On March 19, 2026, a group of eight state attorneys general (AGs) filed a lawsuit to block the $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna Inc. by Nexstar Media Group, two of the largest American broadcast companies. The suit came after federal regulators cleared the transaction, sharpening an increasing divide between the administration and states’ views on the same transactions.
What Happened
States including Texas, Utah, Louisiana, and California have begun shifting children’s online safety obligations from individual apps and websites to app stores and operating systems. These laws generally require centralized age checks, parental consent tracking, and tighter coordination between app stores and developers, and they are already generating litigation risk, including a pending First Amendment challenge to the Texas statute. For a deeper overview of these state approaches and the emerging legal challenges, see this article.
On March 11, Kalshi filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa against Attorney General (AG) Brenna Bird and members of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. Kalshi’s complaint asks the court to declare that the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) “exclusive jurisdiction” over trading on designated contract markets preempt Iowa’s gambling and election‑wagering provisions as applied to Kalshi’s event contracts.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has filed against Kalshi what appears to be the first criminal case in the U.S. against a federally regulated prediction market platform. The state alleges Kalshi is operating an illegal gambling enterprise and facilitating unlawful election wagering by Arizona residents.
PDX North, Inc. (PDX), a last-mile automotive parts distribution company, recently settled with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) and New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (OAG) (collectively, the state) to resolve allegations that PDX violated New Jersey’s worker classification laws.
On March 16, 2026, New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James rallied in support of the “One Fair Price Package” — a pair of bills aimed at curbing algorithmic and surveillance pricing in New York. Together, the bills would prohibit the use of personalized algorithmic pricing based on consumer data, ban electronic shelf labels in large food and drug retailers, and create robust enforcement mechanisms and private rights of action. The announcement from New York comes shortly after New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill backed legislation to ban what she has called “surveillance” pricing, and after California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an investigative sweep focused on businesses that use consumer data to individualize prices for their goods or services earlier this year.
A bipartisan coalition of seven state attorneys general (AG) reached a settlement with the Chinese-owned messaging and payment platform WeChat under which the company committed to take steps to combat the use of its platform in fentanyl-related money laundering. The agreement focuses on improving law enforcement cooperation, preserving and producing user data in response to law enforcement requests, and proactively detecting illicit activity on the service. The settlement is part of a broader enforcement campaign by state AGs to push online platforms to adopt proactive measures to monitor illicit activity on their services and improve cooperation with law enforcement.
State attorneys general (AGs) from across the political spectrum have refused to join the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) midtrial settlement with Live Nation. The bipartisan multistate coalition vowed to “keep fighting this case without the federal government,” underscoring that state AGs are increasingly prepared to part with the DOJ and take the lead in complex enforcement actions.
Virginia Attorney General (AG) Jay Jones has joined an ongoing lawsuit by 23 Democratic AGs challenging Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Acting Director Russell T. Vought’s interpretation of the CFPB’s statutory funding mechanism that would leave the agency without operating funds.
This article was originally published by Virginia Lawyers Weekly and is republished with permission.
Upon taking office Jan. 17, Democratic Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones issued a series of pronouncements in quick succession that signal his administration’s core priorities, and that are sure to reverberate through Virginia’s legal landscape. They include actions involving consumer protection, health data privacy, immigration, education, and environmental issues.