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Good morning. It’s a big week in news. Former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial begins today with opening statements, and we’ve got a look at the unique pressure that social media is exerting on the court. Plus, it’s the last week of the U.S. Supreme Court’s term, and it’s stacked with big cases. Stick with us for all of it.
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The 12-person jury – and six alternates – have been chosen for former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan, where they’ll make history as they are set to hear opening statements today.
The process of picking the jury to hear one of the highest-profile court cases in U.S. history has already highlighted the challenges of insulating a jury from social media, reports Jody Godoy.
To keep the trial fair and jurors safe from intimidation or influence schemes, the court aims to shield them from online attacks and ensure they are not swayed by coverage. But Justice Juan Merchan has virtually no ability to police what is posted by most users on social media.
As the trial progresses, jurors must try to comply with a court order to avoid coverage of the case, including on social media and mobile devices.
Christina Marinakis, chief executive at trial consulting firm Immersion Legal, said the barrage of headlines and social media notifications on jurors’ phones has been a huge problem in her cases.
“This is another reason we have alternates, because somebody is going to see something during the course of the trial that may cause them to get dismissed,” she said.
More on the trial:
>> Trump’s Stormy Daniels hush money trial hinges on intent of payoff
>> Who are the 12 jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial in New York?
>> Stormy Daniels and other key witnesses at the Trump hush money trial
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- As more companies develop their own artificial intelligence systems, a new software firm is splitting from a Washington, D.C.-based law firm to market technology combating AI legal risks. The new company, Luminos.AI, said it launched today after spinning off from Luminos.Law, a small, five-year-old law firm run by lawyers and data scientists that specializes in advising companies on auditing and managing AI and analytics risks.
- Elon Musk slammed a bid for court sanctions against his longtime attorney Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, calling it a stunt to drum up publicity and salvage unfounded defamation claims against the billionaire entrepreneur. Musk’s filing came in a case that plaintiff Benjamin Brody had lodged against him in a Texas state court last year. Brody’s lawyer Mark Bankston has accused Spiro of practicing in Texas without court permission.
- Lewis Brisbois was hit with its second employment lawsuit by a former partner in as many months, this time for alleged gender discrimination and retaliation. Ex-partner Julie O’Dell filed her complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging the firm treated and paid male lawyers better than their female counterparts. The law firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton must face an attorney misconduct complaint over his work in court challenging the 2020 election results, a Texas appeals court ruled in a 2-1 decision. Paxton has denied any wrongdoing. The Texas Supreme Court is weighing whether to review top Paxton deputy Brent Webster’s challenge to a related ethics case against him.
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That’s how many of the most commonly used “forever chemicals” the EPA designated as hazardous substances under the federal Superfund law, in a bid to clean up properties across the U.S. contaminated with the toxic compounds. The highly anticipated rule will affect companies that use, dispose of or store two specific per- and polyfluoroalkyl, or PFAS, compounds. PFAS have been used to make thousands of commercial and consumer products including semiconductors, firefighting foams and stain resistant fabrics. Legal experts say court challenges seeking to block the rule are likely.
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“I’m not sure that this is the crisis that it’s been painted as.“
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—2nd Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan, who was part of a federal judicial panel that met to determine whether or how to craft rules that would allow courts to ensure the authenticity and reliability of trial evidence that was generated by artificial intelligence. Sullivan was among a few judges on the panel who questioned whether old rules that predated the current AI boom were good enough to ensure the reliability of evidence. The group charged with drafting evidence-related amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure decided that proponents of one AI-related proposal needed to go back to the drawing board.
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- Today, the insurer that provided Donald Trump with a $175 million bond in his New York civil fraud case will try to convince a state judge that it is qualified and financially strong enough to issue the guarantee. The bond issued by Knight Specialty Insurance Co is meant to secure Trump’s compliance with a $454.2 million judgment won by state Attorney General Letitia James if he does not succeed in an appeal.
- Also today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a bid by Grants Pass, Oregon, to enforce local laws against people camping on public property in a legal fight over a homelessness crisis that has vexed municipalities across the Western United States. The justices will weigh a lower court ruling that found the ordinances — which make it illegal to camp on sidewalks, streets, parks or other public places — violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition against “cruel and unusual” punishment. Gibson Dunn’s Theane Evangelis will argue for Grants Pass against Kelsi Brown Corkran, who leads the Supreme Court group at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy & Protection.
- On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to weigh a challenge by Starbucks to a judicial decision that required the coffee chain to rehire seven employees at one of its cafes in Memphis, Tennessee, who a federal agency determined were fired for supporting unionization. Williams & Connolly’s Lisa Blatt will argue for Starbucks, facing off against Austin Raynor of the DOJ’s solicitor general office for the National Labor Relations Board. In February, Starbucks and a union seeking to organize the coffee chain’s U.S. workforce said they would create a “framework” to guide organizing and collective bargaining and potentially settle scores of pending legal disputes.
- On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over the legality of Idaho’s Republican-backed, near-total abortion ban in medical-emergency situations in a fight between state officials and President Joe Biden’s administration. The case is a test of how the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, preempts state laws restricting abortions, an issue that has come up in several states.
- On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Donald Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from prosecution on charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. The court agreed to take up the case and gave the former president a boost by putting on hold the criminal prosecution being pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith. The justices will review a lower court’s rejection of Trump’s claim of immunity.
- On Friday, a U.S. judge in Virginia is set to weigh which lawyers to appoint as lead counsel in a securities class action by Boeing shareholders accusing the airplane maker of prioritizing profit over safety and misleading them about its commitment to making safe aircraft, prior to the Jan. 5 mid-air cabin panel blowout on an Alaskan Airlines 737 MAX 9. Attorneys from plaintiffs’ firms Labaton and Robbins Geller have proposed they share the class leadership role.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- CVS Health has lost a bid to escape a proposed class action accusing the company of discriminating against people with HIV by requiring them to receive their medications by mail. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco ruled that CVS was on notice that the mail-order program, administered by its Caremark pharmacy benefit manager division, could discriminate against people who need drugs for HIV, noting that plaintiffs had repeatedly asked to opt out of the program.
- An 11th Circuit panel seemed divided over whether to block a Florida law barring Chinese citizens from owning homes or land in the state, which Republican officials say is necessary to combat the influence of the Chinese Communist Party. The court heard oral arguments in a bid by a group of Chinese nationals to block the 2023 law pending the outcome of their lawsuit claiming Florida’s ban is unconstitutional and preempted by federal law.
- Bank of America has convinced the 10th Circuit that its “Erica” virtual assistant does not violate the rights of a website creator who owned an earlier “Erica” trademark. The court said that Erik Underwood failed to show that he actually used his trademark in commerce, affirming a federal district court win for BofA.
- The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has asked the 5th Circuit to reconsider transferring a banking industry-backed credit card fee rule lawsuit to Washington, D.C. The lawsuit challenges the agency’s new rule capping credit card late fees at $8. The CFPB said that the April 5 ruling by a 2-1 panel of the court was based on a “factually flawed” premise that, if accepted, would cause trial court judges in this and other cases to have less ability to manage their dockets.
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On April 24, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States, consolidated cases asking whether the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act or EMTALA, preempts, under certain emergency circumstances, an Idaho law banning most abortions. The Supreme Court’s decision may chart a course for numerous federal and state cases brought in the wake of Dobbs that question the interplay between state laws limiting abortion, medical exceptions to those laws, and EMTALA, write Alicia Macklin and Rachel Zacharias of Hooper Lundy & Bookman.
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