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Public Policy
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October 23, 2025
USPTO'S October Layoffs Affected 126 Workers
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's recent layoffs have affected 126 workers, who will be removed from the agency's books by Dec. 9, according to a notice filed with the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.
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October 23, 2025
Wash. Justices Skeptical Of Debtor's Collection Notice Stance
Washington Supreme Court justices appeared wary Thursday of second-guessing a Seattle federal judge who asked them to decide whether a hospital billing disclosure law applies to debt collectors, as the plaintiff in the underlying proposed class action pressed the court to "reformulate" the certified question. Â
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October 23, 2025
Ex-Mich. Speaker Aide Cops To Embezzlement, Will Testify
A former top staffer for former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield pled guilty to embezzling from a political nonprofit while working for the state and, as part of a plea deal, has agreed to provide "truthful testimony in future hearings," according to an announcement made Thursday.
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October 23, 2025
NY AG Sues Vape Shop Owners For Selling To Kids
New York's attorney general is looking to permanently shut down two smoke shops and ban their owners from ever working in the vape industry again, claiming they flagrantly sold illegal flavored vapes to customers including children, according to a petition filed Oct. 23.
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October 23, 2025
Ky. Rep. Revives Attempt To Abolish PTAB, Expand Eligibility
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said Thursday he's again attempting to overhaul the patent system, including abolishing the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, normalizing injunctions and broadening what can be patented.
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October 23, 2025
Debt Co. Owner Says sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½ Erred With $5.8M Restitution Bid
A U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau bid for $5.8 million in restitution against a manager of a now-shuttered debt relief company should be denied because it does not take into account refunds that customers have already received, a California federal judge has been told.
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October 23, 2025
Split DC Circ. Won't Lift Block On FTC's Media Matters Probe
A divided D.C. Circuit panel refused Thursday to let the Federal Trade Commission subpoena Media Matters for America while the agency appeals an order blocking that probe, crediting district courts' findings of "seemingly unusual and unprecedented" facts suggesting the investigation is retaliation for reporting about Nazi content on X.
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October 23, 2025
Ex-SVB Top Brass Can't Ditch FDIC Suit Over 2023 Collapse
Silicon Valley Bank's former CEO and several other past members of the bank's top brass must face a suit from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. accusing them of mismanagement that led to the bank's costly 2023 failure, a California federal judge has ruled.
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October 23, 2025
9th Circ. Calls For Evidence Hearing Over ICE Facility Access
The Ninth Circuit on Thursday partially remanded the Washington State Department of Health's lawsuit accusing GEO Group of illegally blocking access to an immigration facility for safety inspections, calling for an evidentiary hearing into how the refusal for access played out.
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October 23, 2025
Energy Cos. Face Permit, Regulatory Delays Due To Shutdown
Energy companies are starting to feel the pinch of the federal government shutdown, as scaled-back operations and new furlough announcements at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency threaten the approval of needed permits and the issuance of highly anticipated regulations.
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October 23, 2025
Columbia-Based Advocate Sues For Law Firms' DEI Details
A free speech institute at Columbia University told a New York federal court Thursday that President Donald Trump's administration effectively denied its requests for information related to the government's demands that law firms supply details about their diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
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October 23, 2025
11th Circ. Halts Fla. Detention Center Appeal Amid Shutdown
The Eleventh Circuit has stayed an appeal over the operation of a Florida Everglades immigrant detention center dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz" after the government requested a halt to proceedings due to the federal government shutdown.Â
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October 23, 2025
Legislation May Fix Tax Court Jurisdiction Feud, Judge Says
Senate legislation to expand the U.S. Tax Court's authority to order refunds and credits in collection cases could settle a long-running dispute revived by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to limit the tax tribunal's jurisdiction, a judge said Thursday.
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October 23, 2025
Calif. Tribe Joins Suit Seeking To Halt Barred Owl Culling Plan
An Oregon federal judge has let the Yurok Tribe intervene in an animal advocacy group's lawsuit seeking to block the U.S. government from killing thousands of protected barred owls as a means to save the threatened northern spotted owl, saying the tribe has a specific interest in the action.
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October 23, 2025
Judge Axes Va. Homeowner's Suit Over Marine Base Security
A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge on Oct. 23 tossed a Quantico, Virginia, homeowner's takings suit against the federal government, which was accused of taking her property without just compensation by having military base-related restrictions that impeded her attempts to use the property as a short-term rental.
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October 23, 2025
Full 5th Circ. Asked To Rehear Texas Bankers' OCC Dispute
Two former Texas bankers have asked the full Fifth Circuit to revive their constitutional challenge to an in-house Office of the Comptroller of the Currency enforcement case, arguing that the appellate panel's decision to reject their appeal wrongly stripped them of their right to a jury trial and handed banking agencies "unlimited discretion" to prosecute old misconduct.
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October 23, 2025
Ex-ComEd CEO Asks 7th Circ. For Bail Pending Appeal
Former Exelon Utilities and Commonwealth Edison CEO Anne Pramaggiore has renewed her request to remain out of jail while she seeks to unwind her criminal conviction and two-year prison sentence, this time asking the Seventh Circuit for bond ahead of her December surrender date.
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October 23, 2025
Ga. Justices Question 'Tesla Carveout' In Direct Car Sales Ban
Georgia's Supreme Court justices appeared to harbor reservations Thursday about the viability of a state ban on car manufacturers engaging in direct-to-consumer sales, thanks in part to a "Tesla carveout" that allowed the leading electric vehicle maker to continue operating its own dealerships.
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October 23, 2025
FCC's Carr Sees Ongoing Consumer Harm From Shutdown
The head of the Federal Communications Commission warned Thursday that new device and license applications are "just sitting there," creating an FCC backlog, and that other day-to-day but important work remains on hold during the government shutdown.
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October 23, 2025
Neb. Republican Says Fiber Critical To Broadband Effort
A Republican U.S. senator said Thursday she's concerned that rural areas will not receive enough funding for fiber-optic connectivity in the latest round of the government's multibillion-dollar effort to build out broadband to underserved areas.
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October 23, 2025
SEC Being Misled In CBD Fraud Fight, CEO Claims
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has "unwittingly" taken the side of a former partner with a terminated licensing agreement, a pharmaceutical CEO told a California federal court this week, asking for summary judgment on the SEC's core claims that he defrauded investors.
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October 23, 2025
4th Circ. Pushed To Retain Block On Chemours PFAS Dumping
A pair of environmental groups is urging the Fourth Circuit to leave in place an injunction blocking The Chemours Co. FC LLC from continuing to discharge so-called forever chemicals into the Ohio River, saying the company is using strawman arguments to get its way.
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October 23, 2025
French Legislators Advance 15% DST To Mirror US Tariffs
France's digital services tax rate would rise from 3% to 15% under an amendment adopted by the lower house of Parliament's Finance Committee, which characterized the action as a "proportionate response" to tariffs imposed by the United States.
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October 23, 2025
Judge Says Colorado Online Betting Law Doesn't Violate IGRA
A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a suit by two Colorado tribes that alleged the state is overreaching by trying to regulate off-reservation online sports betting in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and tribal gaming compacts.
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October 23, 2025
Tech Org. Calls Next-Gen TV Tuner Mandate Bad Idea
As the Federal Communications Commission solicits opinions on how to usher the industry into the next generation of television broadcasting, a consumer technology trade group is reiterating its argument that the agency should not rush the process and let companies do what they will.
Expert Analysis
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How Trump's Space Order May Ease Industry's Growth
President Donald Trump's recent executive order aimed at removing environmental hurdles for spaceport authorization and streamlining the space industry's regulatory framework may open opportunities not only for established launch providers, but also smaller companies and spaceport authorities, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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A Look At 2 Reinvigorated DOL Compliance Programs
As the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division revives its Payroll Audit Independent Determination and expands its opinion letter program, employers should carefully weigh the benefits and risks of participation to assess whether it makes sense for their circumstances, say attorneys at Conn Maciel.
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Opinion
Congress Must Resolve PSLRA Issue For Section 11 Litigants
By establishing a uniform judgment reduction credit for all defendants in cases involving Section 11 of the Securities Act, Congress could remove unnecessary statutory ambiguity from the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and enable litigants to price potential settlements with greater certainty, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Stablecoin Committee Promotes Uniformity But May Fall Short
While the Genius Act's establishment of the Stablecoin Certification Review Committee will provide private stablecoin issuers with more consistent standards, fragmentation remains due to the disparate regulatory approaches taken by different states, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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FTC's Reseller Suit Highlights Larger Ticket Platform Issues
Taken together, the recent Federal Trade Commission lawsuit and Ticketmaster's recent antitrust woes demonstrate that federal enforcers are testing the resilience of antitrust and consumer-protection frameworks in an evolving, tech-driven marketplace, says Thomas Stratmann at George Mason University.
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Agentic AI Puts A New Twist On Attorney Ethics Obligations
As lawyers increasingly use autonomous artificial intelligence agents, disciplinary authorities must decide whether attorney responsibility for an AI-caused legal ethics violation is personal or supervisory, and firms must enact strong policies regarding agentic AI use and supervision, says Grace Wynn at HWG.
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Parsing Trump Admin's First 6 Months Of SEC Enforcement
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement results for the first six months of the Trump administration show substantially fewer new enforcement actions compared to the same period under the previous administration, but indicate a clear focus on traditional fraud schemes affecting retail investors, say attorneys at King & Spalding.
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HSR Compliance Remains A Priority From Biden To Trump
Several new enforcement actions from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice illustrate that rigorous attention to Hart-Scott-Rodino Act compliance has become a critical component of the U.S. merger review process, even amid the political transition from the Biden to Trump administrations, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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Cos. Face EU, US Regulatory Tension On Many Fronts
When the European Union sets stringent standards, companies seeking to operate in the international marketplace must conform to them, or else concede opportunities — but with the current U.S. administration pushing hard to roll back regulations, global companies face an increasing tension over which standards to follow, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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How EU Is Tweaking Enviro Laws After US Trade Deal
While a recent joint statement from the European Union and the U.S. in the wake of their trade deal does not mention special treatment for U.S. companies, the EU's ongoing commitment to streamline its sustainability legislation suggests an openness to addressing concerns raised by the U.S., say attorneys at Debevoise.
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The Consequences Of OCC's Pivot On Disparate Impact
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's recent move to stop scrutinizing facially neutral lending policies that disproportionately affect a protected group reflects the administration's ongoing shift in assessing discrimination, though this change may not be enough to dissuade claims by states or private plaintiffs, says Travis Nelson at Polsinelli.
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FDA Transparency Plans Raise Investor Disclosure Red Flags
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recently announced intent to publish complete response letters for unapproved drugs and devices implicates certain investor disclosure requirements under securities laws, making it necessary for life sciences and biotech companies to adopt robust controls going forward, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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Rising USCIS Denials May Signal Reverse On Signature Policy
Increasingly, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services appears to be issuing denials and requests for evidence in cases where petitioners digitally affix handwritten signatures to paper-based petitions, upending a long-standing practice with potentially grave consequences for applicants, says Sherry Neal at Corporate Immigration.
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Series
Being A Professional Wrestler Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Pursuing my childhood dream of being a professional wrestler has taught me important legal career lessons about communication, adaptability, oral advocacy and professionalism, says Christopher Freiberg at Midwest Disability.
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2 Calif. Cases Could Reshape Future Of Trap-And-Trace Suits
A California federal judge's recent dismissal of two California Invasion of Privacy Act cases demonstrates an inherent contradiction in pen register and trap-and-trace claims, teeing up a Ninth Circuit appeal that could either breathe new life into such claims or put an end to them outright, says Matthew Pearson at Womble Bond.