblowing Script

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    The U.S. Department of Justice’s updated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act guidelines lay out a new incentive structure that may put multinational U.S.-based companies in an unusual offensive whistleblowing position, potentially spurring them to conduct external investigations of their foreign rivals, says Markus Funk at Perkins Coie.

  • Opinion

    GENIUS Act Could Muck Up Insolvency Proceedings

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    While some of the so-called GENIUS Act's insolvency provisions are straightforward, others run the risk of jeopardizing the success of stablecoin issuers' insolvency proceedings and warrant another look from Congress, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA

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    Amid the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, we can expect to see both plaintiffs and defendants utilizing the decision to revisit the Federal Communications Commission's past Telephone Consumer Protection Act interpretations and decisions they did not like, says Jason McElroy at Saul Ewing.

  • A Look At Florida's New Protected Series LLC Legislation

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    A new law in Florida enhances the flexibility of using limited liability companies as the entities of choice for most privately held businesses, moving Florida into a small group of states with reliable uniform protected series legislation for series LLCs, says Louis Conti at Holland & Knight.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2

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    The second quarter saw California become a more active protector of consumers in response to federal regulatory pullback, with regulators proposing a licensing framework for digital asset businesses, ending an enforcement exemption and otherwise signaling further expansions of oversight and enforcement, say attorneys at Stinson.

  • Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities

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    Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, Devas v. Antrix and Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization, suggest that federal statutes may confer personal jurisdiction over foreign entities that have little to no contact with the U.S. — a significant departure from traditional due process principles, says Gary Shaw at Pillsbury.

  • Opinion

    New USPTO Leadership Must Address Low-Quality Patents

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    With John Squires in line to become the new director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the agency has an opportunity to refocus its mission on prioritizing quality in patent examination and taking a harsher stance against low-quality patents and patent trolls, says Jill Crosby at Engine Advocacy & Foundation.

  • Harmonized Int'l Framework May Boost Advanced Aircraft

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    International differences in the certification process for advanced air mobility aircraft make the current framework insufficient — but U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy's recent announcement of a standards harmonization effort may help promote these innovative aviation technologies, while maintaining safety, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Capital One Deal Approval Lights Up Path For Bank M&A

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    The federal banking regulators' recent approval of Capital One's acquisition of Discover signals the agencies' willingness to approve large transactions and a more favorable environment generally for bank mergers under the Trump administration, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

  • Bills' Defeat Means Brighter Outlook For Texas Renewables

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    The failure of a trio of bills from the recently concluded Texas legislative session that would have imposed new burdens on wind, solar and battery storage projects bodes well for a state with rapidly growing energy needs, say attorneys at Troutman.

  • Examining TCPA Jurisprudence A Year After Loper Bright

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    One year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, lower court decisions demonstrate that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act will continue to evolve as long-standing interpretations of the act are analyzed with a fresh lens, says Aaron Gallardo at Kilpatrick.

  • Opinion

    State Bars Must Probe Misconduct Claims, Even If It's The AG

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    The Florida Bar’s recent refusal to look into misconduct allegations against Attorney General Pam Bondi is dangerous for the rule of law, and other lawyer disciplinary bodies must be prepared to investigate credible claims of ethical lapses against any lawyer, no matter their position, say attorneys James Kobak and Albert Feuer.

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