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Public Policy

  • July 10, 2025

    DOL Urges 9th Circ. To OK Toss Of HP 401(k) Forfeiture Suit

    The U.S. Department of Labor urged the Ninth Circuit to reject HP Inc. workers' bid to revive a proposed class action alleging forfeited employee 401(k) plan contributions were mismanaged, arguing a lower court properly tossed the case for failure to state a claim for violating federal benefits law.

  • July 10, 2025

    Senate Confirms Gould As OCC Head

    The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Jones Day partner Jonathan Gould as Comptroller of the Currency in a 50-45 vote along party lines, marking his return to the agency where he spent more than two years as chief counsel.

  • July 10, 2025

    Navigation Co. Says Study 'Validates' GPS Backup Plan

    Geolocation company NextNav Inc. told the Federal Communications Commission in a letter Wednesday that detractors of its proposal to use the lower 900 MHz spectrum to deploy an Earth-based backstop for the Global Positioning System have raised unfounded concerns and mischaracterized an engineering study supporting its proposal.

  • July 10, 2025

    Texas Judge Partially Voids DOL's ERISA Rollover Rule

    A Texas federal judge partially invalidated an investment advice regulation from President Donald Trump's first administration involving employee retirement savings and rollover transactions, ruling the U.S. Department of Labor exceeded its authority when it handed down a new interpretation of federal benefits law.

  • July 10, 2025

    Trump Says 50% Copper Tariff Will Begin Aug. 1

    President Donald Trump said his new 50% tariff on copper imports will take effect Aug. 1, citing national security concerns.

  • July 10, 2025

    Dems Say 3rd Circ. Nominee Urged DOJ To Ignore Courts

    Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee on Thursday unveiled 150 pages of documents, which they say substantiate whistleblower allegations against Third Circuit nominee Emil Bove and raise concerns about his conduct during his tenure at the U.S. Department of Justice.

  • July 10, 2025

    5 Employee Benefits Takeaways On The GOP Tax Bill

    Congressional Republicans' sweeping tax and policy bill, which President Donald Trump sought and then signed, contains multiple provisions that caught the attention of employee benefits and executive compensation attorneys, including new changes to high-deductible health plans and an employer-side deduction limit affecting highly compensated employees. Here are five takeaways from employee benefits and executive compensation attorneys on what's in — and out of — the GOP megabill.

  • July 10, 2025

    Fla. Can't Enforce Residency Rule On Some Canvassers

    A Florida federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking state officials from enforcing residency and citizenship requirements for paid canvassers aligned with some sponsors and supporters of ballot initiatives, finding the blanket ban violates the First Amendment.

  • July 10, 2025

    Judge Blocks Trump's Birthright Citizenship Order Nationwide

    A New Hampshire federal judge on Thursday issued a nationwide block of President Donald Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship, and granted certification to a nationwide class that will cover all affected children born in the U.S.

  • July 09, 2025

    Judge Unlikely To Halt ATF Return Of 'Machine Gun' Triggers

    A Maryland federal judge said she was unlikely to block settlements between the federal government and gun-component manufacturers allowing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to return "forced reset triggers" to their owners and questioned the standing of states that claim the returns would break their laws.

  • July 09, 2025

    Trump Slaps Brazil With 50% Tariff, Cites Bolsonaro Trial

    President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Brazilian goods sent to the U.S. can expect a 50% tariff starting in August, saying that the increased levy was in part due to Brazil's charges against its former president, Jair Bolsonaro.

  • July 09, 2025

    Iowa Urges Judge Not To Block Law Regulating PBMs

    The state of Iowa urged a federal judge Tuesday not to halt enforcement of state restrictions on pharmacy benefit managers that took effect earlier this month, arguing that most of the challenged law doesn't apply to the health plans and employers seeking to enjoin it.

  • July 09, 2025

    Sierra Club Says OMB Ignoring Funding Freeze Info Requests

    The Office of Management and Budget's refusal to produce records concerning the Trump administration's freeze of federal funding programs is impeding the Sierra Club's mission to advocate for and educate the public about pressing public health and environmental issues, the environmental organization alleged Tuesday in California federal court.

  • July 09, 2025

    Senate Confirms Airline Executive To Lead FAA

    The U.S. Senate Wednesday largely voted along party lines to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Federal Aviation Administration.

  • July 09, 2025

    Senators Weigh Principles To Guide Crypto Market Rules

    Senate Democrats and a former chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission homed in on the importance of preserving the strength of existing securities laws during a Wednesday hearing where senators and industry experts previewed their priorities for the chamber’s coming crypto market structure proposal.

  • July 09, 2025

    Trump Admin Beats Injunction Bid Over Deleted Webpages

    A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Sierra Club and other nonprofits' request for a preliminary injunction forcing federal agencies to restore webpages the groups said provided critical environmental information, saying they hadn't shown keeping the status quo while their case is pending would cause irreparable harm.

  • July 09, 2025

    Ohio Officials Sued Over $600M In Funds For Browns Stadium

    The transfer of $600 million in unclaimed property funds to the Cleveland Browns to help finance a proposed new suburban stadium for the NFL team is an "unconstitutional and unlawful misappropriation of private property,'' a group of unclaimed-property owners alleged in a proposed class action in Ohio state court against several state officials.

  • July 09, 2025

    USPTO Defends Termination Of Art Project Patent App

    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday defended its decision to sanction an art kit company that hired a patent services business that used a licensed practitioner's signature in a patent application without permission, saying it had the authority to terminate the application.

  • July 09, 2025

    FCC Targets Older Regulations On Phone Service 'Slamming'

    The Federal Communications Commission will take a close look during its July meeting at whether to consolidate or even scrap a bevy of rules against "slamming," or the unauthorized switching of phone services to a new provider.

  • July 09, 2025

    7th Circ. Nixes Rail Sharing Order Power For Subpar Service

    Federal regulators can't give themselves power to order rail carriers to share shipments with their rivals unless the incumbent railroad's service is "inadequate," a Seventh Circuit panel said in striking a Surface Transportation Board rule designed to empower such mandates when service merely fails certain reliability metrics.

  • July 09, 2025

    EPA Sued Over Oil Refineries' Hydrogen Fluoride Use

    A group of environmental advocates has hauled the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency into California federal court to stop the use of hydrogen fluoride in domestic oil manufacturing refineries, arguing it's endangering the public and the Toxic Substances Control Act requires that the agency eliminate those risks through regulations.

  • July 09, 2025

    DOJ Atty Floats Axing Removal Law As Only Fix For Adversaries

    A U.S. Department of Justice attorney suggested that killing the expedited removal statute, which enables the swift expulsion of unauthorized immigrants, is the only hypothetical relief that a court can offer a group challenging President Donald Trump's expansion of the law.

  • July 09, 2025

    LA County, Cities Want In On Immigration Enforcement Suit

    Los Angeles County and several of its cities have urged a California federal court to let them join a proposed class action that seeks to stop the Trump administration from continuing what officials say are unconstitutional immigration raids in their communities.

  • July 09, 2025

    Water Co. Can't Charge Customers $42M, Conn. Justices Say

    State regulators lawfully rejected Eversource subsidiary Aquarion Water Co. of Connecticut's 2022 request to increase rates by $42 million to pay for plant additions, but they wrongly scuttled the utility's $1.5 million bid to recover conservation expenses, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

  • July 09, 2025

    Suit Challenges Colo. Abortion Parental Notice Law

    An OB-GYN asked a Colorado state judge on Tuesday to block the state's requirement for minors seeking an abortion to give notice to a parent, saying it runs afoul of a 2024 amendment to the Colorado Constitution.

Expert Analysis

  • 5 Open Questions About FDA's AI-Assisted Review Plans

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    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently touted the completion of a generative artificial intelligence program for scientific reviewers and plans for agencywide deployment to speed up reviews of premarket applications, but there is considerable uncertainty surrounding the tools' ability to protect trade secrets, avoid bias and more, say attorneys at King & Spalding.

  • Bid Protest Spotlight: Jurisdiction, Price Range, Late-Is-Late

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    In this month's bid protest roundup, Thomas Lee at MoFo examines three May decisions from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims examining the court’s jurisdiction to rescind an executive order, the impact of agency error in establishing a competitive price range and application of the late-is-late rule to an electronic filing.

  • How Trump Administration's Antitrust Agenda Is Playing Out

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    Under the current antitrust agency leadership, the latest course in merger enforcement, regulatory approach and key sectors shows a marked shift from Biden-era practices and includes a return to remedies and the commitment to remain focused on the bounds of U.S. law, say attorneys at Wilson Sonsini.

  • Justices' Ruling Lowers Bar For Reverse Discrimination Suits

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous opinion in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, lowering the evidentiary burden for plaintiffs bringing so-called reverse discrimination claims, may lead to more claims brought by majority group employees — and open the door to legal challenges to employer diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, say attorneys at Ice Miller.

  • Fed's Crypto Guidance Yank Could Drive Innovation

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    The Federal Reserve Board's recent withdrawal of guidance letters brings regulatory consistency and broadens banks' ability to innovate in the crypto-asset space, but key distinctions remain between the Fed's policy on crypto liquidity and that of the other banking regulators, says Dan Hartman at Nutter.

  • DOE Grant Recipients Facing Termination Have Legal Options

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    Federal grant recipients whose awards have recently been rescinded by the U.S. Deparment of Energy have options for successfully challenging those terminations through litigation, say attorneys at Bracewell.

  • Attacks On Judicial Independence Tend To Manifest In 3 Ways

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    Attacks on judicial independence now run the gamut from gross (bald-faced interference) to systemic (structural changes) to insidious (efforts to undermine public trust), so lawyers, judges and the public must recognize the fateful moment in which we live and defend the rule of law every day, says Jim Moliterno at Washington and Lee University.

  • Loophole To Budget Bill's AI Rule May Complicate Tech Regs

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    An exception in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that could allow state and local governments to develop ostensibly technology-neutral laws that nonetheless circumvent the bill’s ban on state artificial intelligence regulation could unintentionally create a more complex regulatory environment for technologies beyond AI, says Pooya Shoghi at Lee & Hayes.

  • A Look At Texas Corp. Law Changes Aimed At Dethroning Del.

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    Seeking to displace Delaware as the preferred locale for incorporation, Texas recently significantly amended its business code, including changes like codifying the business judgment rule, restricting books and records demands, and giving greater protections for officers and directors in interested transactions, say attorneys at Fenwick.

  • Prior Art Ruling Highlights Importance Of Detailed Elaboration

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    The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent decision in Ecto World v. RAI Strategic Holdings shows that when there is a possibility for discretionary denial, and the examiner has potentially overlooked prior art, patent owners should elaborate on as many of the denial factors as possible, says Frank Bernstein at Squire Patton.

  • Dissecting House And Senate's Differing No-Tax-On-Tips Bills

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    Employers should understand how the House and Senate versions of no-tax-on-tips bills differ — including in the scope of related deductions and reporting requirements — to meet any new compliance obligations and communicate with their employees, say attorneys at Greenberg Traurig.

  • OCC's Digital Embrace Delivers Risk, Opportunity For Banks

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    As the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency continues to release and seek more information on banks' participation in the crypto-asset arena, institutions may see greater opportunity to pursue digital asset and custody services, but must simultaneously educate themselves on transformations occurring throughout the industry, says Kirstin Kanski at Spencer Fane.

  • High Court Birthright Case Could Reshape Judicial Power

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    Recent arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in cases challenging President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order primarily focused on federal judges’ power to issue nationwide injunctions and suggest that the upcoming decision may fundamentally change how federal courts operate, says Mauni Jalali at Quinn Emanuel.

  • Justices Hand Agencies Broad Discretion In NEPA Review

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    By limiting the required scope of reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County could weaken the review process under NEPA, while also raising questions regarding the degree of deference afforded to agencies, say attorneys at Foley Hoag.

  • Remediation Still Reigns Despite DOJ's White Collar Shake-Up

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    Though the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently announced corporate enforcement policy changes adopt a softer tone acknowledging the risks of overregulation, the DOJ has not shifted its compliance and remediation expectations, which remain key to more favorable resolutions, say Jonny Frank, Michele Edwards and Chris Hoyle at StoneTurn.

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