Court Puts Stay on Charter Discrimination Complaint Pending Interim Appeal
A U.S. District judge has rejected Charter Communications' motion for reconsideration in a lawsuit alleging racial bias in the company's programing decisions but granted its motions for a stay and for certification. In an order (in Pacer) filed Tuesday in…
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U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Judge George Wu said the reconsideration motion asking for clarification of the record pending an appeal of an October ruling against Charter (see 1611140044) wasn't proper since the operator is trying to "shoehorn an overlooked argument in through the 'material facts' door" and was pointless given that however the court characterized Charter's arguments doesn't alter what the record reflects. "Any record on appeal will speak for itself," he said. On the Charter motion for certifying for appeal that October court order denying that company's motion to have the Entertainment Studios Networks/National Association of African American Owned Media suit tossed out (see 1610260069), Wu said Charter's First Amendment defense "is a novel (and important) one" and meets requirements for certification. While granting an interim appeal doesn't automatically stay litigation, Wu said, it wouldn't make sense to deny a motion for one pending an appeal since he just certified for interim appeal the October order.