The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent back to district court a U.S. Chamber of Commerce challenge of Maryland’s digital ad tax. In an opinion Wednesday, the appeals court agreed with the U.S. District Court in Baltimore that the Tax Injunction Act (TIA) prevents federal courts from reviewing the tax itself but disagreed that a decision on a related pass-through ban was moot.
U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley for Southern Ohio in Columbus granted NetChoice’s motion for a temporary restraining order blocking Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) from enforcing the state’s Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act when it takes effect Jan. 15, said the judge’s signed opinion and order Tuesday (docket 2:24-cv-00047).
The U.S. Supreme Court set Feb. 26 oral argument in NetChoice's and the Computer & Communications Industry Association's tandem First Amendment challenges to the Florida and Texas social media content moderation laws, said text-only entries Friday in dockets 22-277 and 22-555.
Microsoft's and OpenAI's generative AI (GenAI) tools rely on large-language models “that were built by copying and using” millions of New York Times copyrighted news articles, in violation of the Copyright Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other statutes, alleged the NYT’s complaint Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-11195) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan.
The Insurance Marketing Coalition seeks 11th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court review of the FCC’s Dec. 18 order for implementing rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to target and eliminate illegal robotexts, said IMC’s petition Thursday (docket 23-14125).
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should vacate the FCC’s Oct. 25 declaratory ruling that authorizes funding for Wi-Fi service and equipment on school buses under the commission’s E-rate program, said Maurine and Matthew Molak in a petition for review Wednesday (docket 23-60641). The Molaks said in the filing that the ruling will increase the E-rate program's “outlays” and “thereby directly increase" the amount of the federal universal service charge they pay each month as a line-item on their phone bill to fund E-rate costs.
The FCC didn't violate the nondelegation doctrine through its use of the Universal Service Administrative Co. to calculate quarterly USF contribution factors and administer USF programs, a federal court ruled Thursday. In denying Consumers' Research's challenge of the FCC contribution factor (see 2306220062), the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals noted that "all USAC action is subordinate to the FCC, and the FCC retains ultimate decision-making power."
The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Samuel Alito dissenting, denied the motion of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to intervene in Murthy et al v. Missouri et al (docket 23-511), the SCOTUS review of the injunction that bars officials from the White House and four federal agencies from coercing or significantly encouraging social media to moderate their content. The injunction is stayed, pending the court’s resolution of its review.
Montana is enjoined from enforcing SB-419, its statewide TiTtok ban, when it takes effect Jan. 1, said an order late Thursday (docket 9:23-cv-00061) from U.S. District Judge Daniel Molloy in Missoula, granting a motion for a preliminary injunction from TikTok and several TikTok influencers.
The Kennedy plaintiffs in the First Amendment lawsuit that was consolidated with Missouri v. Biden in U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Monroe seek to intervene as respondents in the government’s U.S. Supreme Court challenge of the social media injunction against the White House and four federal agencies, said their motion Thursday (docket 23-411). The government's petition was granted cert review Oct. 20. The plaintiffs are Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Children’s Health Defense nonprofit and Louisiana resident Connie Sampognaro, described in the motion as “an avid consumer of online health information.”