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The U.S. Supreme Court today returns to the battle over social media content moderation, as the justices take up a challenge to how the Biden administration encouraged platforms to remove posts that federal officials deemed misinformation, Andrew Chung and John Kruzel write. The court earlier heard arguments over the legality of Texas and Florida laws that would restrict the content moderation practices of platforms.
In today’s case, the DOJ’s Brian Fletcher will argue against a lower court’s preliminary injunction constraining how White House and certain other federal officials communicate with social media platforms. The Republican-led states of Missouri and Louisiana, represented by Louisiana solicitor general Benjamin Aguiñaga, will argue the government’s actions violated the First Amendment free speech rights of users whose posts were removed from platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and X.
Chung and Kruzel write that the case tests whether the administration crossed the line from mere communication and persuasion to strong-arming or coercing platforms to unlawfully censor disfavored speech, as lower courts found. Biden’s administration has argued that officials sought to mitigate the hazards of online misinformation. The Supreme Court in October put the lower court’s injunction on hold pending the review of the case by the justices.
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- The U.S. judiciary made clear that trial courts had discretion to decide how to implement a policy it adopted earlier in the week to curtail the practice of “judge shopping” cases that challenge government policies. Judicial policymakers issued the guidance following a backlash from some conservative judges and Republican lawmakers. One Trump-appointed judge said he had “no problem” with the new policy.
- Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner laid off around 50 employees, a spokesperson told Reuters, marking the second time the firm has cut professional staff members in less than a year.
- U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, recused himself from hearing a lawsuit by business and banking groups challenging the CFPB’s new rule that aims to lower credit card late fees, a case that progressive watchdog group Accountable.US argued he could not hear due to conflicts of interest. O’Connor in an order did not say why he was stepping aside from presiding over the lawsuit by groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce after having set a rapid schedule to consider blocking the rule.
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“His life in recent years has been one of unmatched greed and hubris.“
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- Today in San Francisco, Mike Lynch, co-founder of UK software firm Autonomy, is set to go on trial in a near decade-long legal battle and fall from grace for a man once hailed as Britain’s answer to Bill Gates, Greg Bensinger and Jody Godoy report. Lynch faces 17 charges over Hewlett Packard’s $11 billion acquisition of Autonomy, the company he grew into Britain’s leading tech company, before it spectacularly unravelled after HP bought it in 2011. Lynch has pleaded not guilty.
- On Tuesday, the justices will hear a California woman’s bid to overturn her conviction for smuggling drugs across the U.S.-Mexican border. The dispute at the U.S. Supreme Court is over the scope of expert witness testimony challenging her defense that she acted unwittingly as a “blind” drug mule. A lower court rejected her bid to exclude testimony that had cast doubt on her claim she did not know that drugs were hidden in the car she was driving.
- On Wednesday, the 4th Circuit will convene as a full court to hear a series of major challenges to gun control laws, including a case seeking to strike down Maryland’s ban on assault weapons. The court also will hear arguments in the DOJ’s appeal of a West Virginia judge’s ruling that declared unconstitutional a law banning possessing a gun with its serial number removed. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 broadly expanded gun rights.
- On Thursday, the 6th Circuit will hear a challenge to the Biden administration’s cancellation of $39 billion of student loan debt, which it aimed to wipe out after the U.S. Supreme Court last year blocked the president’s even bigger $430 billion student loan debt cancellation plan. The justices sided with six conservative-leaning states that objected to Biden’s student loan forgiveness.
- On Friday, the SEC faces a deadline to respond to an appeal filed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk in his dispute with the securities agency. Musk in December asked the justices to consider whether the SEC overstepped its authority in enforcing a consent decree that he has called a “muzzle” on his constitutional free speech rights. The decree arose from his 2018 post on Twitter that he had “funding secured” to take his electric car company Tesla private.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- Tesla settled a long-running lawsuit by a Black former factory worker who claimed he was subjected to severe racial harassment. Tesla and lawyers for Owen Diaz, a former elevator operator, did not disclose details of the settlement. The agreement ends appeals that both sides were pursuing after a jury last year awarded Diaz $3.2 million in damages.
- The Andy Warhol Foundation and celebrity photographer Lynn Goldsmith told a New York federal court they have agreed to resolve a copyright case over Warhol’s work that led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision for Goldsmith last year. The parties said Warhol’s estate would pay Goldsmith more than $21,000, including $11,000 in court costs, to end the case that arose from Warhol’s artwork depicting the rock star Prince.
- The U.S. Supreme Court, addressing free speech rights in the digital age, decided that government officials can sometimes be sued under the First Amendment for blocking critics on social media. In unanimous decisions in two cases from California and Michigan, the justices set a new standard for determining if public officials acted in a governmental capacity when blocking critics on social media.
- Volkswagen Group of America’s finance unit has agreed to pay about $48.8 million to resolve a lawsuit by the SEC that accused the German automaker and its former CEO of defrauding investors in U.S. bond offerings. The settlement marks the last significant legal action related to the diesel emissions scandal in the U.S.
- Major sugar producers including United Sugar and Domino were hit with a proposed class action accusing them of conspiring to inflate the price of sugar. The lawsuit comes after the DOJ unsuccessfully tried to block a $315 million purchase that critics said would further lead to industry concentration.
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- Akin hired partner Bill Brady in New York from Paul Hastings, where he headed the firm’s alternative lender and private credit group. (Reuters)
- Morgan Lewis added three investment management partners from Perkins Coie, including Mark Parise in Hartford, Connecticut, Todd Zerega in Pittsburgh and Betselot Zeleke in D.C. (Morgan Lewis)
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