Monty Tayloe

Cross-petitioning the Supreme Court with two petitions for certiorari on different issues from Florida’s social media law S.B. 7072, as CCIA and NetChoice did, is the only way to bring compelled disclosure provisions that weren’t ruled unconstitutional by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in front of the justices, said academics and lawyers in interviews.

Windstream’s bankruptcy reorganization shouldn’t be rolled back to provide relief to unsecured creditors such as appellant U.S. Bank National Association, ruled the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday in a summary order in docket 21-1754 affirming a previous ruling by the U.S. District Court for Southern New York. U.S. Bank appears “to invite us to carve out the facts of this case ad hoc. We must decline this invitation,” said the decision from Circuit Judges Pierre Leval, Denny Chin and Eunice Lee.

CCIA and NetChoice petitioned the Supreme Court Monday in docket 22-277 to grant cert in Florida’s challenge of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the state’s social media moderation law. Florida filed its own cert petition in September, and attorneys general from 16 states and former President Donald Trump filed amicus briefs in support Friday. “Given the proliferation of proposals in other states that also abridge editorial discretion, the best course for all is for this Court to grant review now and establish clear bulwarks against state efforts that are antithetical to the First Amendment,” said the petition from CCIA and Netchoice.

A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision Thursday in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act case Wakefield v. ViSalus (docket 21-35201) could lead to smaller verdicts in a variety of such lawsuits because it affirms that lower courts should analyze and reduce damage awards that are “unconstitutionally excessive.”

A lawsuit against Google by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) over the company’s use of biometric data in photo apps and devices could lead to a massive payout based on recent large settlements in similar cases against Google and Facebook under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), attorneys told us Thursday. “All across the state, everyday Texans have become unwitting cash cows being milked by Google for profits,” said the complaint, filed Thursday in the state's District Court of Midland County.

A complaint in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against CTIA and numerous cellphone manufacturers -- including Motorola, AT&T Mobility and Cricket Wireless -- over a pastor’s death from brain cancer should be dismissed because it is preempted by federal law, the trade group and companies said in a joint motion Monday in docket 2:21-cv-0092. The plaintiffs have argued the FCC safety certification process is based on inaccurate information provided by cellphone makers, and so shouldn’t preempt the case. Other defendants, such as TIA and Chinese company ZTE, argued Monday in separate filings that the court had no jurisdiction over them.

A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act blurs the lines between residential and business phone numbers in such cases and could make it more difficult for defendant companies to have TCPA suits dismissed early, attorneys told us Thursday. The decision in Chennette v. Porch (docket 20-35962) has “shifted the burden to the defendant” in TCPA cases involving business to business calling to show that the receiving number isn’t a residential use cellphone, said Kelley Drye attorney Becca Wahlquist in an interview.

Dish Network wants the D.C. Circuit to rehear its arguments that the FCC’s authorization of a license modification for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite system to fly at lower altitudes will lead to interference with Dish’s satellite TV business, said a petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday in docket 21-1123, Viasat v. FCC (see 2208260035). “Without a rehearing, SpaceX will continue to operate its enormous nongeostationary satellite system at power levels that risk causing interference into many millions of households receiving satellite television service,” said the filing.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a request from NetChoice and CCIA to keep a Texas social media law from taking effect while a U.S. Supreme Court hearing of the case is pending, said an order Wednesday in docket 21-51178. The 5th Circuit previously ruled that the law doesn’t violate the First Amendment (see 2209190080). “This ruling means Texas’s unconstitutional law will not be in force as the issue of government-compelled dissemination of speech makes its way to the Supreme Court,” said CCIA President Matt Schruers in a release. “We are confident these laws will not stand.”