Oral argument would help the 5th Circuit “in resolving the complex issues arising from a three-week trial in which a jury found Grande Communications Networks secondarily liable for infringing 1,403 copyrighted songs and awarded $46.7 million in statutory damages, on grounds that Grande provided internet service to the direct infringers,” said Grande’s opening brief Wednesday (docket 23-50162). Grande’s appeal seeks to reverse the district court’s May 11 denial of its renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law or remand the case for a new trial to get the jury award vacated (see 2306120002).
Four Democratic senators support keeping Chevron against the “decades-long effort by pro-corporate interests to eviscerate the federal government’s regulatory apparatus to the detriment of the American people,” said their U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief Thursday (docket 22-451) in support of the government respondents in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (see 2309170001). “The call here to overturn Chevron and dismantle agency powers is a special interest solution in search of a problem,” said Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Dianne Feinstein of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Senior executive branch officials, including senior White House officials, “threaten, pressure, and coerce social-media platforms to silence the core political speech of millions of Americans,” responded the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri Wednesday (docket 23A243), urging U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to deny the government’s application for a full stay of the 5th Circuit’s injunction, pending resolution of its forthcoming cert petition (see 2309140041). Alito is circuit judge for the 5th Circuit.
Defendants WCO Spectrum, founder Gary Winnick and CEO Carl Katerndahl seek the dismissal of T-Mobile’s fraud complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, said their memorandum Monday (docket 2:23-cv-04347) in U.S. District Court for Central California in support of their motion to dismiss.
Though litigants “exaggerate,” it may “actually be true that the fate of the freedom of speech in America depends” on what the U.S. Supreme Court does with the preliminary injunction barring federal officials from coercing social media platforms to moderate their content, said the Children’s Health Defense and its founder, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They filed an amicus brief Wednesday (docket 23A243) in opposition to the government’s application for a full stay of the injunction pending the disposition of its appeal (see 2309140041).
Montana’s statewide TikTok ban, SB-419, “is appropriately protecting its citizens’ privacy from TikTok and its troubling relationship with China,” said the Republican attorneys general of Virginia and 17 other states in an amici brief Monday (docket 9:23-cv-00061) in U.S. District Court for Montana in Missoula. The AGs oppose the plaintiffs’ consolidated motions for a preliminary injunction to block Montana AG Austin Knudsen (R) from enforcing SB-419 when it takes effect Jan. 1 (see 2309050003).
The facts of the case that sparked the preliminary injunction that bars officials from the White House, the Office of the Surgeon General, the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from coercing social media platforms to moderate their content show that the federal officials wielded “their influence and power to censor the speech of individuals” whose viewpoints they disfavored, said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R).
Monday's decision of U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman for Northern California granting NetChoice’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) from enforcing the state’s Age Appropriate Design Code (AB-2273) (see 2309180063) “lets Big Tech off the hook, and gives them a free pass to continue profiting off harm to our kids,” emailed California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), co-sponsor of AB-2273, through a spokesperson Tuesday.
A U.S. District judge for Northern Texas granted in part and denied in part AT&T’s motion to dismiss the Civil Rights Act Section 1981 complaint in which Legacy Equity Advisors alleged AT&T deprived it of bidding on Cricket Wireless, DirecTV, AT&T’s Puerto Rican wireless division and other divested assets because it’s Black-owned (see 2305040065). Judge Sidney Fitzwater in Dallas granted Legacy leave to file a first amended complaint, said his signed memorandum opinion and order Friday (docket 3:23-cv-00979).
Numerous media disclosures between July 9 and July 14 that Lumen Technologies had culpability for failing to remove the toxic lead cables it inherited decades ago from the Bell system sent the stock tumbling more than 22%, alleged plaintiff John McLemore’s securities fraud class action Friday (docket 3:23-cv-01290) in U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Monroe. McLemore alleges on behalf of himself and his proposed class that he bought Lumen shares at “artificially inflated prices,” and was “damaged upon the revelation of the alleged corrective disclosures.”