The operations of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit won’t be affected, “at least initially,” in the federal government shutdown that begins Saturday at 12:01 a.m., unless Congress enacts an appropriations bill or a continuing resolution, said the court in an updated announcement Monday. Cases calendared for oral argument in November and December “will proceed as scheduled,” said the court. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has announced that the federal judiciary “is prepared to use carryover funds and fees to keep the courts running for several weeks,” it said. But once that funding is “exhausted” the federal courts could face “serious disruptions,” it said. Should it become necessary for the D.C. Circuit to limit activities, an updated announcement will be posted on the court’s website, it said.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer for Northern California in San Jose is the fourth judge since late-August to recuse himself from plaintiff Lisa Bodenburg’s fraud class action that alleges Apple delivers iCloud+ subscribers 5 GB less monthly cloud-storage capacity than they purchase (see 2308270001), said his order of recusal Thursday (docket 3:23-cv-04409). All pending dates of motions, pretrial conferences and trial, including a case management conference planned for Dec. 15, “are hereby vacated and will be reset by the newly assigned judge,” said the order. Breyer was reassigned the case Aug. 30, a day after three judges recused themselves in a single day (see 2308300013). Bodenburg's class action alleges breach of contract against Apple, plus violations of several statutes, including California's Consumer Legal Remedies Act and its Unfair Competition Law. Apple moved to dismiss the case Oct. 20, asserting that Bodenburg’s complaint is based on “an implausible and strained misinterpretation” of Apple’s “unambiguous and accurate” public iCloud+ disclosures (see 2310230011).

Federal law requires a dismissal of Comcast’s complaint against MaxLinear for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction with leave to replead, said an order signed Thursday by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein for Southern New York in Manhattan. Comcast sued MaxLinear May 26 to block it from walking away from its “contractual obligations” to supply chips for millions of broadband gateways used to provide internet service to Comcast customers (see 2305300045). For diversity purposes, an LLC is a citizen of every state in which its partners, or members, are citizens, said the order. This requires that all members of a plaintiff LLC be domiciled in different states than all members of a defendant LLC, it said. The diversity of all members, moreover, “must be specifically pled in the complaint,” it said. Here, Comcast “failed to make the appropriate assertions as to the citizenship of the LLCs’ members, therefore rendering the statement of jurisdiction insufficient,” it said. Hellerstein’s order dismissing Comcast’s complaint without prejudice instructed Comcast to file an amended complaint within 30 days, “which shall comport with the rules for pleading diversity in a case involving an LLC,” it said.

The Judicial Conference of the U.S., in a policy change adopted Tuesday, will permit federal judges presiding over civil and bankruptcy cases to give the public live audio access to non-trial proceedings that don’t involve witness testimony, said the conference. The change takes effect Sept. 22, immediately after the expiration of the temporary exception that the federal judiciary imposed when access to physical courthouses was restricted for health and safety reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic, said the conference. The exception allowed judges to permit remote audio access to any civil or bankruptcy proceeding, it said. The conference adopted the policy change on the recommendation of its committee on Court Administration and Case Management, it said. The committee “is exploring possible ways to further expand remote public access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings and examining concerns about the potential impact on proceedings involving witness testimony,” it said. The committee is studying whether remote public access to proceedings involving witness testimony “could increase the potential for witness intimidation or complicate witness sequestration,” it said. The policy change doesn’t extend to criminal proceedings, nor does it affect a judge’s current ability to allow parties and counsel to appear remotely by teleconference and videoconference, it said.

All new appeals and original proceedings before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be opened and processed in the court's new electronic filing system, appellate case management system or ACMS, starting Oct. 1, the court said Monday. It said appeals and original proceedings opened in the legacy case management/electronic case files system prior to Oct. 1 will continue to be accessed there.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Preston Deavers for Southern Ohio in Columbus assigned Ralph Breitfeller of Kegler Brown as a mediator in the sex-discrimination lawsuit brought against T-Mobile by Heidi Cramer, its former director-sales, said a text-only notice Tuesday (docket 2:22-cv-03800). Breitfeller’s bio describes him as a civil litigation specialist in state and federal cases and private arbitration proceedings. The previously assigned mediator, Christopher Jones, senior counsel with Calfee Halter (see 2308020011), “reported a conflict,” said the notice. Cramer alleges T-Mobile assigned her “sole blame” for the wrongful actions of her male co-workers when they engaged in a scheme of artificially inflating sales to small- and medium-sized business customers (see 2210260038).

U.S. District Judge Michael Brown for Northern Georgia in Atlanta ordered OpenAI to show cause by Aug. 21 why the defamation suit brought against the defendant by nationally syndicated talk show host Mark Walters shouldn’t be remanded to state court for defects in its notice of removal, said Brown’s text-only order Monday (docket 1:23-cv-03122). Walters should file a response brief by Sept. 5 to OpenAI’s answer to the show-cause order, said Brown’s order. Walters alleges in a complaint that OpenAI removed July 14 from Gwinnett County Superior Court that OpenAI’s ChatGPT service defamed him to a reporter (see 2307240031). OpenAI’s notice of removal doesn’t show the Northern District of Georgia “has diversity jurisdiction over this case,” said Brown’s order. It also establishes “neither the requisite amount in controversy nor diversity of citizenship,” it said. If OpenAI doesn’t establish subject-matter jurisdiction or “otherwise comply” with the show-cause order, Brown will remand the case to state court where it originated, said the order. Walters' response to OpenAI's motion to dismiss his complaint is due Sept. 8.

All attorneys and pro se litigants appearing before U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr in U.S. District Court for Northern Texas must file, along with their notice of appearance, a certificate attesting 1) that no portion of any filing will be drafted by generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT, Harvey.AI, or Google Bard, or 2) that any language drafted by generative AI will be checked for accuracy, using print reporters or traditional legal databases, “by a human being,” said Starr Thursday in a notice on the court’s website. AI platforms are “incredibly powerful” and have many uses in law such as for form divorces, discovery requests, suggested errors in documents and anticipated questions at oral argument, Starr said, “but legal briefing is not one of them.” AI platforms in their current states “are prone to hallucinations and bias,” Starr said: "They make stuff up -- even quotes and citations.” He also cited “reliability” and “bias.” Attorneys swear an oath to set aside their personal prejudices, biases, and beliefs to faithfully uphold the law and represent their clients, but generative AI “is the product of programming devised by humans who did not have to swear such an oath,” he said. Artificial intelligence systems “hold no allegiance to any client, the rule of law, or the laws and Constitution of the United States -- or to “the truth,” he said. “Unbound by any sense of duty, honor, or justice, such programs act according to computer code rather than conviction, based on programming rather than principle.” The court will strike any filing from a party who fails to file a certificate on the docket attesting they read the court’s judge-specific requirements and understand they will be held responsible for the contents of any filing they sign and submit to the court, “regardless of whether generative artificial intelligence drafted any portion of that filing.” Any party believing a platform has “the requisite accuracy and reliability for legal briefing" may move for leave and explain why, Starr said.

The COVID-19 emergency no longer is affecting the functioning of the federal courts, said the Judicial Conference’s executive committee in a finding Thursday. The finding, which takes effect May 24, sets in motion a 120-day “grace period,” through Sept. 21, in which federal courts “may continue to provide the same remote public audio access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings as they did during the emergency,” said the executive committee. The finding pertains only to the Judiciary’s “temporary broadcasting exception for remote audio public access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings,” it said. Permission to conduct some criminal proceedings by video or teleconference, which had been granted under the 2020 Cares Act, ended May 10, it said: “Most courts already had discontinued use of virtual criminal proceedings.” The Judicial Conference “continues to study possible changes” to the federal judiciary’s “broadcasting policy” for civil and bankruptcy proceedings, “based on data gathered during the pandemic,” said the executive committee.

DirecTV seeks an entry of default against Shahid Bashir Ahmad, one of 10 named defendants in its Nov. 1 complaint alleging an unlawful scheme to impersonate DirecTV telemarketers (see 2211010049), said its request Tuesday (docket 6:22-cv-00423) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Tyler. Ahmad was properly served with the complaint Dec. 29 but “failed to file any pleadings or otherwise defend the case,” nor has any appearance “been entered by him or by anyone on his behalf,” said DirecTV. The deadline for filing a response to the complaint was Jan. 19, it said.