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Good morning. The federal judge in Disney v. DeSantis has struck down several laws that defined the Republican Florida governor’s conservative agenda. Plus, a California judge says Elon Musk must face questions about whether he made certain statements regarding the safety of Tesla’s Autopilot features; J. Michael Luttig says the U.S. Supreme Court needs “higher standards of conduct”; and the suspect in a leak of military intelligence records is due in federal court today for a detention hearing. The legal news cup overfloweth. Let’s go!
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When attorneys for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appear in court to defend against Disney’s lawsuit accusing the Republican official of “weaponizing” state government, they will see a familiar face, if not always a welcome one, Tom Hals reports. Lawyers from O’Melveny — including veteran trial lawyer Daniel Petrocelli — and Wilmer Hale represent Disney in its complaint.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee will oversee Disney’s claims that the governor and his supporters illegally used the state to punish a company for voicing an opinion that should be protected by free-speech rights. The skirmish began after Disney criticized a Florida law banning classroom discussion of sexuality and gender identity with younger children.
Walker has struck down several laws that defined DeSantis’s conservative political agenda, including statutes that sought to limit the speech of college professors, curtailed protests and restricted voting access. Walker blocked the Individual Freedom Act or Stop WOKE Act, which limited the speech of college professors. The judge called it “positively dystopian” in an opinion that began with a quote from George Orwell’s anti-totalitarian novel “1984.”
Read more >>> Explainer: The escalating battle between Ron DeSantis and Walt Disney /// Analysis: DeSantis’ showdown with Disney carries political risk
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- Democratic U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono introduced a bill that would require legal challenges affecting national laws and policies to be filed in D.C. federal court. The Hawaii senator proposed the bill after several lawsuits challenging Biden administration decisions were filed before conservative judges outside of Washington, prompting complaints that plaintiffs are “shopping” for sympathetic courts. (Reuters)
- The Biden White House nomination of Julie Su to serve as U.S. labor secretary advanced to a floor vote in the U.S. Senate. Su, a civil rights lawyer and former California labor commissioner, has served as a deputy labor secretary since 2021. Some Republicans and business groups claim Su will harm the gig economy. (Reuters)
- Nelson Mullins picked up seven litigators from rival firm Benesch, enabling the law firm founded in Columbia, South Carolina, to open a Chicago office. Scott McMillin will serve as the firm’s office leader there. (Reuters)
- Zillow CEO Rich Barton must sit for a deposition of up to three hours in an antitrust lawsuit in Seattle federal court, a judge ruled. Rival real estate platform REX, represented by Boies Schiller, claims Zillow orchestrated a scheme to conceal its listings from the company’s website. Zillow’s lawyers, including a team from Orrick and Dechert, deny the claims. (Reuters)
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REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration
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That’s roughly how many law firms are on a waiting list to use legal AI startup Harvey, according to Sequoia Capital, which is leading the Series A fundraising round. Harvey said it raised $21 million in fresh investor cash, as more lawyers at major law firms are using fast-advancing generative artificial intelligence tools. OpenAI Startup Fund, Conviction, SV Angel and Elad Gil also participated in the funding round, Harvey said. Several major law firms have signed deals to adopt new AI products just in the past few months.
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A new ruling from the 11th Circuit is a good reminder that if you want to bring a Lanham Act lawsuit alleging that your business was hurt by a competitor’s false advertising, you have to be able to show that you were actually in competition. Cybersecurity company TocMail claimed that Microsoft’s allegedly deceptive representations about the anti-phishing capabilities of its email filtering product cost TocMail at least $9.5 billion — yes, with a b — because TocMail was Microsoft’s only rival in the market. But the 11th Circuit said TocMail failed to offer any proof that it was, in fact, a market rival — no testimony from a confused customer, no expert report on customer attitudes, not even evidence that TocMail broadly marketed its competing product or made a single sale. Alison Frankel writes that she has long been interested in Lanham Act litigation as a complement (or alternative) to consumer fraud class actions. But like consumers, she says, businesses have to prove they were injured.
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“I believe that the expectations for Supreme Court justices are rightly higher than for any other public official in the land.“
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—Former 4th Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig, who told Reuters he believes the U.S. Supreme Court should be held to a tighter ethics code. But Luttig declined to comment on reporting by ProPublica detailing U.S. Justice Clarence Thomas’s relationship with wealthy Republican donor Harlan Crow, including real estate purchases and luxury travel paid for by Crow.
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- Accused document leaker Jack Douglas Teixeira is due back in federal court in Massachusetts for a detention hearing after his arrest on charges that he unlawfully copied and transmitted classified materials, sharing top secret military intelligence records online. Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the U.S. Air National Guard, made his initial appearance on April 14. Prosecutors on Wednesday night in a court filing requested that Teixeira be detained pending trial. The court appointed a public defender to represent Teixeira. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Hennessy will preside at the detention hearing.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing to consider a group of judicial nominees, including former New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Arthur Delaney, who is up for a seat on the 1st Circuit; Idaho Supreme Court Justice Amanda Brailsford, who is nominated to the federal bench in her home state; and U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews, who is nominated to serve as a U.S. district judge in Colorado.
- The U.S. Senate is set to vote on a measure that could allow the Equal Rights Amendment to be added to the U.S. Constitution. The ERA was first proposed in 1923 but did not pass Congress until 1972. Under U.S. law, amendments to the Constitution must be ratified by three-fourths of state legislatures, or 38 of the 50. Virginia became the 38th state to adopt the amendment in 2020, almost two decades after a 1982 deadline had expired. The Senate resolution would remove the deadline so that the amendment could go into effect. Republican opposition will likely doom the measure, however.
Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Grammy Award-winning rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of The Fugees hip hop group was convicted at trial in D.C. federal court on charges that he conspired with a Malaysian financier to orchestrate a series of foreign lobbying campaigns aimed at influencing the U.S. government under two presidents. A lawyer for Michel, David Kenner, said his client “will ultimately prevail.” (Reuters)
- The 3rd Circuit held that Uber drivers are not exempt from a U.S. law requiring them to bring work-related legal disputes in private arbitration rather than joining class actions in court. Uber drivers do not qualify for an exemption from the arbitration law for workers involved in interstate commerce because they rarely cross state lines when transporting passengers, said the court, which came to the same conclusions as the 9th Circuit in a 2021 case. (Reuters)
- Moderna failed to persuade a Delaware federal judge to shift liability to the U.S. government for patent infringement allegations based on COVID-19 vaccines it provided for the government’s vaccination effort. Chief Judge Colm Connolly’s ruling for Alnylam Pharmaceuticals came just over a month after a different judge in Delaware rejected Moderna’s similar motion in another vaccine patent lawsuit. (Reuters)
- Charles Lieber, a former Harvard University professor, was sentenced to six months of house arrest for lying about his ties to a China-run recruitment program, prosecutors said, in one of the highest-profile cases resulting from a crackdown on Chinese influence on U.S. research. Lieber, former chairman of Harvard’s chemistry department, was found guilty of making false statements to authorities, filing false tax returns and failing to report a Chinese bank account. (Reuters)
- U.S. District Judge John Murphy in Pennsylvania allowed Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Center for Environmental Health to intervene in a lawsuit accusing plastics processing company Inhance Technologies of exposing the public to toxic “forever chemicals.” The EPA says Inhance is violating provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act when it strengthens plastic packaging through a process known as fluorination, because that system produces “multiple” per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. (Reuters)
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- Jones Day hired Jeff Schenk as a Palo Alto-based investigations and white-collar partner. Schenk was a lead assistant U.S. attorney on the team that prosecuted Theranos leaders Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. (Reuters)
- Paul Hastings added New York-based partners Nicholas Robinson and Tracy Feng from Allen & Overy. They focus on collateralized loan obligations in the middle market. (Reuters)
- White & Case brought on antitrust partner Michael Engel in the firm’s London office. Engel was previously at Kirkland. (Reuters)
- Greenberg Traurig brought on David Eastlake in Houston as a restructuring and bankruptcy partner. He was previously at Baker Botts. (Greenberg Traurig)
- McCarter & English hired Ira Gonzalez as a partner in the products liability, mass torts and consumer class actions practice in Miami. Gonzalez was previously at Hinshaw & Culbertson. (McCarter & English)
- Hinshaw & Culbertson picked up ERISA litigators Warren von Schleicher and Jacqueline Herring as partners based in Chicago. They were previously at Smith, von Schleicher & Associates. (Hinshaw)
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