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Public Policy

  • September 03, 2025

    4th Circ. Says Md. Immunity Doesn't Apply In Tugboat Case

    The Fourth Circuit said Wednesday that a tugboat owner's petition seeking to limit its liability over a 2015 accident involving Maryland's Nanticoke River Memorial Bridge does not infringe on the state's sovereign immunity, so it can proceed in the district court.

  • September 03, 2025

    Mich. Atty Tells Appeals Court He's Worth $1,500 Per Hour

    A Michigan attorney told an appellate panel Wednesday that his track record and experience warrant the $1,500 hourly rate awarded by a trial court which found a city's breach-of-contract suit against his client, a former councilor, was frivolous.

  • September 03, 2025

    Lumen's Bid To Move $1.4B Pension Suit Out Of Colo. Blocked

    A Colorado federal judge on Wednesday rejected Lumen Technologies' request to move to Louisiana a proposed class action alleging it wrongly transferred obligations for a $1.4 billion pension fund to a private equity-controlled insurance company, with the judge finding the venue provision in the pension plan does not apply.

  • September 03, 2025

    Texas Judge Asks Feds How Boeing Deal Serves Public

    A Texas federal judge pressed the U.S. government to explain why he should accept a nonprosecution agreement with Boeing that would let the company escape a criminal case for its role in deadly 737 Max 8 crashes, asking Wednesday how the deal serves the public.

  • September 03, 2025

    Military To Blame For Maine Mass Shooting, Victims Allege

    Victims and relatives of those who died in a 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday accused the U.S. government of failing to stop the Army reservist who opened fire, alleging the military was aware the gunman posed a threat but misled others about his danger.

  • September 03, 2025

    1st Circ. Doubts Eateries' Suit Over Outdoor Dining Limits

    The First Circuit appeared unlikely on Wednesday to revive a suit on behalf of restaurant owners in Boston's North End over the city's restrictions on outdoor dining, repeatedly questioning the basis for the plaintiffs' retaliation claims.

  • September 03, 2025

    Ga. County Board Will Face Black Voter Disenfranchisement Suit

    A Georgia federal judge has refused to dismiss a suit alleging Houston County's at-large method of electing its board of commissioners dilutes Black voting strength in violation of the Voting Rights Act, disagreeing with the board's interpretation of the VRA's rules allowing such suits, among other issues.

  • September 03, 2025

    7th Circ. Judge Probes FDIC's In-House Enforcement Powers

    A Seventh Circuit judge on Wednesday pushed counsel for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to address whether an Illinois community bank's ex-chairman alleging the agency's in-house proceedings are unconstitutional waived his Seventh Amendment right to trial by jury by virtue of working at an institution that participates in the FDIC's insurance program.

  • September 03, 2025

    Fla. Surgeon General Pushes To End State's Vaccine Mandates

    Florida's surgeon general on Wednesday said he intends to work toward undoing all of the state's vaccine mandates, including for schoolchildren.

  • September 03, 2025

    Judge Backs Harvard In Suit Over Trump's $2B Fund Freeze

    The Trump administration illegally froze more than $2 billion in grants earmarked for Harvard University when it failed to offer an explanation as to how cutting the funds addressed the government's stated goal of ending antisemitism on campus, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled Wednesday.

  • September 03, 2025

    Honda Fights FCC Adding Car Technologies To Security List

    Honda has told the Federal Communications Commission that adding certain vehicle technologies to the government's "covered list" of banned devices made in foreign adversary countries would duplicate efforts already being carried out by the U.S. Commerce Department.

  • September 03, 2025

    Hartford Beats State Rep.'s Police Bias Suit, For Now

    The city of Hartford will not have to face a lawsuit alleging the police mishandled a state representative's sexual assault report, for the time being, with a Connecticut federal judge saying the claims are "conclusory and simply state a legal conclusion" that the department customarily mistreats women and Muslims.

  • September 03, 2025

    FCC Chief Aims To End Disputed School Wi-Fi Programs

    The head of the Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday he's looking to overturn two controversial Biden-era FCC programs to fund providing Wi-Fi on school buses and hot spots for students' and library patrons' off-campus use.

  • September 03, 2025

    Wash. Court Pressed To Immediately End EV Funding Freeze

    Clean energy advocates have urged a Washington federal judge to wipe out the Trump administration's decision to freeze funding for new electric-vehicle charging infrastructure, saying the government can't be allowed to drag its feet on a pledge to restore funding.

  • September 03, 2025

    Northwestern Mutual Seeks $23M Tax Refund For Free Meals

    Northwestern Mutual is seeking a refund of $23 million in taxes for on-campus lunches it provided to employees, telling a Wisconsin federal court that the IRS improperly denied the company an exclusion on taxable income for the meals.

  • September 03, 2025

    US Steel Wants Federal Court To Take Clairton Blast Suits

    U.S. Steel claims that litigation by workers injured in an explosion at its Clairton Coke Works facility last month should be handled by a federal court, because federal investigators are overseeing the evidence being demanded by the plaintiffs.

  • September 03, 2025

    Referee Blows Whistle On NBA's Partial Win In Vaccine Fight

    A fired referee suing the NBA for religious discrimination asked a New York federal court to reconsider its ruling that denied him front and back pay, arguing the judge overlooked controlling case law that makes the decision "inappropriate."

  • September 03, 2025

    ND Tribes Ask Supreme Court To Protect Voting Rights Act

    Two North Dakota tribes are asking the Supreme Court to undo an Eighth Circuit decision that prohibits lawsuits against states for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, arguing that if not overturned, the ruling would kneecap the main federal protection against racial discrimination in voting.

  • September 03, 2025

    Tech, Small Biz Groups Push Against Value-Based Patent Fees

    An array of groups representing tech companies, small businesses and more wrote a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, urging them to oppose the Trump administration's reported plan to charge patent owners a new fee based on the value of their patents.

  • September 03, 2025

    Pick For Del.'s 3rd Circ. Seat Questioned On Ties To The State

    Jennifer L. Mascott, nominee for a Delaware seat on the Third Circuit who is currently serving in the White House Counsel's Office, came under questioning from Democrats on Wednesday regarding her lack of connections to the state and her qualifications for the judgeship.

  • September 03, 2025

    Arkansas Insurance Rule Beats Union Plan's ERISA Challenge

    An Illinois federal judge has tossed a Teamsters healthcare plan's challenge to an Arkansas insurance regulation that aims to protect local pharmacies from under-reimbursement for prescription drugs, saying the regulation doesn't tread on the Employee Retirement Income Security Act's territory.

  • September 03, 2025

    EPA Withdraws Slaughterhouse Water Pollution Rule

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday withdrew a Biden-era proposal that would have imposed stricter water discharge regulations on meat and poultry slaughtering, processing and rendering facilities across the country.

  • September 03, 2025

    Manhattan DA To Target Wage-Fixing With Antitrust Laws

    Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Wednesday that his office plans to be the first to use New York's criminal antitrust laws against companies that collude to keep workers' wages low.

  • September 03, 2025

    France To Tackle Tax Avoidance By Wealthy, Minister Says

    France is planning to tackle tax avoidance by wealthy individuals, an endeavor aimed at raising €2 billion ($2.3 billion), the country's budget minister said Wednesday.

  • September 03, 2025

    Calif. Senate Panel OKs Property Tax Break For Tribes

    Native American tribes in California would be eligible for open space exemptions to property taxes under legislation approved by a state Senate panel that's heading for a final vote.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • New FCPA Guidance Creates 5 Compliance Imperatives

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    In light of new Foreign Corrupt Practices Act guidelines that mark a fundamental shift in enforcement priorities, companies should consider several specific steps to ensure compliance, from enhanced due diligence to robust whistleblower protections, says Andrew Wirmani at Reese Marketos.

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