On July 17, the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture hosted a closed-door roundtable briefing focused on the regulatory gray areas surrounding hemp-derived cannabinoid products. The session, convened in response to ongoing concerns over consumer safety, regulatory ambiguity, and market disruption, featured expert insights from four panelists: Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable; Pamela Epstein, chief legal and regulatory officer at Terpene Belt Farms; Cole White, attorney at Troutman Pepper Locke, in his capacity as special counsel for the Attorney General Alliance; and Dr. Gillian Schauer, executive director of the Cannabis Regulators Association. The discussion reflected mounting congressional interest in addressing the unintended consequences of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018’s (2018 Farm Bill) legalization of hemp and its derivatives.

On June 25, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) entered a consent order with Coinme, Inc., a cryptocurrency “ATM” operator, for noncompliance with the California’s Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) and Digital Financial Assets Law (DFAL). The consent order marks a significant milestone in California’s regulatory efforts because it represents the conclusion of the agency’s first enforcement action under the DFAL.

In 2023, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) placed Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians (Twenty-Nine Palms), a federally recognized Indian tribe that sells cigarettes on sovereign reservations in California, on the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act’s (PACT Act’s) noncompliant list (NCL). The PACT Act generally prohibits common carriers from shipping products to or from companies on the NCL. After ATF placed Twenty-Nine Palms on the NCL, the tribe sued ATF and its parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ), in federal court. This case is worth following because it involves key issues related to ATF’s authority to enforce the PACT Act against federally recognized Indian tribes and ATF’s interpretation of key sections of the PACT Act.

This article was originally published on July 18, 2025 in Reuters and Westlaw Today.

Intoxicating hemp-derived products have proliferated across the U.S. under the guise of the 2018 Farm Bill’s definition of “hemp.” Although these products produce psychoactive effects akin to state-regulated cannabis products, they are often manufactured and sold with little oversight or regulatory controls.

At the end of a blockbuster term, the Supreme Court sharply limited the power of federal courts to issue so-called universal injunctions against government actors. The decision in Trump v. CASA (and related cases) did not foreclose federal courts’ power to enjoin federal policies that are likely unconstitutional but curtailed the reach of those injunctions to the parties (or potentially the plaintiff class) in a suit. The result will require affected parties to litigate rather than wait on potential widespread relief from courts in distant corners of the U.S.

In June, the Appellate Court of Illinois upheld an assessment of over $314 million against Sam’s Club for unpaid county cigarette excise taxes, including a 10% late fee, a 25% penalty, and accrued interest. The assessment arose from Sam’s Club’s alleged failure to pay taxes on cigarettes that it sold to out-of-county retailers from 2009 to 2016. Following the June ruling, the company now appears poised to bring its arguments to the state’s highest court in a case illustrating the ambiguities of state and local excise taxation laws.

Keith Kautz will serve as the new attorney general (AG) of the state of Wyoming following his appointment by Governor Mark Gordon last week, effective July 7, 2025. Kautz has a long history of civil service in the state, having served as a district court judge for the Eighth Judicial District — covering Converse, Goshen, Niobrara, and Platte counties — for 22 years. His hometown of Torrington falls within this district. In 2015, Governor Matt Mead appointed Kautz as a justice to the Wyoming Supreme Court, where he served until his retirement in March 2024.

In Part Two of this FAQ series, we continue to break down Virginia’s Senate Bill 754, Consumer Protection Act; prohibited practices, etc., reproductive or sexual health information (Act), which amends the Virginia Consumer Protection Act (VCPA). The law went into effect on July 1, 2025.