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Public Policy
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September 04, 2025
Doc Tells 1st Circ. Acquitted Conduct Marred Drug Sentence
A Massachusetts psychiatrist convicted over an alleged scheme to import and dispense nonapproved forms of addiction medication on Thursday told the First Circuit the trial judge wrongly ran afoul of limitations on the consideration of acquitted conduct in federal sentencings when handing him a three-year prison term.
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September 04, 2025
Philip Morris Gets Wash. Tobacco Deal Fight Sent To Arbitrator
A Washington state judge has ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to arbitrate rival Philip Morris USA Inc.'s claims that it breached a 2017 deal delineating billions of dollars in annual payments owed to states for Big Tobacco's public health toll by signing a new $277 million agreement with Washington in April.
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September 04, 2025
Courts' Curb Of Fast Removals Shows Due Process Concerns
Two D.C. federal court rulings that curbed the Trump administration's use of an expedited process to deport noncitizens, as well as high court rulings on removals in general, show judges are keen to preserve due process rights for immigrants.
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September 04, 2025
Trump Says 'Century-Old' Precedent Backs Fed Gov.'s Firing
President Donald Trump on Thursday hit back at Federal Reserve Board Gov. Lisa Cook's motion seeking to block her termination from the central bank, telling a Washington, D.C., federal court that Cook was ignoring "century-old" U.S. Supreme Court precedent that he says forecloses review of her removal for cause.
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September 04, 2025
Rural Carriers Call For Expanding Universal Service Aid
Congress needs to provide more direct aid to rural telecom carriers if it wants connectivity to reach every household in the country, those telecom carriers told House legislators in a recent letter.
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September 04, 2025
Chevron, Exxon Kick Off High Court La. Pollution Case
Chevron and Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Fifth Circuit's ruling that Louisiana state court, not federal court, is the proper venue for claims that their World War II-era oil production activities violated state law.
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September 04, 2025
SEC, ÃÛÌÒÊÓÆµ Rulemaking Agendas Show Deregulatory Push
Federal regulators overseeing the financial services sector on Thursday unveiled new rulemaking agendas that they say will return their agencies to their core missions with policies to define authority and limit compliance burdens.
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September 04, 2025
Seattle Police Free From Federal Oversight After 13 Years
Seattle police have demonstrated "sustained compliance" with a federal consent decree put in place more than 13 years ago in response to the department's allegedly unconstitutional use of force, a Washington federal judge has ruled, returning full control of the department to city leaders.
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September 04, 2025
USDOT Scraps Airline Refund Rule In Deregulatory Push
The U.S. Department of Transportation is abandoning airline passengers' rights and other consumer protection regulations proposed by the Biden administration as President Donald Trump advances his deregulatory push, according to the White House's updated regulatory agenda released Thursday.
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September 04, 2025
Justices Asked To Block FTC Commissioner Reinstatement
The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to block the reinstatement of Democratic Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter while it appeals a ruling that found her firing was illegal, and also asked the high court to take up the case.
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September 04, 2025
Ga. Officer Beats Tornado Failure To Warn Claims, Panel Says
A Georgia sheriff's office lieutenant can't be held liable for a family's death and injuries in a tornado after she failed to activate the county's warning siren system, a state appellate court said Thursday, ruling that her duties extended only to the public in a general sense rather than to individuals.
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September 04, 2025
CTIA's Pai Projects Smooth Mobile Transition In Upper C-Band
Ajit Pai, the onetime leader of the Federal Communications Commission who now runs wireless trade group CTIA, foresees a relatively smooth transition to mobile services in the upper C-band airwaves — as long as the FCC plays its cards right.
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September 04, 2025
EPA Touts 'Ambitious' New Deregulatory Agenda
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday laid out its regulatory agenda for the coming months, and said it intends to revisit or roll back Biden-era initiatives in several areas, including water, climate change and chemical regulations.
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September 04, 2025
10th Circ. Backs Firearms Ban For Those Under Indictment
The Tenth Circuit has upheld a ban on receiving firearms while under federal criminal indictment, finding a Utah man did not have his rights violated under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Bruen decision.
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September 04, 2025
NY AG Appeals Toss Of $500M Trump Fine In Civil Fraud Case
New York's attorney general said Thursday she will challenge an appeals court's decision to throw out what it called an "excessive" $489 million civil fraud penalty against President Donald Trump and his sons, his companies, and executives of his companies.
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September 04, 2025
Ex-Pandemic Office Inspector General Tapped To Be US Atty
Brian Miller, the former special inspector general for pandemic recovery, has been quietly tapped to be a U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.Â
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September 04, 2025
Wash. Justices Endorse Broad View Of Pay Transparency Law
Washington state's high court held in a 6-3 ruling Thursday that a job applicant may sue a prospective employer for violating a state law requiring job postings to include wage scales without proving they are a "bona fide" or "good faith" applicant, rejecting employers' bid to narrow that definition amid a wave of lawsuits.
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September 04, 2025
Albertsons Says Kroger CEO Docs Fair Game In Del. Suit
An attorney for Albertsons Companies Inc. told a Delaware vice chancellor Thursday the food and drugstore giant should get access to The Kroger Co.'s documents related to CEO Rodney McMullen's abrupt exit from the job months after the collapse of the two companies' planned $25 billion merger.
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September 04, 2025
Ex-Aide To Newark, NJ's Mayor Admits Fraud Conspiracy
A former senior aide to the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud in connection with a cash-for-permits bribery scheme, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
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September 04, 2025
Feds Don't Have Immunity In NM Wildfire Row, Court Told
The U.S. Forest Service's failure to comply with a plan for the Santa Fe National Forest means it cannot avoid liability by invoking an "overarching discretionary enterprise" of prescribed burning that led to the destruction of nearly 43,000 acres, a New Mexico tribe, an electric cooperative and others argue.
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September 04, 2025
DOJ Moves To End Challenge To RFK Jr.'s Vaccine Directive
The Justice Department is seeking a quick exit from a suit challenging Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s directive recommending against the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women and children, telling a Massachusetts federal court Thursday that the three women and coalition of medical associations behind the suit can't demonstrate a link between the directive and any potential injuries.
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September 04, 2025
Empty Advisory Boards Have Attys Worried About USPTO
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard W. Lutnick removed all members of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's public advisory committees in March and those seats have remained empty, raising concerns that the agency's leadership is operating in an echo chamber.
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September 04, 2025
Ill. Toymakers Ask Justices To Resolve Tariff Suit Venue Split
A pair of toymakers asked the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday to resolve a jurisdictional dispute concerning challenges to President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs, saying the justices should hear their case at the D.C. Circuit along with the federal government's just-filed appeal of a Federal Circuit decision that invalidated Trump's tariffs.
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September 04, 2025
Monthly Merger Review Snapshot
The Justice Department settled a challenge to UnitedHealth's $3.3 billion home hospice acquisition while Democrats called for a judge to reject a different government settlement and the Federal Trade Commission moved against medical technologies transactions for heart valves and device coatings.
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September 04, 2025
Judge Questions Defense Dept. Cap On Research Costs
A Massachusetts federal judge weighing whether to vacate a U.S. Department of Defense cap on administrative costs for research funding programs said Thursday that the government appeared to have ignored a series of injunctions in similar challenges to Trump administration grant cuts and terminations when it imposed the across-the-board limits.
Expert Analysis
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Opinion
4 Former Justices Would Likely Frown On Litigation Funding
As courts increasingly confront cases involving hidden litigation finance contracts, the jurisprudence of four former U.S. Supreme Court justices establishes a constitutional framework that risks erosion by undisclosed financial interests, says Roland Eisenhuth at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.
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Congress Crypto Movement Could Bring CFTC 'Clarity' At Last
The Clarity Act's arrival at the House floor during "Crypto Week" in Congress demonstrates enduring bipartisan support for legislation addressing digital assets and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's important role in a future regulatory structure, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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What Employers Can Learn From Axed Mo. Sick Leave Law
Missouri's recent passage and brisk repeal of Proposition A, which would have created a paid sick time benefit for employees, serves as a case study for employers, highlighting the steps they can take to adapt as paid sick leave laws are increasingly debated across the country, say attorneys at Foley & Lardner.
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Preparing For Trump Pushback Against State Climate Laws
An April executive order from President Donald Trump mandated a report from the U.S. attorney general on countering so-called state overreach in climate policy, and while that report has yet to appear, companies can expect that it will likely call for using litigation, legislation and funding to actively reshape energy policy, say attorneys at Bracewell.
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Practical Implications Of SEC's New Crypto Staking Guidance
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.
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Stablecoin Bills Present Opportunities, Challenges For Banks
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.
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How Attys Can Use AI To Surface Narratives In E-Discovery
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.
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New FCPA Guidance May Flip The Whistleblowing Script
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.
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Opinion
GENIUS Act Could Muck Up Insolvency Proceedings
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.
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How McKesson Ruling Will Inform Interpretations Of The TCPA
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.
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A Look At Florida's New Protected Series LLC Legislation
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.
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Series
Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q2
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.
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Justices Rethink Minimum Contacts For Foreign Entities
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.
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Opinion
New USPTO Leadership Must Address Low-Quality Patents
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.
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Harmonized Int'l Framework May Boost Advanced Aircraft
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.