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Public Policy
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June 30, 2025
Lin Wood Can't Avoid Legal Costs In Defamation Case
A Georgia federal judge has found that retired attorney L. Lin Wood can't escape paying his former law partners $750,000 in attorney fees and costs related to a $3.75 million defamation verdict against him, rejecting his argument that the statute governing attorney fees was unconstitutional.
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June 30, 2025
Apple Can't Duck DOJ Monopolization Lawsuit
A New Jersey federal judge refused Monday to let Apple duck the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit accusing the company of monopolizing smartphone markets, crediting DOJ allegations about the restrictions Apple imposes on iMessage, smartwatch compatibility, mobile wallets, cloud gaming and more.
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June 30, 2025
FCC Chair Seeks To Deny COVID Waiver In Lifeline Subsidy
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is calling on his fellow commissioners to reject a proposal from Lifeline providers to extend the program's COVID-era non-usage rule waiver for one day, saying that moving the cutoff date would cost the public millions of dollars.
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June 30, 2025
Tillis Doesn't Plan Roadblocks On Judiciary Nominations
Following his announcement on Sunday that he won't be seeking reelection, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who previously sank President Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told Law360 on Monday that his approach to judiciary nominations won't change.
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June 30, 2025
Real Estate Groups Say NYC Broker Fee Ban Is Raising Rents
Real estate trade groups, landlords and brokers have told a New York federal court to block the enforcement of a New York City law that bans broker fees in certain circumstances, arguing that the local law is raising rents and that it needs to be blocked while they appeal the dismissal of several claims.
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June 30, 2025
High Court Rejects Challenge To NM Nuke Storage Site
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said a mineral owner could not challenge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's approval of a temporary nuclear waste storage facility in New Mexico.
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June 30, 2025
Judge Hits Pause On Civil RICO Suit Against NJ Power Broker
A New Jersey judge has entered a consent order pausing a real estate developer's civil racketeering suit against influential South Jersey businessman George Norcross III, holding the parties' dispute in stasis until an appeal over the dismissal of a related criminal indictment can be resolved.
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June 30, 2025
RI Allows Local Tax Amnesty Programs For Every 3 Years
Rhode Island authorized municipalities to establish local tax amnesty programs every three years to give people and businesses a chance to resolve outstanding property tax liabilities without accruing interest under legislation signed by the governor.
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June 30, 2025
Justices Say Another Biofuel Waiver Case Fits In DC Circ.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that the D.C. Circuit was the proper venue for challenges to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's denial of biofuel waivers to small refiners, the high court on Monday granted summary disposition in another pending case on the same subject.
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June 30, 2025
Justices Let Stand IRS' Summons For Coinbase User's Info
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Monday a cryptocurrency investor's challenge to an IRS summons for his financial records from the exchange Coinbase, letting stand a First Circuit ruling that upheld limitations on privacy rights for records held by third-party financial institutions.
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June 30, 2025
Ex-Ohio Speaker Calls 6th Circ. Bribery Ruling A 'Stretch'
Former Ohio House of Representatives Speaker Larry Householder urged the Sixth Circuit to rethink its decision to stand by his bribery conviction over the FirstEnergy nuclear bailout scandal that got him 20 years in prison, arguing the panel made "an illegal stretch" in assuming the jurors undertook proper analysis despite allegedly improper instructions.
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June 30, 2025
Trump Administration Says Harvard Violated Civil Rights Law
The Trump administration on Monday informed Harvard University that it had run afoul of federal civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students on campus from harassment, and threatened to cut all funding from the nation's oldest university.
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June 30, 2025
High Court Takes GOP Challenge To Election Spending Limits
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it would review caps on how much political parties can spend on elections in coordination with candidates in a case brought by Vice President JD Vance and Republican organizations.
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June 30, 2025
Justices Undo Patients' Win In Gender-Affirming Care Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down a Fourth Circuit decision that preserved access to gender-affirming care under two state-run health plans, telling the lower court to consider a recent decision by the justices that upheld a Tennessee law limiting treatments for young transgender people.
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June 30, 2025
High Court Won't Review Kentucky's Smog Plan Challenge
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the Sixth Circuit's refusal to transfer Kentucky's challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's disapproval of its ozone control plan to the D.C. Circuit, after ruling such cases belong in regional circuit courts.Â
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June 30, 2025
High Court Won't Review Landlords' COVID Eviction Ban Suit
A split U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review a petition filed by billionaire developer and landlord Geoffrey Palmer that sought to recover $100 million by claiming harm from an eviction moratorium Los Angeles imposed after the outbreak of COVID-19.
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June 30, 2025
Supreme Court Won't Take On CWA Suit Over Wash. Port Regs
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to wade into a dispute between a Washington state port and an environmental group over whether citizen suits seeking to enforce state permitting conditions that go beyond the Clean Water Act can proceed in federal court.
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June 30, 2025
Justices Pass On Free Speech Challenge To Ga. Strip Club Tax
The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it will not review a decision by Georgia's highest court that said a state tax on strip clubs that's used to fund efforts to address child trafficking does not violate the First Amendment.
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June 28, 2025
DOJ OKs $14B HPE-Juniper Deal With Small-Biz WiFi Unit Sale
The U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement Saturday with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, clearing the tech giant's $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks by requiring the divestiture of a WiFi network business geared toward small firms.
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June 27, 2025
Feds Use Fortress-Backed NPE Suit To Encourage Injunctions
The federal government acted in line with the administration's strong pro-patent owner policies when, seemingly out of nowhere, it stepped into a little-known Texas patent case and promoted injunctions for nonpracticing entities, attorneys say. But there are suggestions that it may not be so random, as the patent owner may have ties to the nominee for U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director.
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June 27, 2025
Trump's Susman Godfrey 'Sword Of Damocles' Order Tossed
A Washington, D.C., federal judge Friday struck down as unconstitutional President Donald Trump's executive order targeting Susman Godfrey LLP, saying it was issued in retaliation for the firm's representation of clients and causes with which the president disagrees, while hanging "like the sword of Damocles" over the BigLaw firm.
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June 27, 2025
Texas Justices OK Methodist Church's Suit Against SMU
The Texas Supreme Court found the United Methodist Church has the right to sue Southern Methodist University over its attempted split, but in a Friday opinion drew short of saying the university filed false paperwork as part of the breakup.
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June 27, 2025
DC Judge Asks If WH Can Pull Clearances Based On Bias
The D.C. federal judge overseeing national security lawyer Mark S. Zaid's challenge to being stripped of his clearances had some hard questions Friday for the government's attorney, asking if President Donald Trump stripped clearances from attorneys for being Catholic meant they could judicially challenge him.
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June 27, 2025
Texas Justices Say Paxton Can Keep Jan. 6 Records
The Texas Supreme Court found that Attorney General Ken Paxton does not have to cough up his communications during and after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, saying in a Friday opinion only the state's high court may issue orders compelling executive officers to certain actions.
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June 27, 2025
Senate Republican Plan Would Cut ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ Funds, Keep PCAOB
U.S. Senate Banking Committee Republicans' latest budget bill plans have dropped a push to dismantle the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and pivoted to a lesser — but still severe — cut to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding.Â
Expert Analysis
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Section 899 Could Be A Costly Tax Shift For US Borrowers
Intended to deter foreign governments from applying unfair taxes to U.S. companies, the proposal adding new Section 899 to the Internal Revenue Code would more likely increase tax burdens on U.S. borrowers than non-U.S. lenders unless Congress limits its scope, says Michael Bolotin at Debevoise.
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Calif. Bar Exam Fiasco Shows Why Attys Must Disclose AI Use
The recent revelation that a handful of questions from the controversial California bar exam administered in February were drafted using generative artificial intelligence demonstrates the continued importance of disclosure for attorneys who use AI tools, say attorneys at Troutman.
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The Sentencing Guidelines Are Commencing A New Era
Sweeping new amendments to the U.S. sentencing guidelines — including the elimination of departure provisions — intended to promote transparency and individualized justice while still guarding against unwarranted disparities will have profound consequences for all stakeholders, say attorneys at Blank Rome.
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The State Of Play For Bank Merger Act Applications
Both the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recent reversal of changes to its bank merger policies and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s rescission of its 2024 statement may be relevant for all banks considering a transaction, as responsibility for review depends on the identity of the parties and the transaction structure, say attorneys at Davis Polk.
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Del. Corporate Law Rework May Not Stem M&A Challenges
While Delaware's S.B. 21 introduced significant changes regarding controllers and conflicted transactions by limiting what counts as a controlling stake and improving safe harbors, which would seem to narrow the opportunities to challenge a transaction as conflicted, plaintiffs bringing shareholder derivative claims may merely become more resourceful in asserting them, say attorneys at Debevoise.
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State AGs' Focus On Single-Firm Conduct Is Gaining Traction
Despite changes in administration, both federal antitrust agencies and state attorneys general have shown a trending interest in prosecuting monopolization cases involving single-firm conduct, with federal and state legislative initiatives encouraging and assisting states’ aggressive posture, says Steve Vieux at Bartko Pavia.
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What Parity Rule Freeze Means For Plan Sponsors
In light of a District of Columbia federal court’s recent decision to stay litigation challenging a Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act final rule, as well as federal agencies' subsequent decision to hold off on enforcement, attorneys at Morgan Lewis discuss the statute’s evolution and what plan sponsors and participants can expect going forward.
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Max Pressure On Iran May Raise Secondary Sanctions Risk
New sanctions designations announced June 6 are the latest in a slew of actions the administration has taken to put pressure on Iran’s military programs and petroleum exports that will likely increase non-U.S. businesses’ secondary sanctions risk, says John Sandage at Berliner Corcoran.
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Platforms Face Section 230 Shift From Take It Down Act
The federal Take It Down Act, signed into law last month, aims to combat deepfake pornography with criminal penalties for individual wrongdoers, but the notice and takedown provisions change the broad protections provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in ways that directly affect platform providers, say attorneys at Troutman.
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4 Midyear Employer Actions To Reinforce Compliance
The legal and political landscape surrounding what the government describes as unlawful diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives has become increasingly complex over the past six months, and the midyear juncture presents a strategic opportunity to reinforce commitments to legal integrity, workplace equity and long-term operational resilience, say attorneys at Krevolin & Horst.
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ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ's Guidance Withdrawal Deepens Industry Uncertainty
Following the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent withdrawal of dozens of guidance documents in a post-Chevron world, financial services providers are left to make their own determinations about the complex issues addressed in the now-revoked materials, presenting a significant compliance burden, say attorneys at Bradley Arant.
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Justices Widen Gap Between Federal, Calif. Enviro Reviews
While the U.S. Supreme Court's recent opinion in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, narrowed the scope of National Environmental Policy Act reviews, it may have broadened the gulf between reviews conducted under NEPA and those under the California Environmental Quality Act, say attorneys at Hanson Bridgett.
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In 2nd Place, Va. 'Rocket Docket' Remains Old Reliable
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia was again one of the fastest civil trial courts in the nation last year, and an interview with the court’s newest judge provides insights into why it continues to soar, says Robert Tata at Hunton.
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SEC Signals Opening For Private Fund Investment Reform
At SEC Speaks in late May, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made clear that it's considering allowing registered funds of private funds to be offered broadly to true retail investors, meaning existing funds should review their disclosures focusing on conflicts of interest, liquidity and fees, say attorneys at Stradley Ronon.
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CIPA May Not Be Necessary To Protect Ad Tech Plaintiffs
A California bill designed to protect businesses from advertising technology claims under the California Invasion of Privacy Act by amending the act retroactively has been highly contested by various consumer advocacy groups, but other existing law may sufficiently protect any plaintiff who suffers actual harm from such tech, says Justin Donoho at Duane Morris.