The pop singer and songwriter seeks damages of $1 million or more in a lawsuit over royalty agreements signed during her divorce from Sonny Bono.
On October 8, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld summary judgment entered in favor of singer Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye. The summary judgment entered in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, concerned a copyright infringement claim alleging that The Weeknd's song A Lonely Night copied Brian Clover and Scott McCulloch's song I Need to Love.
On Wednesday, a U.S. judge temporarily blocked enforcement of a recent Texas law that bans most abortions. The law, known as S.B. 8, allows private citizens to sue anyone who provides an abortion or aids and abets or intends to aid and abet an abortion.
Activision Blizzard agreed to pay a settlement to alleged victims of discrimination and harassment in its workforce, while improving its culture by changing its policies and practices.
Two internet trade organizations have challenged a Texas law regulating social media companies’ ability to remove users from their platforms. The law, House Bill 20, was signed by Governor Greg Abbott earlier this month.
The National Labor Relations Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are investigating complaints against the tech giant, which also may face a wrongful termination lawsuit by a former senior manager.
On Wednesday, September 15, 2021, DoorDash filed a lawsuit against New York City in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, concerning a law that requires delivery companies to share customer data with restaurants. The law, set to take effect in December, requires companies like DoorDash to provide restaurants fulfilling orders with customer names, phone numbers, email addresses, and delivery addresses. Customers may opt out of sharing this data.
Opening statements in the fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO and founder of Theranos, began on September 8. Holmes is accused of intentionally misrepresenting Theranos’ blood-testing technology and the company’s business performance.
Designed to protect conservative viewpoints on networks like Facebook and Twitter, the proposed law may face constitutional challenges under the First Amendment.
On Thursday, August 26, 2021, the Supreme Court of California issued a ruling in People v. McDaniel, establishing precedent that jury unanimity and reasonable doubt do not apply to the sentencing phase in California criminal law cases where the death penalty is warranted.
A federal bankruptcy judge is likely to approve Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan, but signaled that he would not approve the Sackler family’s sweeping immunity demand as written.
Amazon warns that new bills in Congress could undermine the businesses of third-party sellers on the Amazon marketplace, and it hopes to enlist sellers in its opposition to the bills.
On Thursday, August 12, 2021, a civil rights complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court, District of Nevada, against Nevada Governor Stephen F. Sisolak, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Darnell Ford, and the Clark County School District. The complaint seeks class action certification for alleged civil rights violations against parents and children in the Clark County School District related to Governor Sisolak's recent mandate that all students and staff in the Clark County School District wear a face mask while attending school.
Central Park Five prosecutor Linda Fairstein may sue Netflix for defamation over its portrayal of her in its 2019 series about the case.
A Texas company alleges that Apple infringed patents that cover a method of creating a digital signature and storing it for user authentication in unlocking an electronic device.
On Tuesday, August 4, 2021, SkinnySchool LLC and Mint Rose Day Spa LLC filed a class action lawsuit against Google LLC in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. The lawsuit claims that Google retained its dominance by control in online advertising when it made a deal with Facebook that gave Facebook an advantage in virtual auctions related to ad rates, thus limiting revenue for online publishers.
The founder and former CEO of Nikola Corporation, a Tesla competitor, was charged in a securities fraud scheme in the Southern District of New York on Thursday. Trevor Milton is accused of defrauding and misleading investors about the development of his company’s products and technologies in order to drive investor demand.
Male employees, supervisors, and executives may have routinely harassed female employees, while refusing to promote qualified women, paying them less than similarly situated men, and preventing them from complaining about workplace misconduct.
On Friday, July 16, 2021, DoorDash and Grubhub filed a complaint against the City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, claiming that the recently introduced permanent cap on additional fees for app-based delivery orders is unconstitutional.
Abortion rights activists and providers filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday, challenging Texas Senate Bill 8. S.B. 8 bans abortion in Texas after approximately six weeks of pregnancy and allows private citizens to sue any abortion provider or individual who violates the law.
A bipartisan group of state attorneys general argues that Google has used improper anti-competitive methods to force developers and consumers to use its app store.
On Friday, July 2, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of three Texas attorneys who filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging that mandatory registration with the State Bar of Texas violated their First Amendment rights. The lawyers claimed that their rights were violated due to the State Bar of Texas's engagement in political and ideological activities not germane to the interests in regulating the legal profession.
On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s laws prohibiting ‘ballot harvesting’ and allowing counties to discard ballots cast in the wrong precinct.
The litigation involved voice command and bar code scanning technology that Amazon had promoted in connection with online shopping at Whole Foods.
The United States Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of protecting public school students' free speech rights on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. The ruling expounds upon Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, bringing student free speech jurisprudence into the internet era. "[S]ometimes it is necessary to protect the superfluous in order to preserve the necessary."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday in favor of a Philadelphia Catholic foster agency accused of discrimination by the City of Philadelphia.
Rideshare drivers are classified as independent contractors rather than employees, so they are not entitled to health care coverage through Uber except in California, as provided by a distinctive state law.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a police officer who provided information from a police license plate database to an acquaintance in exchange for around $5,000 did not violate the law.
Tech industry groups argue that the law violates the Constitution by exposing social media companies to potential fines and lawsuits based on their application of content moderation rules.
A class action lawsuit was filed against Roblox Corporation in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, on Tuesday, May 25, 2021. The lawsuit alleges that Roblox, in a "sham 'content moderation'" scheme, deletes content paid for by users without providing refunds on the grounds that the content violates the platform's policies. At least 70% of Roblox's users are under the age of 18, and over 50% of Roblox's users are under the age of 13.
In an antitrust case brought by Epic Games, Inc., Apple has asked the court to dismiss a claim that its iOS is an essential facility. While Epic’s claim iOS is an essential facility is only one of ten counts alleged against Apple, a win for Apple on this issue could be impactful.
A federal judge ruled that Oprah did not have plausible access to the allegedly infringed memoir, nor did her TV series resemble the memoir with sufficient precision to justify a finding of liability.
On Tuesday, May 11, 2021, Judge Harlin D. Hale of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Texas, dismissed the National Rifle Association of America's Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Judge Hale warned that, should the NRA file a new bankruptcy case, the Court would consider appointing a trustee to fulfill the fiduciary duties required for a debtor in possession.
On Wednesday, the Facebook Oversight Board upheld former President Donald Trump’s January suspension from the platform, citing his creation of “an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible.”
The tech giant and the luxury designer are alleging claims based on breach of contract and intellectual property infringement.
The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments today, April 28, 2021, in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. At issue in the case is whether the precedential case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, applies to student speech that occurs off-campus.
Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter on Tuesday after three weeks of trial and approximately one day of deliberation.
Former employees of HP are alleging that the tech giant intentionally sought to target older workers for replacement by younger employees, violating federal and state age discrimination laws.
On Friday, April 9, 2021, the United States Supreme Court voted 5-4 to grant an application for injunctive relief in Ritesh Tandon, et al v. Gavin Newson, Governor of California, et al. The lawsuit concerns California's restrictions on at-home religious gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals previously denied the request for an injunction. This marks the fifth time that the Supreme Court has rejected the Ninth Circuit's analysis of California's COVID-19 restrictions on religious exercise.
Utah may be the first state to enact a specific law requiring biological fathers to pay half of a mother’s pregnancy-related medical costs. The law will take effect on May 5.
The court determined that the law prohibiting secret recordings of phone calls covers parties to a call as well as third parties who are eavesdropping on it.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling on Friday, March 26, 2021, holding that Andy Warhol's series of prints depicting the musical artist Prince are not transformative fair use under copyright law. The three-judge panel further ruled that Warhol's prints and Lynn Goldsmith's photograph, the source material for Warhol's prints, are substantially similar as a matter of law.
The recently implemented California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the recently passed Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act have policymakers and regulators gearing up for more state legislation and potential federal input.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched a special investigation into a Michigan car accident involving a Tesla, calling attention to safety issues with its self driving technology.
On Tuesday, March 16, 2021, the Judicial Conference of the United States proposed the addition of 79 new federal judgeships along with initiatives to improve courthouse security and personal security for judges. The personal security initiatives are proposed in light of the murder last year of Daniel Anderl, the son of Judge Esther Salas. Despite bipartisan support, Congress did not act on the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act before adjourning in December, but the bill's cosponsors plan to reintroduce the bill soon.
Recreational marijuana may soon be legalized in Mexico. The bill, approved by the Chamber of Deputies and soon to be introduced to the Senate, not only allows adults to smoke marijuana recreationally, but allows permit holders to cultivate and sell it.
A proposed state law would require app store operators such as Apple and Google to allow app developers to use their own payment processing systems, thus avoiding fees for the use of systems provided by app stores.
On Tuesday, February 23, 2021, Judge John A. Gibney, Jr., U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia, ruled that travelers have a clearly established right to record TSA screeners. Judge Gibney further ruled that the TSA agents involved in the lawsuit are not protected by qualified immunity.
A Texas woman has filed a proposed class action against the power provider Griddy Energy LLC for over $1 billion in damages.
Companies with $100 million or more in global annual gross revenue would need to pay a percentage of the revenue received from digital advertisements shown in Maryland.
On Tuesday, February 16, 2021, the Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, Member of the United States House of Representatives, filed a lawsuit, in his personal capacity, against Donald J. Trump and Rudy Giuliani, in their personal capacities, alleging a violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1985(1). The lawsuit stems from Trump and Giuliani's roles in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. The complaint also names as defendants Proud Boys International, L.L.C. and Oath Keepers, two right-wing extremist groups associated with the riot.
Virginia is poised to become the second state in the country to adopt a comprehensive online data protection law for consumers.
The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump began this week in the Senate with Trump’s lawyers arguing in part that the former President’s statements are protected under the First Amendment as free speech.
The National Labor Relations Board rejected efforts by the corporate giant to postpone an election or prevent employees from voting remotely, which echoed Amazon's previous attempts to hinder unionization at its facilities.
Robinhood, the online brokerage firm known for its stock trading app, now faces over 30 lawsuits in 10 states related to the brokerage firm's GameStop stock freeze last week. Members of the /r/WallStreetBets subreddit helped propel the stock values of multiple "meme stocks," including AMC, Bed Bath & Beyond, BlackBerry, GameStop, and Nokia, garnering massive media attention. Amidst the unprecedented surge, Robinhood abruptly froze trading on several of these stocks in a "risk-management decision." A number of the lawsuits filed against Robinhood allege market manipulation.
A federal judge found that the social network had not provided adequate evidence to support its complaint of antitrust and other business violations by hosting provider Amazon Web Services.
In a second defamation suit, Dominion Voting Systems filed a complaint against lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Monday for his statements concerning Dominion’s voting machines during the 2020 election.
On Monday, January 18, 2021, Paul MacNeal Davis, a participant in the January 6th U.S. Capitol riot, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court, Western District of Texas, alleging that the 117th United States Congress is illegitimate due to voting changes made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of Latinos for Trump, Blacks for Trump, and five individuals. Davis was fired from his in-house counsel position after posting a video of his participation in the U.S. Capitol riot.
Filed in a federal district court in New York, the lawsuit claims that the e-commerce company is working with publishers to stifle the competition.
Kevin Wooten, an English teacher in North Carolina, has sued Netflix for alleged copyright infringement related to its show “Outer Banks.” Wooten wrote a novel called “Pennywise: The Hunt for Blackbeard’s Treasure” in 2016. He argues that Netflix stole material from his book for “Outer Banks,” based on parallels between the…
On Thursday, January 7, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a case by Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert asking it to prohibit Vice President Mike Pence from certifying the election results.
More than 400 Google engineers and other workers have formed a union, a rarity in Silicon Valley.
Followers of institutional accounts will receive a notice asking them whether they want to continue following these accounts, which will technically start at zero followers.
On November 19, 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) proposed an expansion of facial recognition at the border to include photographs of every non-citizen coming in or out of the United States, regardless of their means of travel, entry and exit points, or even age.
On Monday, December 21, 2020, Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Github, LinkedIn, VMWare, and Internet Association filed a joint amici curiae brief in support of Facebook in NSO Group Technologies Limited, et al v. WhatsApp Inc., et al. The case is on appeal from the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, concerning a lawsuit filed by WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, alleging that NSO Group's spyware was used to hack multiple devices through a vulnerability in WhatsApp's messaging service. NSO Group previously argued that it should enjoy sovereign immunity since its tools are sold to foreign governments.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would review a case testing whether the NCAA's limits on compensation for student athletes violate antitrust laws.
This decision could guide many other courts across the U.S. in determining whether strict liability as a retailer or distributor should apply to online marketplaces like Amazon.
On Friday, December 11, 2020, the State of California filed a motion for joinder in United States of America et al v. Google, LLC, the antitrust lawsuit filed by the United States Department of Justice in October against Google. Eleven states are already named parties in the complaint; California is the first Democratic state to join the lawsuit.
The United States House of Representatives passed H.R. 8235: the Open Courts Act of 2020 on Tuesday, December 8, 2020. The bill seeks to provide free access to federal court documents filed on PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). The federal judiciary opposes the bill, citing "devastating budgetary and operational impact on the Judiciary."
YETI is the latest company to join Amazon's crackdown on counterfeiters with a joint lawsuit filed in the United States District Court the Western District of Washington.
DoorDash reached a settlement with the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General that included payments worth $2.5 million and greater transparency in tipping policies.
Lennon Image Technologies, LLC filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Target Corporation on Friday, November 13, 2020, in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas. The lawsuit concerns United States Patent No. 6,624,843, entitled "Customer Image Capture and Use Thereof in a Retailing System," and alleges that Target infringes the patent through its Beauty Studio Tool.
The California Department of Public Health has deemed Tesla employees "essential workers" in the state.
The Trump administration had issued an executive order banning TikTok from operating in the U.S., but a court had blocked the enforcement of the order.
On Thursday, November 12, 2020, a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, ruled in favor of Harvard University in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. The panel ruled that Harvard's race-conscious undergraduate admissions process does not violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
An Airbnb host filed a class-action lawsuit against the short-term rental vacation company on Thursday, November 5, 2020, alleging that Airbnb did not properly compensate hosts for guests who canceled bookings related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, and brings claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and violation of unfair competition law. The complaint requests damages and appropriate injunctive and equitable relief.
Ballot measures intended to reform policing and other criminal justice changes gained approval in many jurisdictions last week.
The judge found that Apple met the relevant standards according to FCC tests, and considering alternative tests would undermine efficiency and uniformity.
On Friday, October 23, 2020, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Apple, Inc., on behalf of Ohio residents, alleging that Apple "promotes, enables, and profits from games downloaded from its App Store. . . that constitute illegal gambling." Plaintiff Sean McCloskey filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, seeking recovery of all money paid through in-app purchases in gambling games made through Apple's App Store, pursuant to Section 3763.02 of the Ohio Revised Code.
If it passes, a privacy ballot measure in California could give you more control over personal data.
Many law school graduates who took the online bar exam in New York State reported technical difficulties and a negative experience.
On Wednesday, October 7, 2020, the First District Court of Appeal in California ruled that California law prevents anyone from recording either side of a phone conversation without both parties' consent. San Francisco attorney Eric Gruber previously filed suit against Yelp, Inc., alleging violations of the California Invasion of Privacy Act ("CIPA") (Pen. Code, § 630 et seq.) for recording conversations between himself and Yelp sales representatives without his notice or consent. The trial court ruled in Yelp's favor on a motion for summary judgment, finding no triable issues as to whether Yelp violated CIPA. The First District Court of Appeal reversed and remanded the trial court's decision.
On Tuesday, October 13, 2020, the United States Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in Malwarebytes, Inc. v. Enigma Software Group USA, LLC. The high court appeal stems from a case wherein Malwarebytes used software to block its users from accessing products from its competitor, Enigma. The district court rejected Enigma's claim based on immunity provided by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The Ninth Circuit panel reversed the district court's ruling, stating that "[i]mmunity under that section does not extend to anticompetitive conduct." Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas penned a concurring opinion to the denial of certiorari, suggesting that a review of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act may be warranted in an appropriate case.
In a reversal, Facebook is increasing its enforcement against hate speech.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed felony charges against Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman based on a robocalling program that they operated in August.
On Friday, September 25, 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy D. Freudenthal granted Google's motion to dismiss in a privacy lawsuit concerning Google's G Suite for Education. The court dismissed state law claims on the basis of declining to exercise jurisdiction, but granted Google's motion to dismiss as to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act claim brought by the State of New Mexico.
Despite the Trump administration's attempt to ban the app in the United States, TikTok has been partially granted a request for a temporary injunction.
During the coronavirus pandemic, California joined many other states in adjusting court procedures to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. Now, Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a law that will make some of these reforms permanent. The law takes effect immediately. Depositions now may be taken remotely rather than in…
US Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on Friday, September 18, 2020 at the age of 87 due to complications of metastatic cancer of the pancreas. Serving on the nation’s highest court for 27 years, she was known for her role in advancing equality and legal rights related to gender.
On Monday, September 14, 2020, three law school graduates with disabilities filed a lawsuit against the State Bar of California and the National Conference of Board Examiners alleging disability discrimination in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the California Unruh Act. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California and concerns the State Bar of California's remote administration of the bar exam during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In anticipation of the upcoming US presidential election, Google is removing certain autocomplete search suggestions.
A video and e-commerce technology company has sued the rapper for breaching an oral partnership and a non-disclosure agreement.
On Thursday, August 24, 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued a ruling on Epic Games, Inc.'s request for temporary restraining order against Apple Inc. The order grants Epic Games' request for a temporary restraining order against Apple from restricting, suspending, or terminating any affiliate of Epic Games from Apple's Developer Program. However, the order denies Epic Games' request for a temporary restraining order against Apple's ban of Epic Games' videogame, Fortnite, from Apple's App Store.
The Texas Supreme Court recently announced that it will allow service of process in civil cases through social media or email if the usual methods of serving in-person or through the mail fail.
The Arizona Board of Regents is suing in federal court to shut down an Instagram account that uses ASU trademarks in spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.
On Monday, August 17, 2020, Children's Health Defense filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Inc. in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. The lawsuit alleges that Facebook acted jointly or in concert with federal government agencies or actors to deny Children's Health Defense's First Amendment speech and Fifth Amendment property rights. At issue in the case is Facebook's use of fact-checking warning labels and Facebook's disabling of the fundraising feature on Children's Health Defense's Facebook page.
Democratic state attorneys general across the country are reportedly in the process of filing lawsuits against the Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the federal government in response to changes to postal operations that challengers argue could undermine mail-in voting during the November general election. In light of the backlash that has resulted, the USPS has reversed course on operational changes including removing mailboxes, reducing hours, and eliminating overtime.
The website recently announced updates to its policies on deceptive videos and other content designed to meddle with the voting process.
The lawsuit alleges that Uber and Lyft drivers are employees rather than independent contractors, so they should receive the benefits to which employees are legally entitled.
On Wednesday, July 29, 2020, Triller, Inc. sued TikTok, Inc. and its parent company, ByteDance Ltd., in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, over patent infringement claims. The complaint alleges that TikTok and ByteDance infringe on Triller's U.S. Patent No. 9,691,429 for "[s]ystems and methods for creating music videos synchronized with an audio track."
A teen in Tampa, Florida, is accused of taking over the Twitter accounts of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and other celebrities.
Tesla alleges that former Tesla employees who now work at Rivian brought confidential and proprietary information to their new jobs.
On Friday, July 17, 2020, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court, District of Oregon, against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service, and the Federal Protective Service. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of Oregon citizens and alleges that defendants have violated the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights of Oregon citizens by seizing and detaining citizens without probable cause for protesting against police brutality.
Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia has filed a lawsuit against Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, seeking to bar her from ordering city residents to wear face coverings to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The lawsuit comes days after Kemp issued an executive order prohibiting municipalities from mandating that residents utilize face masks. Kemp argues that Bottoms does not have the authority to modify or change his executive orders.
Instacart is suing Uber's Cornershop grocery service as both companies are taking advantage of the demand for food deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A consumer in New York alleges that LinkedIn violated consumer privacy by programming its apps on Apple devices to collect sensitive data.
On Thursday, July 2, 2020, Grammy award-winning composer and musician Maria Schneider filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, against YouTube, LLC, Google, LLC, and Alphabet, Inc. The lawsuit concerns copyright piracy on YouTube and alleges that YouTube's copyright management tool, Content ID, "actually insulates the vast majority of known and repeated copyright infringers from YouTube's repeat infringer policy" and leaves plaintiffs in the class with "no meaningful ability to police the extensive infringement of their copyrighted work." The complaint requests, among other things, equitable relief in the form of providing Content ID to all copyright owners and monetary relief in the form of defendants' profits derived from copyright infringement on YouTube.
A Las Vegas resident has filed a lawsuit against the City of Sacramento, California regarding a section of the city code that requires people to stand when the national anthem is played. He alleges that he plans to attend at least one Sacramento Kings NBA game in the foreseeable future, but that it will be impossible for him to go if he must subject himself to criminal prosecution for exercising his freedom of speech by refusing to stand for the anthem at such an event.
In a new complaint brought by Facebook operations program manager Oscar Veneszee Jr. on behalf of himself and all other black workers at Facebook, employees are claiming that there has been a “pattern or practice of discrimination against Black employees, including in evaluations, promotions, and pay.”
The Court determined that internet companies can trademark the combination of a generic word and ".com" if the combination has acquired a secondary meaning.
On Monday, June 22, 2020, the United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in Liu v. Securities and Exchange Commission, 591 U.S. ___ (2020). In an 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court held that, in civil enforcement cases brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, "[a] disgorgement award that does not exceed a wrongdoer's net profits and is awarded for victims is equitable relief permissible under [15 U.S.C.] §78u(d)(5)."
A ruling issued last week by the US District Court for the District of Maryland states that the federal government must face a lawsuit filed by the families of US citizen children whose parents have been denied coronavirus stimulus checks due to their status as undocumented immigrants. The court rejected the Department of Justice's arguments that federal officials are immune from constitutional claims arising from how Congress and the US Treasury Department decided to administer relief funds.
The dispute between the tech giant and the smart speaker maker raises issues involving antitrust and anti-competition in addition to intellectual property.
Two plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the City of Cincinnati, alleging violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments arising from the curfew the City recently imposed in light of ongoing protests against police violence and systemic racism. The plaintiffs state that they wanted to participate in the protests, but did not for fear of being subjected to arrest or injury due to police use of tear gas, pepper projectiles, rubber bullets, and other displays of force.
The U.S. Congress plans to update the Digital Millennium Copyright Act later this year. A lengthy report produced by the U.S. Copyright Office suggests that this update may enhance protections for rights holders.
On Tuesday, May 19, 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed against the College Entrance Examination Board ("College Board") in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of high school students who took Advanced Placement ("AP") testing online as a result of the shift to distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deloitte Consulting LLP has been sued by a group of Ohio residents in two proposed class actions after their personal information was compromised on state websites the company built to administer coronavirus-related unemployment benefits. Officials in Ohio, Colorado, and Illinois announced that applicant information including home addresses and social security numbers had been exposed to the public on these sites. The lawsuits have been filed in federal court in New York, as well as state court in Ohio.
Ubisoft argues that the American tech giants should have removed a mobile game from their digital marketplaces that infringed on the popular Rainbow Six Siege game.
On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded the United States District Court for the District of Oregon's decision in Soul'd Out Productions, LLC v. Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. (Case No. 19-35301). The district court previously dismissed Soul'd Out Productions, LLC's ("Soul'd Out") claims of tortious interference and unlawful competition against Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. ("AEG") for lack of standing. The three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit found that "[n]o plaintiff is better suited to assert the tort claims alleged here, and there is therefore no prudential reason to deny Soul'd Out standing."
Electric car maker Tesla has filed a lawsuit against Alameda County, California, where its Fremont production plant is located, in light of County restrictions prohibiting the Tesla factory from fully reopening pursuant to the County's current shelter in place order. The lawsuit seeks, among other things, to enjoin the County from enforcing its order against the company, and a declaratory judgment that the order is unconstitutional as applied to Tesla.
Thousands of female Oracle employees have alleged that the tech company paid them less than male employees with substantially similar jobs.
On Monday, April 27, 2020, in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., the United States Supreme Court ruled that annotations accompanying the Official Code of Georgia Annotated were not protected under copyright law. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Public.Resource.Org, a nonprofit company devoted to public access to government records and legal materials.
A class action lawsuit has been filed in Illinois federal court naming defendants including President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin by a US citizen who alleges that he was unlawfully denied a stimulus payment because he is married to an immigrant. The plaintiff claims that the federal government's restriction allowing only married couples who both have valid Social Security numbers to receive payments is a form of discrimination and violates the US Constitution.
A lawsuit between competing tobacco companies involves the tobacco heating technology used in their devices, which are alternatives to traditional cigarettes.
On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, Judge John Padova, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ruled mostly in favor of Epic Games, Inc. in a lawsuit involving the Fortnite dance emote "Phone It In." Judge Padova granted Epic Games, Inc.'s motion to dismiss concerning plaintiff Leo Pellegrino's causes of action concerning the following claims: (1) unauthorized use of name or likeness; (2) misappropriation of publicity; (3) invasion of privacy by misappropriation of identity; (4) unjust enrichment; (5) unfair competition; (6) trademark infringement under Pennsylvania common law; and (7) trademark dilution under the Lanham Act. However, Judge Padova ruled that plaintiff's claim for trademark infringement under the Lanham Act could proceed.
A Zoom shareholder has filed a class action lawsuit against the online videoconferencing company in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit claims that Zoom failed to disclose its lack of end-to-end encryption, and overstated its privacy protections.
The COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports website is designed to show the extent to which people in various areas are reducing their normal activity to slow the spread of the virus.
On Thursday, March 26, 2020, Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment in favor of defendants, 2K Games, Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., in a lawsuit concerning five tattoos appearing in three basketball simulation video games. Plaintiff Solid Oak Sketches, LLC claimed copyright infringement of tattoos depicted on NBA players Eric Bledsoe, LeBron James, and Kenyon Martin in NBA 2K14, NBA 2K15, and NBA 2K16. The tattoos in question were included in the basketball simulation video games "[t]o further the goal of simulating an actual NBA game."
The National Rifle Association (NRA) and affiliated parties are suing the governor of California along with a number of Los Angeles area and other government officials in response to the decision to close gun stores due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plaintiffs, which include individuals, nonprofits, and a gun retailer, allege that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's decision to order gun retailers to close because of their "non-essential" business status violates the constitutional right to bear arms. The suit also claims that current county and state-wide orders affecting gun store operations are unconstitutionally vague.
Earlier this week, Google decided to extend the contracts of many temporary staff members by 60 days. These extensions apply automatically to staff members whose assignments were due to end between March 20 and May 15 of this year. Even if an assignment has reached its maximum length, a 60-day extension…
On Monday, March 16, 2020, New York design firm Uber, Inc. filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, against the ride-sharing company Uber Technologies, Inc., alleging "willful, wanton, and intentional infringement, deceptive trade practices, and unfairly competitive use" of the design firm's trademark. The design firm requested relief in the form of damages, an injunction, and for the ride-sharing company to implement corrective advertising in the form of a campaign.
In a patent infringement lawsuit filed in Delaware federal court, IBM claims that Airbnb has unlawfully been using multiple IBM patents in running its online short-term rental platform business. IBM alleges that it has been attempting to negotiate a licensing agreement with Airbnb since 2014, but that these efforts have been unsuccessful.
A federal district court judge ruled that Google is not a state actor, so the First Amendment does not apply to its efforts to regulate its platform.
On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated a district court's grant of summary judgment in Razak v. Uber Technologies, Inc. The lawsuit involves plaintiff drivers who used Uber's ride-sharing app to provide limousine services in Philadelphia via UberBLACK. Plaintiffs brought claims under the federal minimum wage and overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Act, and the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that the Trump Administration failed to follow procedures set forth under federal law in appointing Ken Cuccinelli to a leadership role in US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in 2019. As a result, two rule changes to the asylum process implemented under his leadership should be considered nullified, according to the judge.
The lawsuit alleges that Google uses its G Suite for Education platform to mine the personal information of schoolchildren, violating federal and state laws.
On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, United States District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas denied Huawei Technologies USA, Inc.'s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit challenging the National Defense Authorization Act ("NDAA"). Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment maker, challenged the constitutionality of Section 889 of the NDAA, which prevents federal agencies and their contractors from utilizing Huawei's equipment and services. Judge Mazzant granted the U.S. Government's motion for summary judgment, concluding that Congress acted appropriately within its powers.
Nanoco, a British nanotechnology company that makes quantum dots for vibrant screen displays, announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Samsung. The case was filed last week in Texas federal court, and alleges that Samsung has willfully infringed Nanoco's patents with regard to importing and selling televisions that unlawfully incorporated Nanoco's technology.
The federal appeals court allowed the FCC to continue giving internet service providers substantial discretion to control the way in which consumers access the internet.
On Wednesday, January 29, 2020, a federal jury reached a verdict in California Institute of Technology v. Broadcom Limited and Apple, Inc, a lawsuit involving alleged patent infringement of the California Institute of Technology's patents on Wi-Fi networking technologies. The jury awarded $1.1 billion in damages to the university for the patent infringement. Specifically, the jury awarded the university $270 million for Broadcom's infringement and $837 million for Apple's infringement.
A $550 million settlement has been announced in a class action lawsuit against Facebook alleging that it violated an Illinois privacy law through its use of facial recognition technology. Since 2010, the social media platform has used a photo recognition feature on users' photos in order to offer Tag Suggestions. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged that the practice of collecting biometric data of this nature without users' permission or any information as to how long the information would be kept violated Illinois law.
Tech giant Google faces scrutiny from state attorneys general and the federal Justice Department for potential violations related to online searches, advertising, and Android products.
On Friday, January 17, 2020, a three-judge panel in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded a climate change lawsuit brought by Our Children's Trust against the federal government. The panel reversed the district court's interlocutory orders and remanded the case to the district court with instructions to dismiss the case for lack of standing. The lawsuit involves 21 young people who allege climate-change related injuries caused by the federal government's "permit[ting], authoriz[ing], and subsidiz[ing] fossil fuel."
Last week, 14 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the federal government to challenge new regulations put forth by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that are estimated to cause almost 700,000 people to lose food stamp assistance. The proposed changes would affect states' ability to obtain waivers for work requirements that apply to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by implementing more restrictive definitions of exceptions to work mandates related to things including insufficient job availability, geographic boundaries, and duration.
The proposed law would criminalize the use or possession of cell phones by Vermont residents who are under 21.
A new lawsuit filed on behalf of 12 plaintiffs aims to protect immigrant children from "aging out" of the immigration system when they turn 21 if their parents are H-1B visa holders from India. Dependents of H-1B holders have the ability to remain in dependent H-4 status if their wait for lawful permanent resident status is increased due to per country limits on the number of immigrant visas. However, current per country limits and national origin-specific visa bulletin charts dictate that children from India are subject to decades-long waits, which causes them to lose eligibility to immigrate with their parents when they turn 21.
A state court judge struck down a New York City rule that targeted Uber and Lyft in an alleged effort to reduce traffic congestion in Manhattan.
In what is believed to be the first settlement of its kind in the country, Sutter Health has agreed to pay $575 million and be the subject of ongoing monitoring in a class action antitrust lawsuit. The action, which was brought by the California Attorney General, unions, and employers, alleged anti-competitive conduct by the large Northern California health system, and represented renewed interest in major health care providers using their market share to discourage competition.
The shareholders allege that the Alphabet board improperly covered up incidents of sexual harassment and other misconduct by company executives.
On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruled against actor Bill Cosby in his appeal to overturn three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Cosby and his lawyers presented eight (8) grounds for appeal. The appeal was denied in a nintey-four (94) page order, written by President Judge Emeritus, John T. Bender.
Seven transgender women who are inmates in Colorado men's state prisons have filed a class action lawsuit against multiple government defendants, alleging that abuse occurring in those prisons violates state anti-discrimination law, and that state prison officials are discriminating against them on the basis of gender identity. The case was filed on behalf of an estimated 170 transgender women, and alleges that they are being held in unsafe conditions which have led to systemic violence, rape, and harassment.
Operators of websites on which users advertise firearms for sale are not legally responsible for illegal sales and resulting injuries or deaths.
On Monday, November 18, 2019, Judge Edward M. Chen of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, issued an order declining to grant a motion for partial summary judgment in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against multiple federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and other federal immigration agencies. The ACLU seeks information, via a FOIA request, as to the federal agencies' surveillance of social media users. Judge Chen's ruling allows the case to move forward.
Last week, Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California joined federal courts in New York and Washington state in striking down the Denial of Care Rule put forth by the US Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year. Judge Alsup declared the rule, which would permit health care workers to decline to provide services, care, or information to patients due to the worker's personal religious or moral beliefs, discriminatory and unconstitutional.
The Court's decision in a battle over basic software codes will end a decade of litigation between the two tech companies and shape the future of the software industry.
A former employee of a Michigan McDonald's franchise has filed a class action lawsuit in state court alleging a "culture of sexual harassment" at the company, and seeking $5 million in damages for the purported class members. If the case moves forward as a class action, over four dozen women who have worked at the restaurant in question could join the lawsuit.
Rather than suing hacking websites directly, Facebook is suing the companies that provide hosting services for these websites, alleging trademark infringement and cybersquatting.
On Tuesday, October 29, 2019, Judge Myron H. Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama granted a preliminary injunction in Robinson et al v. Marshall, a lawsuit challenging Alabama Act No. 2019-189. The statute imposes criminal liability on abortion providers for almost all abortions, whether completed or attempted, regardless of fetal viability. The preliminary injunction prevents enforcement of the statute only as applied to pre-viability abortions. The statute is set to go into effect on November 15, 2019.
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the organizers of a 2017 white power rally in Charlottesville, Virginia are seeking to invoke a Civil War-era statute in utilizing the defendants' online statements to prove that they engaged in an illegal conspiracy to commit racially motivated violence. Defendants insist that their actions are protected by the First Amendment, though the judge in this case has declined to dismiss the plaintiffs' complaint on free speech grounds. The outcome of this case will likely be a strong indicator of whether and to what extent the statute at issue can be relied upon to curb online hate speech and its consequences.
Senators Chuck Schumer and Tom Cotton recently sent a letter to US intelligence officials requesting an investigation of the security risk.
The proposed Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act would end per-country caps on green cards, a reform endorsed by Apple CEO Tim Cook on Twitter.
On Tuesday, October 15, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ordered rehearing en banc in District of Columbia v. Donald J. Trump. The lawsuit, filed by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia, alleges violations by President Donald J. Trump of the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses of the U.S. Constitution.
The mother of an 18-year-old Juul user who passed away due to respiratory complications has filed what appears to be the first wrongful death lawsuit against vaping company Juul. The lawsuit alleges that the teen was first exposed to Juul's advertising in 2015, became strongly addicted to its nicotine vaping products, and in 2018 was found dead by his father.
YouTube is allowing politicians and their campaigns to purchase limited ad space, including ads that target important voting states like Ohio and South Carolina.
Gigi Sohn, a former counselor to the Federal Communications Commission during the administration of President Barack Obama, has urged the federal government to pass a law to protect the privacy of consumers. Sohn argued that consumers may suffer more than just financial losses due to violations of their privacy. She noted…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against Match Group for fraudulent business practices. The agency alleges that Match, which owns most major online dating platforms, has knowingly profited from deceiving hundreds of thousands of users into purchasing subscriptions on Match.com, and also exposed them to potential fraud.
Bandai Namco is claiming that AtGames misrepresented itself in negotiations for the royalty rights to the game.
Detroit police plan to use facial recognition technology to help investigate allegations of home invasions and certain violent crimes, despite concerns over accuracy and fairness.
On Monday, September 9, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the compensatory damages award of $5.25 million in litigation stemming from author John Steinbeck's estate, brought by Steinbeck's stepdaughter, Waverly Scott Kaffaga. In its ruling, the Ninth Circuit vacated the $7.9 million punitive damage award against Steinbeck's daughter-in-law, Gail Knight Steinbeck.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has issued an emergency executive order aiming to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in New York. Announcing the action this past weekend, Cuomo accused e-cigarette manufacturers of recklessly and intentionally targeting young people with fruit and candy flavored e-cigarettes in an effort to get them addicted to nicotine. He also indicated that state health officials and police will be increasing enforcement efforts against retailers who illegally sell e-cigarettes to underage buyers.
The National Labor Relations Board ordered Google to remind employees that they have the right to talk about politics and other issues at work.
Led by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, the attorneys general of eight states and the District of Columbia will investigate Facebook for possible violations of antitrust laws. The investigation arises from concerns over the dominance of Facebook in its industry, and it will examine whether Facebook may be restricting the choices available to consumers.
On Friday, August 30, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rejected lawyer Arnold Fleck's challenge to the State Bar Association of North Dakota's collection of mandatory bar association dues. Fleck v. Wetch, No. 16-4564 (8th Cir. 2019), was remanded to the Eighth Circuit from the United States Supreme Court in light of the Supreme Court's June 2018 ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, 585 U.S. ___ (2018), holding that public-sector unions may not collect mandatory fees from nonmember employees unless the employees waive their First Amendment rights.
Singer Ariana Grande has filed a $10 million lawsuit against clothing retailer Forever 21 and a related beauty company, claiming that they misappropriated her name, image, and likeness to promote their products following failed endorsement deal talks between Grande and Forever 21. Grande claims that after she declined to enter into the deal due to an insufficient financial offer, Forever 21 and beauty company Riley Rose hired a lookalike model and launched a social media campaign intended to coincide with the release of her fifth album.
Walmart is suing Tesla for compensation and the removal of its solar panels after alleged problems with their condition and maintenance caused fires at several Walmart stores.
On Friday, August 16, 2019, Judge Brian C. Wimes of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri ruled that Mike Campbell was deprived of his constitutional right to free speech when Missouri Representative Cheri Toalson Reisch blocked Campbell from her Twitter page after Campbell retweeted a comment criticizing Reisch's political views. Judge Wimes granted Campbell's request for declaratory and injunctive relief against Reisch under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
Fifteen plaintiffs and two nonprofit organizations have filed a new class action lawsuit seeking improvement of what is reported to be severely inadequate healthcare in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities. Filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, Disability Rights Advocates, and the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the lawsuit does not seek money damages, but instead requests that ICE closely track these conditions and improve healthcare at its facilities.
Citing flaws in the current technology, a federal judge has ordered Georgia officials to stop using its outdated electronic voting machines by the end of 2019.
The technology giant could face billions of dollars in damages after a panel of federal judges allowed a class action lawsuit by Illinois users to move forward.
On Monday, August 1, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that KWP, a seven year old boy attending the Kansas City Public Schools system, did not have his constitutional rights violated by Officer Brandon Craddock or the school's principal, Anne Wallace, when KWP was handcuffed for twenty minutes by the officer on school grounds. The Court further ruled that both the officer and principal met the requirements for qualified immunity on KWP's claims of unreasonable seizure and excessive force in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
In the aftermath of a March 2019 Capital One data breach that reportedly compromised the data of over 100 million Capital One customers and credit card applicants, plaintiffs are suing not only the credit card company but also the software development platform where the alleged perpetrator posted information about the breach. The hack is said to have exposed the social security numbers, bank account numbers, and credit card applications of millions of people in the US and Canada.
Last week, a federal judge in Santa Ana, California ruled that the Second Amendment does not prevent California from enacting reasonable gun safety laws. This case arose when the California Rifle and Pistol Association, part of the National Rifle Association, challenged a state law that prevents California residents from making, owning,…
On Wednesday, July 24, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia declined to impose a temporary restraining order which would pause the Trump administration's new rule limiting asylum requests from migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The new rule requires that migrants and refugees passing through a third country en route to the United States must seek asylum from said third country in order to apply for asylum in the United States. Under the new rule, migrant and refugee Hondurans and Salvadorans must be denied asylum in Guatemala or Mexico before seeking asylum in the United States, and Guatemalans must be denied asylum in Mexico in order to apply for asylum in the United States.
Last week a joint motion for approval was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California reflecting a settlement agreement between Google and 227 people alleging age discrimination in hiring by the tech giant. The $11 million settlement will be comprised of a minimum amount of over $11,000 for each plaintiff, as well as additional amounts for lost wages on a case-by case basis. As part of the settlement, Google denies having discriminated on the basis of age.
Senator Chuck Schumer sent a letter to the FBI and the FTC last Wednesday expressing his concerns regarding FaceApp, stating that it could “post national security and privacy risks for millions of U.S. citizens.”
A judge ruled that San Francisco must adhere to the terms of a 10-year exclusivity agreement signed with Lyft in 2015, which prevents it from inviting other bike rental vendors to compete with Lyft.
Multiple civil rights groups filed suit today against the Trump administration, challenging its new rule seeking to severely limit the asylum protections that are available under US and international law to migrants at the US-Mexico border. The American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed one of the main legal challenges in California's Northern District Court on behalf of immigrant advocacy groups, alleging that the new rule violates US immigration law as well as administrative law. The lawsuit seeks declaratory relief stating that the interim final rule is invalid and unlawful, as well as preliminary and permanent injunctive relief to block its implementation.
In a new rule that is planned to be effective Tuesday, the Trump administration is seeking to reverse decades of asylum policy by effectively denying protections to most migrants seeking asylum at the southern border of the US. The new policy, which the American Civil Liberties Union plans to promptly challenge in court, would require asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border to prove that they have sought and been denied asylum in a so-called "safe third country" before they can apply for protection in the US.
On Wednesday, July 10, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously dismissed a lawsuit that claimed President Trump is violating the so-called Emoluments Clauses of the U.S. Constitution by accepting payments from state and foreign governments at his luxury hotel in downtown Washington. Brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia, the lawsuit alleged that the type of business transactions with foreign governments was exactly the type anticipated and prohibited by our nation's founders.
On Tuesday, July 9, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that President Donald J. Trump engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, in violation of the First Amendment, by blocking certain users' access to his Twitter account based on those users' speech on Twitter. The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University sued the President on behalf of seven Twitter users who were blocked from the President's Twitter account after said users tweeted replies to the President critical of his personality and policies. Judge Barrington D. Parker concluded "that the First Amendment does not permit a public official who utilizes a social media account for all manner of official purposes to exclude persons from an otherwise-open online dialogue because they expressed views with which the official disagrees."
According to news reports, since May the federal government has filed four condemnation lawsuits against local residents in the Brownsville, Texas area for the purpose of constructing a border wall along the southern border of the US. Some residents, who have been informed that the government wants access to their property for purposes of surveying land that would be involved in border wall construction, are contesting the government's terms for use of their land.
Using state driver's license databases, agents are scanning through millions of Americans' faces without their knowledge or consent.
This week marked the end of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018–2019 term, and, as is typical for this last week, the Court issued some highly anticipated (and some highly divisive) decisions.
On Monday, June 24, 2019, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in Iancu v. Brunetti, 588 U.S. ___ (2019), holding that the Lanham Act's bar on registration of immoral or scandalous trademarks violates the First Amendment. At issue in the case is the trademark FUCT, pronounced as four letters, which is the clothing brand founded by Erik Brunetti. Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the majority, wrote that the Lanham Act's bar on immoral or scandalous trademarks is viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has canceled the deportation of a worker who was arrested and detained in a 2008 immigration enforcement raid on a California factory, ruling that immigration authorities violated federal regulations and the Constitution when they conducted the raid without reasonable suspicion that the approximately 130 people they detained were in the country without authorization.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that the administration's policy of blocking abortion services served as an "across-the board ban" on access to the procedure.
Recent investigations have revealed that telecommunications companies have sold the real-time location data of their customers without the informed consent of the customers. In other situations, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint simply have allowed third parties to access the data, rather than actively selling it to them. As a result, a group of parties include…
On Wednesday, June 5, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Washington State police officers lacked reasonable suspicion to arrest Daniel Brown after the police received an anonymous report of a black man possessing a gun in Washington, a concealed-carry state. After the police received the anonymous report, the police saw Brown, activated their police lights, and then pursued him going the opposite direction down a one-way street. Brown ran for about a block before being arrested at gunpoint. Police found a gun in Brown's waistband, prompting a further search finding drugs and cash. The Ninth Circuit found that the officers lacked reasonable suspicion of criminal activity when they stopped and frisked Brown and, thus, granted Brown's motion to suppress the evidence of drugs and cash.
In a tentative order issued last Friday, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge allowed a former Google employee's lawsuit alleging discrimination by the company against conservatives, men, white people, and people of Asian descent to go forward. The lead plaintiff, whose suit has been joined by a small number of other men, is a former Google engineer who was fired after he circulated an internal memo that was critical of the company's efforts to increase gender and racial diversity among its workforce, and suggested that the lack of female engineers in the profession had to do with biological differences.
The ruling stemmed from the arrest of a man who had yelled "f--- you" out of his car window at an Arkansas state trooper.
A vast New Mexico oilfield lies near Carlsbad Caverns National Park, a region comprised of deserts and caves. The federal government recently has allowed substantial oil and gas development in this area. This may affect the stability of the terrain and the air quality near the national park, according to WildEarth Guardians. This environmentalist group…
On Thursday, May 23, 2019, the Center for Biological Diversity and San Francisco Baykeeper sued the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for failing to protect eight highly imperiled species in the United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the longfin smelt, Hermes Copper butterfly, Sierra Nevada red fox, red tree vole, eastern gopher tortoise, Berry Cave salamander, Puerto Rico harlequin butterfly, and marrón bacora all warrant protection as afforded under the Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 1531-1544. The plaintiffs are suing U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to actually provide protection as mandated by the law.
The State of California has filed a new lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that the Federal Railroad Administration's sudden decision to pull almost $1 billion in funding for a planned high-speed rail connection between San Francisco and Los Angeles was payback for the state's opposition to Trump's plans to construct a wall along the southern border of the US as part of his immigration policy. The state's lawsuit alleges that in the days following certain criticisms made by California Governor Gavin Newsom of Trump's border wall plans, Trump made a series of Tweets criticizing the state's position on his immigration policies as well as its handling of the rail project, demonstrating the link between the funding cancellation and the border wall dispute.
New Jersey and other states are supporting the effort of a Navy veteran from Colorado to challenge the binary gender designations on passport applications. The case could affect how the federal government refers to non-binary individuals.
Several US states and municipalities filed a law suit earlier this week challenging “conscience” regulations, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which allow individual health care providers to deny health care information, access, and coverage based upon objections related to personal “conscience".
Last week, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, 42 other state attorneys general, and Puerto Rico filed a lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut against 20 manufacturers of generic drugs. The lawsuit alleges that the manufacturers are engaged in an illegal price-fixing scheme, driving up the costs of generic drugs for consumers, sometimes by several thousand percent. Over 500 pages, the complaint describes in detail the historical behavior of the companies that allegedly amounts to 33 counts of anti-competitive behavior in violation of federal antitrust law.
On Monday, May 13, 2019, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Apple, Inc. v. Pepper, 587 U.S. __ (2019). Four iPhone users sued Apple, Inc., alleging that the company monopolized the app market, which resulted in higher-than-competitive prices for apps. Apple argued that the consumer-plaintiffs were barred from suing Apple since the consumer-plaintiffs were not "direct purchasers" from Apple, as defined in Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois, 431 U.S. 720, 745-746 (1977). The District Court agreed with Apple, while the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and concluded that the consumer-plaintiffs were direct purchasers because they purchased the apps directly from Apple.
The family of a 24-year-old bartender who was employed at a Florida restaurant owned by Tiger Woods is suing the pro golfer for wrongful death. The lawsuit states that Woods and his girlfriend, who allegedly manages the restaurant, should have stopped the employee from drinking excessively, which he reportedly did before dying in a single-vehicle car crash.
Immigrants in California can still be deported if they were convicted of a crime involving marijuana before voters approved the legalization of the drug in 2016.
A judge in Washington, D.C. ruled that gifts from foreign governments to Trump businesses might violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
On Thursday, April 25, 2019, Facebook, Inc. and Instagram, LLC filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Social Media Series Limited, a New Zealand company, and three other individual defendants for selling fake engagement services to Instagram users. The complaint alleges that the defendants sold fake likes, views, and followers to Instagram users as a service. Facebook and Instagram suspended the defendants' accounts and then warned them formally, in writing, to notify defendants that they were violating Instagram's Terms of Use and Community Guidelines. The defendants continued to violate Instagram's Terms of Use and Community Guidelines, which resulted in the lawsuit.
In a new ruling, Judge Dana Sabraw has given the federal government six months to locate children separated from their families at the border under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy. Though many of the more than 2000 children the government took from their families have since been reunited pursuant to a June 2018 court order, reports indicate that there may be thousands more children that are currently unaccounted for.
Connecticut motorist Jason Stiber claimed that he was eating a McDonald's hash brown when police gave him a ticket for distracted driving last year.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city was justified in attempting to prevent sexual orientation discrimination by withholding referrals of foster children to agencies that do not work with same-sex parents. It did not find any religious persecution or bias that would make the policy unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
In the first of its kind decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a unanimous opinion declaring that chalking tires, a common practice in areas without parking meters to track how long a car has been parked in a particular spot, is a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
This week the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision affirming the lower court's decision upholding three California laws against a challenge by the federal government. The federal government challenged the three laws, which all pertain to the state's status as a "sanctuary" state, on the grounds that they are preempted by federal law and that they violate a doctrine known as intergovernmental immunity.
Attorney General William Barr has released a redacted version of the Mueller Report today. Read a copy of the report here. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com/Mark Van Scyoc…
On Tuesday, April 16, 2019, Attorney General William Barr released an immigration decision applying to migrants who have established "a credible fear of persecution or torture" in their home country. The decision orders immigration judges to prevent migrant asylum seekers from posting bond while awaiting trial. President Donald Trump has criticized the former immigration policy allowing the posting of bond as a "catch and release" system. The American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project claims that "this decision will result in the unlawful jailing of thousands of people who should not be behind bars."
Five parents have filed a lawsuit in response to an emergency order issued last week by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration declaring a public health emergency and requiring all residents within certain Brooklyn zip codes to be vaccinated against measles or face a $1,000 fine. According to news reports, the action was filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court against the New York City Department of Health, and alleges that the order exceeds the powers of the Public Health Commissioner. It also claims that the City's measures are too drastic in light of its reasons for issuing the order. A judge denied the parents' request for an emergency injunction yesterday, but the parties will appear in court on Thursday.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has sued two US federal agencies over the data they used to support rolling back Obama-era vehicle emissions standards.
A New York tenant achieved an early victory in a lawsuit against his landlord based on harassment by a neighbor. This case should encourage landlords in New York and surrounding states to respond proactively to accusations of discrimination or harassment involving their tenants.
On April 2, the US House Ways and Means Committee passed H.R.1957, the Taxpayer First Act of 2019 (the “Act”). Widely cited as a win for private online tax preparation companies such as TurboTax, opponents claim it will prohibit the IRS from creating competing free software to assist citizens in tax preparation and filing…
A family whose daughter was killed in the Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX crash filed a lawsuit against Boeing Co and Rosemount Aerospace Inc, which makes a part of the aircraft under investigation. The parents of Samya Stumo, who was on a work trip when the crash occurred on March 10 shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, filed the complaint in U.S. federal court in Chicago. The crash killed all 157 people on board.
The attorneys general of several states—New York, California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont—and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its weakening of the federal nutrition standards for school meals. The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that in 2018 the US Department of Agriculture weakened the federal nutritional standards for sodium and whole grains without first providing the public an opportunity to comment on them, in violation of Administrative Procedure Act.
On Tuesday, April 2, 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court, District of Maryland, on behalf of five former federal employees challenging the constitutionality of prepublication review. Former government and intelligence agency employees must submit manuscripts and drafts for government review before publication due to a lifelong obligation to keep national security secrets for as long as the information is considered classified by the government. The lawsuit alleges violations of both the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment.
A federal judge in Alaska has ruled that President Trump does not have the authority to re-open Arctic waters to drilling that the Obama administration closed to drilling in 2016. Judge Sharon L. Gleason explained that while a 1953 law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) permits a president to remove waters from drilling, it does not contain a provision allowing a president to add waters to the list of available drilling sites.
Rookie justice Brett M. Kavanaugh seemed to take the place of Justice Kennedy during the arguments, suggesting that some partisan gerrymandering can be so extreme that it is unconstitutional.
New Jersey has become just the second state in the U.S. to prohibit retail stores and restaurants from refusing to accept cash. The law targets stores that accept payments only by credit cards or through an app.
After years of debate, the European Union (“EU”) has passed the controversial Copyright Directive (the “Directive”), its first update of copyright rules since 2001. By a vote of 348 to 274, the 28 EU member countries are now required to pass or “transpose” these new rules into legislation in their respective countries. The most controversial…
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court, along with judges in a dozen or so other states, has been considering issues of gerrymandering. The courts have primarily questioned whether mapmakers have gone too far by manipulating legislative district boundaries for the advantage of a preferred political party.
US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is (in)famous for remaining silent during oral arguments, but last week during the oral argument of Flowers v. Mississippi, he broke his silence to ask a question. The case presents a question about whether a Mississippi prosecutor engaged in unlawful exclusion of jurors on the basis of race in the series of trials of Curtis Flowers, who was charged with several murders.
On Thursday, March 21, 2019, Tesla filed a lawsuit against one of its former engineers, alleging that he copied the company’s Autopilot source code before moving to a Chinese self-driving car start-up in January. The lawsuit claims that the engineer, named Guangzhi Cao, copied more than 300,000 files associated with the Autopilot source code before joining his new employer, China’s Xiaopeng Motors Technology Company Ltd.
On Wednesday, March 6, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided Patrick Hately v. Dr. David Watts, ruling that opened and read emails are covered by the federal Stored Communications Act's privacy protections. Watts used a password provided to him by the mother of Hately's children, with whom Watts was having an affair, to browse Hately's emails in an attempt to uncover evidence of a relationship between Hately and Watts's ex-wife. The Fourth Circuit ultimately found that the district court erred in finding Hately did not demonstrate the statutory injury required under state law and in finding that Hately's opened and read emails were not statutorily protected "electronic storage" under federal law.
Congressman Devin Nunes has reportedly filed a defamation lawsuit in Virginia state court against Twitter, Republican political consultant Liz Mair, and two parodical Twitter accounts (@DevinNunesMom and @DevinCow) seeking at least $250 million in compensatory and punitive damages. The lawsuit alleges, among other things, that Twitter is intentionally refusing to enforce its Terms of Service and Twitter Rules against accounts that supposedly attempt to defame conservative individuals such as Nunes.
A class action lawsuit filed on Thursday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California names Stanford, USC, UCLA, the University of San Diego, the University of Texas at Austin, Wake Forest, Yale, and Georgetown.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent the Tesla CEO from using social media to make misleading statements about the company.
On Wednesday, March 13, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued Executive Order N-09-19 (the “Order”) granting a stay of execution to the 700 plus inmates on death row in the state. The Order also closes the state’s death penalty chamber located in San Quentin prison and withdraws California’s legal injection protocol. A long time opponent…
Earlier this month, the United States women’s soccer team filed a lawsuit in a California district court, alleging that U.S. Soccer’s codified policies and its actual practices discriminate against members of the women’s national team based on their gender. The claimed result is that female team members are paid less than similarly situated male soccer players on the U.S. men’s team, according to the complaint.
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held on Thursday that the constitutional guarantee of habeas corpus precludes US immigration authorities from deporting asylum seekers who had failed an initial screening. This ruling sets up a circuit split (with the Third Circuit, which came to the opposite conclusion in 2016), which makes review by the US Supreme Court likely.
Two sources familiar with the matter say that the Chinese company, Huawei, is preparing a lawsuit against the U.S. government for hindering federal agencies from using the company's products. According to the sources, who requested to be anonymous to uphold confidentiality, the lawsuit would be filed in the Eastern District of Texas, the home of Huawei's American headquarters. An announcement about the lawsuit from the company is expected to be released this week.
On Monday, March 4, 2019, The New Yorker published an article online written by Jane Mayer chronicling the ties between the White House and Rupert Murdoch's Fox News. The article, titled "The Making of the Fox News White House," will be published in the print edition of the March 11, 2019 issue of The New Yorker, under the headline "Trump TV." In the article, Mayer quotes a former White House official as stating that "[t]he President does not understand the nuances of antitrust law or policy. . . [b]ut he wanted to bring down the hammer" with regards to the AT&T/Time Warner merger.
California has filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Northern California to challenge a new regulation the Trump administration plans to enact in order to block access to abortion and family planning services. Specifically, the case seeks to enjoin new rules adopted under Title X of the Public Health Service Act, a family planning program funded by the federal government. Oregon, Washington, and approximately 20 other states are expected to file suit as well.
A Dallas couple, in their attempt to adopt a Native American foster child, began a court battle involving the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).
Last week, the federal government issued a rule to withhold federal funding for family planning from groups that provide abortions or abortion referrals. To receive federal funding, clinics will need to physically and financially separate any services that receive government funding from organizations that provide abortions or referrals.
A federal district court judge has blocked an effort by the Texas Secretary of State to purge voter rolls of non-citizens. The lawsuit was filed in objection to a recent program in which driver license records were matched against voter registration records in order to locate ineligible voters. In his opinion, Judge Fred Biery…
Last week, tech giant Google announced that it will be dropping its forced arbitration requirements, effectively allowing employees to sue Google in court, as well as join a class action lawsuit if they so choose. The news comes after months of effort and activism by a group of Google employees who have been working to effect change within the company since fall 2018. The initial disagreement related to the way Google allegedly handled sexual harassment and abuse controversies and resulted in a worldwide walkout of approximately 20,000 employees.
The US Supreme Court issued three decisions this week. In the first, Moore v. Texas, the Court reversed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on a death penalty case that had already come before the Court once, during its 2016 term. This time, the Court made its decision without oral argument. In a per curiam (unsigned) opinion, the Court held that the Texas court's redetermination that the defendant in that case does not have an intellectual disability and is thus eligible for the death penalty is inconsistent with with the Court's earlier decision in the same case.
On Tuesday, February 19, 2019, the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari in Katherine Mae McKee v. William H. Cosby, Jr., 586 U.S. ___ (2019), a lawsuit concerning Katherine McKee's claim against Bill Cosby for defamation where Cosby's lawyers released a letter allegedly damaging McKee's reputation for truthfulness and honesty. The First Circuit found McKee became a limited-purpose public figure when she made sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby and, as such, would need to prove that the statements in the letter were both false and made with actual malice. United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, writing a concurring opinion in the Supreme Court's denial of certiorari, called for a reconsideration of the doctrinal basis for First Amendment cases concerning defamation and libel.
A group of 16 states, including the border states of California and New Mexico, has gone to court to challenge the Trump administration's attempt to invoke emergency powers in order to fund the construction of a border wall. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal district court in San Francisco, raises not only constitutional issues related to who controls federal spending, but also may turn on issues of standing and statutory interpretation.
In the latest legal challenge to the US Customs and Border Protection agency's broad authority over the border zone, two women from Montana have filed suit after being detained at a gas station solely for speaking Spanish.
Sprint, a competitor of AT&T, has filed a lawsuit in federal court to attack the use of 5G Evolution branding by AT&T. It argues that this phrase and the 5GE tag associated with it are misleading because these phones and networks do not use 5G technology. Sprint is asking the court for an injunction against AT&T to stop it from using 5GE tags.
On February 25th, 2019, the US Supreme Court will hear arguments in Manhattan Community Access Corporation v. Halleck, a case that has garnered press attention for its First Amendment subject matter. The Court is being asked to consider, “when (if ever) the actions of a private nonprofit corporation operating a public access television channel…
On February 1, 2019, New Jersey joined Washington, Oregon, and California as the fourth U.S. state to allow its residents to change the gender designation on their birth certificates to reflect a gender-neutral identity. New York City has a law that allows residents to change their birth certificates accordingly as well. The New Jersey law covers transgender individuals who have undergone gender affirming surgery or simply identify as a gender different from what was assigned to them at birth. This includes non-binary individuals who may not identify strictly as male or female. The aim is to allow each individual to make a choice about their own identity, according to New Jersey Health Commissioner Shereef Elnahal. The options now available to New Jersey residents are ‘male,’ ‘female,’ and a third option called ‘undesignated’ or ‘non-binary.’
On February 6, a panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—which protects employees from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin—does not protect employees from discrimination on the basis of transgender identity. In doing so, the court also affirmed its own 1979 decision that Title VII does not protect employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. That interpretation of Title VII is at odds with the present interpretation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)—the agency charged with enforcing Title VII—as well as that of several other federal circuit courts.
The NYPD has sent a letter to Google demanding that it remove a feature that allows users to post drunk-driving checkpoints on its Wave navigation app. In the letter, the NYPD argues that the feature is irresponsible because it allows impaired and intoxicated drivers to avoid checkpoints and therefore encourages reckless driving. Those users who post such checkpoints on the Waze app, the NYPD says, may be engaging in criminal conduct since such actions hinder the NYPD from enforcing DWI laws and other criminal and traffic laws.
On Thursday, January 31, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit published its en banc opinion in American Beverage Association v. City and County of San Francisco, No. 16-16072 (9th Cir. 2019), reversing and remanding the district court's denial of a preliminary injunction. The Ninth Circuit found that a San Francisco ordinance mandating warnings regarding the health effects of sugar sweetened beverages likely violated the First Amendment.
The Metropolitan Detention Center (M.D.C.), a federal jail in Brooklyn, is the subject of a new lawsuit and will be toured by a federal judge and senior federal defender after a power outage caused corrections officials to reportedly hold inmates on at least partial lockdown for days with no heat. A different judge has ordered the jail to allow inmates to have visits with their lawyers, which were apparently canceled last week as well.
Florida congressmen Ted Deutch and Vern Buchanan have proposed a bill that will make animal cruelty a federal felony.
California has implemented a Low Carbon Fuel Standard program since 2011, requiring sellers of oil, ethanol, and other fuels to reduce the carbon intensity of their fuel within certain deadlines. (Alternatively, they can buy credits from other companies that meet the requirements of the program.) Entities in the ethanol and oil industries recently challenged the…
The consumer advocacy non-profit organization, Public Citizen, filed a lawsuit in federal district court on January 25th, challenging the roll back of an Obama-era worker safety rule. The Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses rule was created to collect more complete data on workplace injuries in order to…
A federal court case that may alter the way the University of Arkansas System handles coverage of healthcare to transgender employees is set to resume this year.
A disability rights group has filed a lawsuit against the City of San Diego and three companies, including private e-scooter companies Bird and Lime, for allegedly breaching the Americans with Disabilities Act and other related state legislation. The class-action lawsuit, Montoya et al v. City of San Diego et al, argues that the city has failed to uphold its duty of keeping city sidewalks, ramps, crosswalks, and other public areas clear of dispersed scooters, which can create hazardous situations for people with physical disabilities.
On Friday, January 11, 2019, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Gerald P. Mitchell v. State of Wisconsin (Docket No. 18-6210). The case questions whether a civil implied-consent statute in Wisconsin, permitting police officers to draw the blood of an unconscious driver, without consent, is constitutional.
In an order issued today, the US Supreme Court has granted the Trump administration's request to stay orders in two cases filed in federal district courts within the 9th Circuit to block the administration's policy banning most transgender people from serving in the military from going into effect. The Court's decision permits the ban to be temporarily implemented while the cases progress through the appeals process and any Supreme Court review. The Court denied the Trump administration's request to bypass the appellate process completely, but provides a preview of how the Court will likely rule if it hears these cases on the merits.
In what will potentially become a landmark decision, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California gave the order as a part of a denial of a search warrant for a property in Oakland.
In the case of Iancu v. Brunetti, the Federal Circuit recently ruled that a section of the Lanham Act was unconstitutional. This federal law governs the registration of trademarks. Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act prohibits the registration of trademarks that are immoral or scandalous. The Federal Circuit reviewed this provision in…
Last week, Chooseco LLC, the publisher of the Choose Your Own Adventure children’s book series, filed a federal lawsuit against Netflix.
Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, has sued Epic Games, Inc. and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. for copyright infringement. Ribeiro alleged that Epic Games and Take-Two infringed on his copyright to the Carlton Dance by offering in-game purchases in Fortnite Battle Royale and NBA 2K16, respectively,…
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge James Gritzner overturned an Iowa law that made it illegal to obtain employment at a livestock farm to investigate animal cruelty through an undercover approach. The federal judge found the law to be a violation of the constitutional right to free speech.
On Monday, January 7, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that Phyllis Randall violated the First Amendment rights of Brian Davison when she blocked Davison for twelve hours in February 2016 from her official Facebook Page as the chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has ruled that the City of Flint is not immune from the federal lawsuit pending against it following the infamous decision by public officials to save costs by switching the city's water supply to corrosive Flint River water that would be processed by an outdated water plant, sickening local residents as a result. Though the Court's decision dismissed three former state officials, it ruled that city officials were not immune, as the city's emergency management status had not made the city's water functions an "arm of the state."
In a lawsuit filed on Thursday on behalf of Californians, the City of Los Angeles alleged that the operator of The Weather Channel's mobile phone application has been "covertly mining the private data of users and selling the information to third parties, including advertisers."
On January 2, Penny Manzi and her husband, Jerry Manzi, filed a lawsuit against Apple in a U.S. District Court in Chicago. The lawsuit alleges that the MagSafe power adapter manufactured by the tech giant caused serious burns by setting fire to Ms. Manzi’s head. Ms. Manzi claims that she was using…
On Monday, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a federal employees labor union, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration related to the government shutdown.
On December 19, the attorney general of Washington, DC, filed a lawsuit in DC court against Facebook. The complaint alleges that Facebook's poor oversight and misleading privacy policies enabled Cambridge Analytica to gain access to the data of hundreds of thousands of DC residents, in violation of the Consumer Protection Procedures Act, D.C. Code §§ 28-3901, et seq., and asks the court to enjoin the social media company from continuing to violate the CPPA as well as for civil damages.
On Tuesday, December 18, 2018, Damien Guedes, a Pennsylvania citizen who purchased a bump stock device in 2014, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Firearms Policy Foundation, and Madison Society Foundation filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives challenging the Trump administration's ban on bump stock devices.
An appellate court in California recently ruled that Apple should not be held liable for a car accident based on a driver’s use of the FaceTime app on the iPhone 6. This case arose from a car accident in Texas on Christmas Eve 2014, which resulted in the tragic death of a…
On Wednesday, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a permanent injunction against the federal government to prevent it from continuing its asylum policies announced last summer by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. According to Judge Sullivan, all but two of the policies violated the Immigration and Naturalization Act, and as such, he ordered the government “to return to the United States the plaintiffs who were unlawfully deported and to provide them with new credible fear determinations consistent with the immigration laws.”
Last week, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker rejected Maine Republican congressional incumbent Bruce Poliquin’s lawsuit, which sought to have the state’s ranked voting system declared unconstitutional.
Last week Congress voted to pass a farm bill that addresses the legalization of cultivating hemp in the U.S. as well as other issues such as nutrition, conservation, trade, energy, and forestry. The bill received support from both major parties, and is expected to be signed into law by President Trump.
On Monday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled unconstitutional a state law that had the effect of prohibiting all secret recordings of any encounter with a police officer or other government official. According to Chief Judge Patti B. Saris, of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts law is not sufficiently "narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest" to curtail the plaintiffs' free speech rights under the First Amendment.
California legislators have proposed a tax on text messages to increase funds for programs that provide underserved residents with connectivity. The new tax plan, proposed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), would not charge per text message, but would implement a monthly fee based on a cellular bill that includes any charges for text messages. Most cellular carriers charge a flat fee for texting and include similar fees for other services, such as calls. The specifics of the charge associated with the tax would vary across carriers.
On Monday, December 3, 2018, the United States Supreme Court vacated the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals's decision in Fleck v. Wetch, No. 16-1564 (8th Cir. 2017) and remanded the case to the 8th Circuit to decide whether mandatory state bar association fees translate to compelled association and compelled speech.
The US Supreme court will not hear two cases stemming from state efforts to prevent Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving funding under Medicaid. Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Alito voted to hear the cases, but Chief Justice Roberts and the newly-confirmed Justice Kavanaugh voted with the Court's liberal justices to turn the cases away; four votes are needed to hear a case. This split among the conservative wing of the Court may reflect Chief Justice Roberts' intention to keep the Court out of hotly contested issues, and of Justice Kavanaugh's willingness to follow along, at least for the time being.
Now that marijuana is legal in Canada and its legality is expanding in a majority of U.S. states as well, many companies are racing to patent new formulations of the product.
The Court of Cassation in Italy has decided that a bronze sculpture found in the Adriatic Sea in 1964 should be taken from the Getty Villa near Los Angeles and returned to Italy. The bronze is known as Victorious Youth and was purchased by the Getty Trust in Germany in 1977. It…
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has struck down a challenge to a New Jersey law which limits the amount of ammunition, to no more than 10 rounds, that may be held in a single magazine of a firearm. The law was enacted in response to the rise of…
Last week, a group of Jewish United States citizens sued Airbnb in a U.S. federal court in Delaware, claiming religious discrimination.
Two lawsuits were filed earlier this week against Harvard University over a campus policy discouraging private, single-sex organizations. International sorority Alpha Phi, it's local Cambridge chapter, and a housing management company that represents the Delta Gamma Fraternity sued Harvard in Massachusetts state court. The second lawsuit was filed in federal federal court by three anonymous Harvard students, sororities Kappa Alpha Theta and Kappa Kappa Gamma, and fraternities Sigma Chi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
The Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland released a report last week that discussed an investigation into a complaint against the social media network LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft. In the investigation, the Data Protection Commission found that LinkedIn U.S. had collected the email addresses of 18 million people who were not users of the network.…
Reports from CNN and New York Times state that the Trump administration will ban bump stocks, devices that allow semiautomatic weapons to mimic machine guns, within the next few days. CNN reports that the new legislation will mandate that people who own bump stocks must turn in or destroy the devices within 90 days.
On Tuesday, November 27, 2018, Major League Baseball announced an agreement with MGM Resorts for the hospitality and entertainment company to become baseball's first gambling industry partner.
A judge in New York has ruled that state Attorney General Barbara Underwood's case against the Trump Foundation can go forward. The case alleges that the charitable foundation engaged in a consistent pattern of illegal acts for over a decade, being used to settle business disputes and support the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. The judge ruled that U.S. Supreme Court precedent in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against then-President Clinton clearly states that the president is not immune from civil liability while in office.
Apple will tell the Supreme Court today that it cannot be sued by the iPhone owners who claim that the App Store has an unlawful monopoly.
The US celebrates Thanksgiving today – a federal holiday that’s had many iterations as its made its way to our present day annual turkey day fest. Of course, we all learned in grade school the origin story of the tradition, in which the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation and local Native American tribes celebrated and gave…
Cable company Comcast has agreed to cancel the debts of over 20,000 customers, as well as pay back $700,000 as part of a settlement reached with Massachusetts’ Attorney General.
Judge Jon S. Tigar of the US District Court for the Northern District of California temporarily blocked the government on Monday night from denying asylum to immigrants who illegally cross the southern border of the United States. In his decision, Judge Tigar wrote that barring asylum for immigrants who enter outside of legal check points "irreconcilably conflicts" with immigration law and the "expressed intent of Congress."
A federal district court judge in the District of Columbia today ruled that the White House must restore the press credentials of Jim Acosta, a CNN journalist. Acosta had reportedly engaged in a heated exchange with the president during a news conference last week over the president's regular disparagement of mainstream news as "fake news." CNN filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, November 13, arguing that the revocation violated Acosta's rights to free speech and due process, and seeking a preliminary injunction to reinstate Acosta's press credentials.
Last week, a New Hampshire judge ordered Amazon to turn over an Echo smart speaker’s recordings that may have captured key evidence in a double homicide that occurred last year in Farmington. Investigators believe that the recordings may provide information that could help convict the murderer. The question arises: how much data can tech companies collect, store, and use, and what does that mean for privacy?
On Wednesday, November 14, 2018, the United States Department of Justice provided a twenty page memo to President Donald J. Trump arguing that President Trump's appointment of Acting Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker complied with federal statutes and the U.S. Constitution, and that the appointment is "[c]onsistent with our prior opinion and with centuries of historical practice and precedents."
The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has ruled against the Trump administration's attempt to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA permits approximately 600,000 unauthorized immigrants who arrived in the US as children to remain in the country legally by seeking permission from the Department of Homeland Security every two years. Though the Trump administration had asked the US Supreme Court to weigh in on the case pending in the 9th Circuit before the appellate ruling, now that the appellate court has issued its decision, it is even more likely that the Supreme Court will take up the matter in 2019.
In response to the recent worldwide protests, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company would agree to the first demand made by the organizers.
Two Florida district courts have reached clashing conclusions on whether a suspect in a criminal case can invoke the Fifth Amendment to withhold their iPhone passcode from law enforcement. In the older case, State of Florida v. Stahl, the court ruled that a criminal suspect does not have this right under the Constitution. (This case involved…
Listen to the October, 2018 oral arguments presented to the Court and learn more about new cases on the docket.
A landmark bill aimed at protecting the rights of transgender Massachusetts residents in the context of public accommodations was upheld by voters on November 6.
In its first decision from this term, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled earlier today that state and local governments must follow labor laws that ban age discrimination regardless of the number of their employees. Plaintiffs in Mount Lemmon Fire District v. Guido were two former Arizona firefighters who argued that the Mount Lemmon Fire District laid them off in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Because the fire department had fewer than 20 employees, the defendant argued that they were too small to qualify as an employer who had to comply with the law.
The US Supreme Court heard arguments this week in its second session of the 2018–2019 term. The cases argued span a wide range of topics, including arbitration, criminal procedure, federal Indian law, sovereign immunity, and class action settlements.
October 24, 2018 -- The 4th District appellate court ruled in G.A.Q.L. v State of Florida that an intoxicated minor involved in a car crash that killed someone cannot be forced to reveal the passcode to his iPhone. The teen, known as G.A.Q.L., was allowed to plead the Fifth Amendment clause, shielding him from self-incrimination. He had been found with a blood alcohol level of 0.086, which is over the legal limit, at the hospital after the car crash had occurred.
On Friday, October 19, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Andrew L. Carter of the Southern District of New York sentenced the CEO Of Natural Sapphire Company, Michael Arnstein, to nine months in prison for conspiring to forge a federal judge's signature on fake court orders compelling Google to remove negative reviews from Google search results related to Natural Sapphire Company. Arnstein previously plead guilty on September 15, 2017.
California and the federal government have reached an agreement whereby the state will halt plans to implement its new net neutrality law on January 1, and the Department of Justice will withdraw its motions seeking to block implementation until the conclusion of ongoing litigation regarding state net neutrality rules.
In a suit recently filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the eight plaintiffs represented in the class claim that Lime and Bird knowingly distributed scooters for personal, recreational use that wouldn't be able to withstand daily, commercial fleet usage.
Residents of New Hampshire currently can register to vote without presenting proof of living in the location where they are voting. The state legislature recently sought to change this rule, perhaps influenced by President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud in New Hampshire. However, a judge has issued a preliminary injunction…
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the annotations of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) are in the public domain and no copyright can be asserted over this work.
This new definition would remove federal recognition of approximately 1.4 million Americans who identify as transgender. It may also adversely affect intersex Americans.
Last week, broadband industry lobby groups sued Vermont to stop a state law that requires Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to follow net neutrality principles in order to qualify for government contracts. The lawsuit was filed in Vermont district court by CTIA, NCTA, USTelecom, and the ACA. These groups represent all of the biggest mobile and home ISPs in the US, including Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile US, Sprint, and CenturyLink.
The US Supreme Court last week agreed to hear a case in which two individuals sued a New York cable-TV public access channel for violating their First Amendment rights by banning them from the channel's services and facilities. In Manhattan Community Access Corp. v. Halleck, the two petitioners, Halleck and Melendez, argue that the Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) unconstitutionally banned them from the public access channel, which they argue is a public forum subject to the First Amendment.
The ACLU in Michigan has filed a lawsuit on Rachel Peterson’s behalf against the supermarket company, Meijer, citing that Peterson was a victim of sex discrimination after her prescription was denied by a pharmacist at the Meijer store located in Poteskey. Rachel Peterson was prescribed Misoprostol by her doctor after suffering a miscarriage in July. She drove three hours to the Meijer store in Poteskey, but the pharmacist, Richard Kalkman, refused to provide her with the medication. Kalkman cited his Catholic beliefs as the reason behind his refusal; he thought that Peterson wanted to use the medication to terminate her pregnancy and did not accept Peterson's response that her doctor said the pregnancy was not viable. Peterson also stated that Kalkman neither let her speak with another pharmacist or a supervisor, nor did he allow her to transfer her prescription to another pharmacy. Peterson was on vacation at the time of the incident and drove back three hours to a pharmacy near her hometown to get the prescription filled.
On Saturday, October 6, 2018, U.S. Pastors Council and Texas Values filed multiple lawsuits in state and federal courts alleging that Christian businesses and churches may fire or not hire LGBTQ workers as a constitutional right. One of the filed lawsuits challenges the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating against job candidates and workers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.The two other filed suits challenge part of an Austin, TX city ordinance that prohibits employers from discriminating against all the protected classes outlined in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as sexual orientation and gender identity.
A lawsuit has been filed in Kansas federal court challenging a state policy prohibiting gender marker changes on birth certificates for transgender people. Along with Tennessee and Ohio, Kansas is one of only three states in the country with such a ban.
In a ruling that affects all drug cases tested at the state lab between 2009 and 2013, the Massachusetts Supreme Court concluded that former state chemist Sonja Farak's "widespread evidence tampering" had compromised thousands of criminal drug convictions.
Recently, an eight-justice U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a case involving Mississippi gopher frogs, which are believed to be in danger of extinction and are limited to a small handful of habitats. To address this issue, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated 1,500 acres in Louisiana as a…
A Virginia high school student and his father have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Fairfax County Public Schools, claiming the school discriminated against the student because of his gender, after he was accused of sexual misconduct. The plaintiffs claim three female students “colluded” in their accusations against the boy and that his…
Navient has been sued by members of the American Federation of Teachers over its alleged practices directing borrowers into student loan repayment programs and various types of forbearance which are not eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Plaintiff Lenora Rice recently filed a class action lawsuit against National Beverage Corp., the makers of LaCroix, in an Illinois state court alleging that their popular sparkling water is not “100% Natural” as it is advertised. Rice claims that LaCroix beverages actually contain ingredients such as ethyl butanoate, limonene, linalool, and linalool propionate, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classifies as synthetic.
Though much of the nation's attention is focused on the US Senate's confirmation vote tomorrow on nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court's sitting eight justices heard the first oral arguments of the 2018–2019 term this week. Oyez has posted the aligned audio and transcripts from this week’s oral arguments at the Supreme Court. You can browse summaries of the cases, read transcripts of the arguments, and listen to the audio of the argument on the Oyez website.
Last Friday, the law firm Hagens Berman filed a lawsuit in California federal court on behalf of Allen Lee who is suing both Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, for “unlawful and unfair business practices” that have “unjustly enriched” the ticket-seller at the expense of live events fans.
On Friday, September 28, 2018, United States District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled that the lawsuit brought by 200 Democratic members of the United States Congress against President Donald J. Trump, alleging violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause, may move forward in the District of Columbia.
In the wake of the FCC's efforts to undo net neutrality protections under the Trump administration, California recently passed a law implementing net neutrality rules that are even stronger than the Obama-era regulations that have been rolled back at the federal level. Governor Jerry Brown signed the new law on September 30, which represents the strongest set of net neutrality protections in the country. The Department of Justice immediately filed a lawsuit in federal court, stating that California's law constitutes an impermissible burden on the federal government's efforts to deregulate the internet.
In a suit filed in San Mateo County, former content moderator Selena Scola alleges negligence and failure to maintain a safe workplace. She is claiming that the "disturbing" images that her job required her to watch led her to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.
Recently, a group of women filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Facebook, arguing that the social media platform and certain companies posting ads on it have engaged in gender discrimination. These companies used Facebook to advertise positions in occupations such as the trucking industry, but they allegedly…
Last week the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that they filed a class action lawsuit against Walmart Inc., alleging the company unlawfully discriminated against pregnant workers for years at a Wisconsin warehouse. Pregnancy discrimination in employment is prohibited by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The EEOC is seeking back pay for the pregnant workers, punitive damages against Walmart, and "measures to correct Walmart's practices going forward."
Last week, a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel in Cincinnati ruled that protestors who attended a Trump campaign rally cannot sue President Donald Trump for having them physically removed.
The US Supreme Court hears the first arguments of the 2018–2019 term on October 1, 2018. With 40+ cases already on its docket and 22 of them already scheduled for argument, the Court is on track to have another busy year. Upcoming Cases of Interest There are several upcoming cases of interest that cover a…
The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over the FCC's ongoing refusal to adequately respond to FOIA requests. When the FCC's website was soliciting public comments over the controversial net neutrality policies last year, it received an alarmingly high number of comments from ostensibly fake accounts. The New York Times alleges that it has requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the traffic details for that notice-and-comment period and that the FCC has failed to respond to multiple requests. In its complaint, the New York Times claims that the release of the "records . . . will shed light on the extent to which Russian nationals and agents of the Russian government have interfered with the agency notice-and-comment process about a topic of extensive public interest: the government's decision to abandon 'net neutrality.'"
Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) recently proposed the Electronic Court Records Reform Act, which, if passed, would eliminate the fee structure of PACER, the federal court filing database. PACER presently charges users up to 10 cents per page and a maximum of $3 per document for these public record documents. The bill would also improve public access to federal court filings by requiring that documents be posted to PACER within five days of being filed in federal court.
The Supreme Court issued an order yesterday upholding a US Federal District Court decision that requires, effective immediately, more transparency in the naming of of donors to non-profit groups which run advertisements for or against political candidates. The lawsuit, brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) against the conservative group…
On Monday, September 10, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found a Missouri law that banned donations between political action committees ("PACs") violated the First Amendment. Judge Steven Colloton wrote that the law "limits the donor-PAC's speech and associational rights under the First Amendment."
A federal district court judge in Illinois has granted preliminary approval to a settlement between State Farm and a class of plaintiffs claiming that the insurance giant created a RICO enterprise to bankroll the election of a judge to the state's high court. Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier was elected in 2004, and in 2005 voted to overturn a $1.05 billion verdict against the insurer stemming from breach of contract claims regarding its alleged use of non-original parts in vehicles damaged in accidents. State Farm will not admit liability through the recently-proposed settlement, but will pay $250 million to class members.
Arguing for the charities' right of free association, a public interest law firm and a charitable group co-founded by the Koch brothers had challenged the disclosure of information, stating that the requirement chills donor contributions.
The North Carolina legislature historically has been dominated by Republicans, but times may be changing in a state known for extremely conservative lawmaking. While the Governor is a Democrat, the Republican supermajority in the legislature has pushed many laws past his veto over the last two years. One of the most notable…
A federal district court judge has ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provide an expedited publication schedule for rules on tobacco warnings on cigarette packs and advertisements, citing "unreasonable delays" by the FDA.
The FCC should investigate Verizon’s throttling of firefighters’ “unlimited data” that took place during California’s largest wildfire, two Senate Democrats recently argued.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit last week against the federal government, alleging they violated the Clean Water Act by allowing millions of gallons of raw sewage, heavy metals, and other contamination to routinely spill across the border from Tijuana into San Diego. According to the complaint, toxic water pollution from the Tijuana River Valley shut down San Diego beaches on more than 500 days in the past three years.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided a case allowing the government to produce evidence from the Internet Archive (often referred to as the “Wayback Machine”). The July 2018 ruling supports a similar holding from the Third Circuit in 2011.
On Friday, September 7, US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied an application to preserve straight-ticket voting on Michigan state ballots. The brief order indicated that Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have granted the application. The denial of the application will mean that on the November 6 ballot, voters in Michigan will have to vote individually for numerous partisan offices, in accordance with a law passed by the Republican-majority legislature in 2015. Until today, that law had been stalled in litigation.
In a complaint filed on Tuesday in San Francisco, Facebook claims Blackberry has infringed on multiple patents for its voice-messaging features in its instant messaging app. These patents include analysis of GPS information and voice-messaging technology.
On Thursday, August 30, 2018, arbitrator Stephen B. Burbank ruled that Colin Kaepernick's lawyers presented enough evidence in his collusion case against the National Football League to proceed to a full hearing. Kaepernick's lawyers will be presented with the opportunity to question league officials, owners, and other parties with regard to the collusion case.
Court papers filed late last week show that according to the government's most recent estimates, close to 500 children, including 22 under the age of 5, remain in US custody after being separated from their parents at the border earlier this year pursuant to the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy. The greatest logistical challenge that government officials and immigrants' rights advocates have faced in reuniting many of these children with their families is that their parents were deported without them, and are now proving difficult if not impossible to locate.
The dispute between Catholic Social Services (CSS) and the city of Philadelphia over foster care will not be handled by the Supreme Court.
With the November elections looming, North Carolina may be required to reorganize its congressional districts. Three federal judges in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the legislature had violated the Constitution by gerrymandering districts to favor Republicans over Democrats, as openly acknowledged by Republican state legislators. The judges…
A bill aimed to help employees who have experienced sexual harassment and discrimination on the job sue their employers in a court of law, rather than private arbitration, has been passed by the California Assembly.
Unions won a major victory against the Trump administration’s attempts to weaken protections that apply to many federal workers when Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columnbia invalidated provisions in three executive orders Trump's administration issued back in May.
In 2014, Michael Jackson fan Vera Serova brought a class action lawsuit against Sony Music, the Jackson estate, and several songwriters/producers alleging that they created three fake songs recorded by a Michael Jackson impersonator to include on a 2010 posthumous album, Michael. The case moved forward last week in a court hearing about the songs in question: “Breaking News,” “Monster,” and “Keep Your Head Up.”
A federal judge in Seattle today issued a preliminary injunction on the Internet publication of 3D blueprints for printable guns. This injunction extends a temporary restraining order he issued July 31st.
Last week, Match Group and its parent company IAC were sued by current and former employees of Tinder, among whom are co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen. The lawsuit includes allegations that the parent company withheld information about Tinder's potential growth to avoid paying billions of dollars to the start-up team.
In a federal court in Boston, US District Judge Mark Wolf has stated that immigrants with final orders of removal should not be deported just because they are in the process of applying for a green card. The judge indicated that he was not precluding ICE from effectuating removals, but said that the agency can only do so in these cases after considering that the individuals with deportation orders are also seeking "provisional waivers," which permit undocumented immigrants to pursue citizenship.
A lawsuit seeking class action status has recently been filed against Google after the tech company admitted to tracking the location history of even users who have turned off location services.
A California appeals court has ruled in favor of Twitter in confirming that it is protected from liability by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in deciding what content should be allowed on its platform. Jared Taylor, a publisher of white nationalist content, was permanently kicked off of Twitter in December following the company's announcement that it planned to more closely scrutinize users promoting violence. Taylor subsequently sued Twitter for banning him and his publication from its platform, and while the trial court threw out two of his claims, it allowed his unfair competition claim to go forward.
On Thursday, August 16, 2018, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a Texas District Court's dismissal of a lawsuit brought by three University of Texas at Austin professors. Professors Jennifer Lynn Glass, Lisa Moore, and Mia Carter challenged a Texas law permitting the concealed carry of handguns on the University of Texas campus, along with a University of Texas policy forbidding professors from banning concealed weapons in classrooms.
In a joint status report filed last week, the Department of Justice provided its most detailed figures to date regarding the status of migrant children who were separated from their parents at the border this year under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy, stating that 24 children under the age of 5 remain separated. Under the policy, the administration separated more than 2,600 children from their parents, and reports that over 360 parents who are still separated are outside the country, with many having been deported without their children.
From August 21 to September 9, inmates across at least 17 states plan to refuse to work to draw attention to poor prison conditions and exploitative labor practices in American correctional facilities.
Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who won a decision before the U.S. Supreme Court in June, is suing again following his refusal to bake a cake to celebrate a gender transition. His refusal resulted in a probable cause finding by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission that he had violated Colorado’s public accommodations law.…
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Nike by four female employees who worked in the company’s corporate headquarters which claim violations of the Equal Pay Act. The lawsuit further claims Nike ignored rampant sexual harassment in the company.
Last week a San Francisco jury awarded former school groundskeeper Dewayne Lee Johnson more than $289 million in his lawsuit against agrochemical giant Monsanto for failing to warn consumers that exposure to Roundup weed killer causes cancer.
On Friday, the law firm representing the Democratic National Committee (DNC) served WikiLeaks with a lawsuit via Twitter. Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll set up a Twitter account this month and has so far delivered this single tweet with service of process to WikiLeaks.
Federal District Court judge, Dabney Friedrich, appointed by President Trump, issued an opinion today denying a motion intended to upend the Mueller investigation by questioning its legitimacy.
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia halted the deportation in progress of a mother and daughter this week, and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt due to the fact that court proceedings appealing their deportation were in progress. An attorney for the ACLU, which filed a lawsuit on August 7, 2018 challenging the Department of Justice's recent policy change that aims to fast track the removal of asylum seekers who do not pass their credible fear interviews, and eliminates gang and domestic violence as grounds for seeking asylum in the US, received a notice in the middle of a hearing on the case before Judge Sullivan that the mother and daughter were on a deportation flight to El Salvador.
A lawsuit has been filed against an Ohio judge for rejecting the requests of transgender teens for changing their names to match their gender identities. The plaintiffs, who are the mothers of three transgender teens, claim that Judge Joseph Kirby’s rulings denying the name-change requests may violate the adolescents' constitutional rights. All of the teens have full support from their doctors and are going through therapy and medical treatment for their gender dysphoria.
On Monday, August 6, 2018, YouTube removed Alex Jones's YouTube channel citing violations of YouTube's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.
Judge Dana Sabraw strongly rejected the Trump Administration's recent argument that the ACLU and other immigrants' rights advocates should be responsible for locating the more than 450 immigrant parents the administration deported after separating them from their children earlier this year. The judge said it is "100%" the government's responsibility to locate and reunite deported parents with their children, and stated that if it fails to do so, it will have "permanently orphaned" the children it separated from them.
Judge John D. Bates of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia upheld his previous order to bring back the Obama-era program, stating that the Trump administration had not justified its elimination.
Thursday the Trump Administration announced a proposal to relax standards on car pollution. The proposal released jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation would amend fuel efficiency and emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks covering model years 2021 through 2026. The proposal also revokes a waiver for California that is now followed by a number of other states as well to let those states set more stringent pollution standards than the federal government.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeal has ruled against President Trump's Executive Order punishing sanctuary cities. Read the full opinion on Justia.
A domain broker based in Englewood, New Jersey has been sued for cybersquatting. According to the estate of the late actor and recording artist, Prince, domain broker Domain Capital infringed on its “PRINCE” trademark when it cybersquatted on the prince.com website.
Today a federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing a Texas man from publishing online the blueprints for making guns using a 3D printer. The attorneys general of eight states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit Monday in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Earlier this week, a group of people whose visa applications were not approved under the current administration’s travel ban filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and various government agencies. The lawsuit, Emami v. Nielsen, was filed in the Northern District of California, and plaintiffs come from all five of the Muslim-majority countries affected by the ban: Somalia, Yemen, Iran, Syria, and Libya.
A federal judge has struck down the policy of a high school in Ponte Vedra Beach, which had required an 18-year-old student to use a gender-neutral bathroom. The judge found that the policy was unjustified because the student did not threaten the safety or privacy of other students. Thus, the transgender student…
In a per curiam (unsigned) opinion, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held on Wednesday that the policy and practice of the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education to include a prayer in a portion of school board meetings that is open to the public and includes student attendees and participants.
On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled against President Trump’s latest attempt to hinder a lawsuit that discusses Trump’s alleged violation of the U.S. Constitution through his continued business transactions with foreign governments. The ruling was made by U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte and will enable the plaintiffs, the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia — to move forward with their lawsuit, which argues that Trump has violated anti-corruption clauses, known as emoluments clauses, in the U.S. Constitution.
On Tuesday, July 24, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a 2-1 ruling held that the Second Amendment grants the right to carry guns openly outside the home. With three federal appeals courts having found no right to carry guns openly in public, the issue seems ripe for United States Supreme Court interpretation.
In a status update filed Monday, the federal government informed the court that has ordered it to reunite over 2,500 separated children with their parents by July 26 in a class action filed by the ACLU seeking reunification of separated immigrant families, that over 460 parents of separated children over the age of 5 may have already been deported without their children. The government has continued to state that any parent who has left the country had the opportunity to bring their child with them, but advocacy groups question whether parents deported under those circumstances understood their options.
The technology, referred to as "listening to the frontend," would use a series of sensors in the cashier area to collect audio data. This data could include conversations between guests and customers at checkout.
In October, Canada is set to legalize the recreational use of marijuana nationwide. Legalization theoretically could mean that American consumers could cross the border to consume marijuana in Canada and possibly bring it back to the U.S., but in reality this is unlikely to happen, at least for now. While some states…
A lawsuit has been filed by MGM Resorts in connection with the 2017 mass shooting with Las Vegas, claiming they have no liability to the victims of the attack. Read the complaint @ Justia's Online Dockets & Filings.
California’s felony murder rule may soon be curtailed, if a bill in the state legislature gets approved.
The states of New York, Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey sued the United States today over new rules ushered in via the 2017 federal tax overhaul which cap federal deductions of state and local taxes (SALT) to $10,000. Read the complaint via Justia.
In May, the City of Philadelphia announced that it was suspending foster care placements at Catholic Social Services (CSS) and Bethany Christian Services after reports showed that the agencies refused to place children with same-sex couples. Doing so was in violation of the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance. While Bethany agreed to comply with the law, CSS sued to city and argued that it should be allowed to discriminate against same-sex couples in accordance with their religious beliefs.
On Friday Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued an indictment of 12 Russian military officers for conspiring to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 presidential election. The 11-count indictment goes into great detail and specificity, charging that the hacking began at least in March of 2016 and continued through November 2016.
On July 12, nonprofit organization Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of DC against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos alleging that the Secretary acted unlawfully in issuing a Delay Regulation that would postpone implementation of a regulation intended to help black and Latino children with disabilities.
The law in Tennessee stated that failure to pay court fines and other fees associated with an arrest or imprisonment that lasted more than a year is grounds for taking away a person's driver’s license. The consequences of the law for such individuals means that they will have a more difficult time to earn income, as many employment opportunities require a valid driver’s license. Additionally, driving to and from work without a valid driver’s license runs the risk of getting fined or arrested if caught.
On Friday, June 29, 2018, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra brought suit in California Superior Court for the County of San Francisco against student loan servicer Navient Corp. and two of its subsidiaries, Pioneer and General Revenue Corp.
President Trump has announced Brett Kavanaugh as his pick to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court. Kavanaugh is a conservative jurist who has served for over a decade on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He previously worked in the George W. Bush White House, and also worked with Kenneth Starr's team in the effort to impeach former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Notably, Kavanaugh has published scholarly commentary suggesting that Congress should pass a law insulating a sitting president from criminal indictment until after leaving office or being impeached, convicted, and removed from office; he has also written that civil lawsuits should be deferred while the president is in office. Some speculate that these writings could have influenced Trump's decision to nominate Kavanaugh given the mounting legal scrutiny Trump is facing. If Kavanaugh is confirmed by the Senate, he is expected to vote with the Court's conservative majority on issues including abortion, union rights, civil rights, and gun control.
U.S. District Judge John Mendez rejected the administration's request for a preliminary injunction on three California laws that were passed last year.
State politicians believe that the chemicals may harm the coral reefs and marine ecosystems in Hawaii, a critical part of the state's economy. However, corporations and doctors have questioned the law's impact on consumer health.
On July 2, 2018 a federal judge issued an order blocking the blanket detention of asylum seekers at five office locations of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Offices (ICE). Read the order on Justia.
Additional counts of sexual assault against Harvey Weinstein have the potential to carry a life sentence if the movie mogul is convicted.
In a 4-3 opinion, the California Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Yelp.com cannot be ordered to remove negative posts against a San Francisco law firm that another judge determined were defamatory. The decision overturns a lower court’s ruling against Yelp, and affirms rules that protect internet platforms from legal liability over users’ posts.
Last Thursday California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), granting California consumers the right to request that businesses disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information that they collect about the consumer, the categories of sources from which that information is collected, the business purposes for collecting or selling the information, and the categories of 3rd parties with which the information is shared. The law, which goes into effect January 1, 2020, also authorizes California consumers to opt out of the sale of personal information by a business and will prohibit the business from discriminating against the consumer for exercising this right, including by charging the consumer who opts out a different price or providing the consumer a different quality of goods or services, except if the difference is reasonably related to value provided by the consumer’s data. Moreover, the CCPA makes it more difficult for businesses to sell personal information for consumers less than 16 years of age.
As often happens in June, the Supreme Court released some of its most highly anticipated decisions of the term (many of them decided 5–4 along predictable divisions). This year was no different.
A group of 18 attorneys general has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration regarding the separation of families at the border. The Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy has been under strict scrutiny by Democrats as it has resulted in the separation of children and parents. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, June 26, 2018 in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington and argues that the separation of children and parents is discriminatory and violates equal protection under the Constitution. The complaint also states that the act of separating families is the Trump Administration's means of deterring immigrants from entering the United States.
On Tuesday, June 26, 2018, United States District Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the Southern District of California granted the American Civil Liberties Union's request for a preliminary injunction seeking to reunite children affected by the Trump Administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy.
In its pending class action on behalf of separated immigrant families, the ACLU has filed a proposal that would require the Trump administration to reunify the families it has separated under its "zero tolerance" immigration enforcement policy within a month. The proposal would also require reunification within 10 days for children younger than 5; phone contact between parents and children within 7 days; a halt on separations unless there is clear evidence of danger to the child; and a prohibition on deporting parents without their children unless the parent knowingly and voluntarily waives the right to reunification before deportation.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the government usually will need a warrant to collect large amounts of locations data about the customers of cellphone companies.
The zero tolerance immigration policy that has led to separating refugee parents from children at the U.S.-Mexico border faces its first legal challenge from a Guatemalan asylee.
A group of large law firms and non-profits have created a nationwide coalition aimed at reuniting immigrant families separated under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy. The coalition's effort has been named Project Corazon, and it will establish a system for parents to confidentially seek legal support in learning the whereabouts of their children. It is estimated that over 2,300 children have been taken from their parents since the administration's policy was implemented this spring.
In one of the most highly anticipated decisions of the term, the US Supreme Court held today that states may require sellers who have no physical presence within the state to collect and remit sales taxes on goods sold to buyers in the state. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion for the majority, and Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch joined. The decision overrules two prior cases in which the Court established and upheld the so-called "physical-presence rule" for sales tax, citing drastic changes in the reality of shopping and commerce.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Apple Inc. v. Pepper, a case that has the potential to impact consumers and other companies, such as Amazon.
Last month, a three-judge Third Circuit panel announced just minutes after oral arguments that it would affirm a district court’s ruling in favor a school district policy that allowed transgender students to use bathroom and locker room facilities corresponding with their gender identity. This unusually quick decision was partly practical, as the judges explained that they wanted to rule before the students’ graduation date.
On Thursday the Supreme Court issued a decision striking down a Minnesota law that prohibited political apparel in polling places. In a 7-2 decision, authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the court held that Minnesota’s political apparel ban violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. Justice Sotomayor joined by Justice Breyer, filed a dissenting opinion.
On Thursday, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump and his three eldest children for allegedly misusing funds associated with his personal foundation. The complaint, filed in New York state court, asks the judge to dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation and distribute its remaining $1 million in assets to other charities. Moreover, the lawsuit asks that Trump be forced to pay at least $2.8 million in restitution and penalties and takes the unusual step of requesting that Trump be banned from leading any other New York nonprofit organization for 10 years and that each of his three children be banned from serving as a director of a New York nonprofit organization for one year.
When Laura Murray was 10 years old, she received a small glass vial containing light-gray dust from an old friend of her father’s: Neil Armstrong. The vial was paired with a note that said “To Laura Ann Murray — Best of Luck — Neil Armstrong Apollo 11.” Laura, who’s now Laura Cicco, found the vial years later in her parents' home after they had passed away. The note has since been authenticated by a handwriting expert to belong to Neil Armstrong. Cicco filed the lawsuit against NASA to get ahead of any potential legal issues since the space agency has a history of confiscating suspected lunar material from citizens.
On Tuesday, June 5, 2018, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled that all member countries of the European Union must recognize same-sex marriage with regard to providing the same right to live and work across the European Union's 28 countries as heterosexual spouses, regardless of any individual country's views on same-sex marriage. The six European Union countries that have not legalized same-sex marriage or civil unions are former Eastern Bloc countries that joined the European Union in the 21st century. The court stated that those six countries remain free not to legalize same-sex marriage or civil unions. However, the court expounded, countries "may not obstruct the freedom of residence of an E.U. citizen by refusing to grant his same-sex spouse, a national of a country that is not an E.U. member state, a derived right of residence in their territory."
Square, which owns meal delivery service Caviar, has reached a $2.2 million settlement with customers in a class action lawsuit claiming that the company collected gratuities from them when they placed food orders but didn't share the money with delivery drivers. Patrons who used Caviar between January 2012 and August 2015 are included in the class.
Jared Duda claims that Google is wrongfully trying to patent his asymmetric numerical systems (ANS) compression technique.
The two largest entities in the world of direct-to-consumer genetic testing services are set to collide in a California federal court. 23andMe, the second-largest company in this evolving industry, recently sued Ancestry.com, the largest company, based on alleged patent infringement. The patent at issue involves the way in which each company uses…
Aaron Persky, the Santa Clara County Superior Court judge who sentenced Stanford student Brock Turner to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, was recalled on Tuesday. This is the first time in 80 years that a judge has been recalled in California. The last time a judge was recalled in the United States was in Wisconsin over 40 years ago.
The Rhode Island Governor has signed legislation regulating bump stocks and instituting a "red flag" law, allowing law enforcement to remove weapons from high risk individuals.
Today, in a 7-2 opinion authored by Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a baker who refused to create a cake for a gay couple. The Court held that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s actions violated the baker’s right to free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.
A handful of states have joined California and the other original states who filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration exception to the ACA's contraceptive mandate that would allow any business or corporation to deny contraception coverage based on any religious or moral ground. The case is currently before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
On Tuesday, May 29, 2018, the United States Supreme Court denied Planned Parenthood's petition for a writ of certiorari in Planned Parenthood of Arkansas & Eastern Oklahoma v. Jegley (8th Cir. 2017). At issue is an Arkansas abortion law that requires doctors who provide medication abortions to contract with a second doctor who has hospital admitting privileges. Arkansas has three abortion clinics, two of which only offer medication abortions; only the abortion clinic in Little Rock offers surgical abortions. Arkansas would become the seventh state to have only one abortion clinic should the law stand.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has released a report detailing widespread and severe alleged abuse of immigrant children by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents between 2009 and 2014. Among 30,000 pages of documents obtained in an open records lawsuit are details of minors reportedly being beaten, threatened, sexually abused, and denied food and medical care by border agents.
Rising concerns nationwide about underage marriage are reflected in an impending proposal by a Utah legislator to raise the state's legal age of marriage to 18.