U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy for Montana in Missoula scheduled a bench trial for Dec. 9 in the consolidated complaints brought by TikTok and individual TikTok users to permanently block SB-419, Montana’s statewide TikTok ban, on constitutional grounds, said the judge's signed order Thursday (docket 9:23-cv-00061). The parties anticipate that the trial will last three days, said the order. Sept. 16 is the deadline for completing discovery after Molloy signed an order Wednesday permitting the parties to conduct limited discovery (see 2404110029), it said. The judge’s Nov. 30 opinion and order granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction blocking SB-419 from taking effect Jan. 1, pending a final determination on the merits of the plaintiffs' claims that the statute violates the First Amendment and the Constitution’s supremacy and commerce clauses (see 2312010003). The injunction remains under appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court (see 2401030007).
The Commerce Department has released the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on lined paper products from India (A-533-843). These final results will be used to set final assessments of AD duties on importers for subject merchandise entered Sept. 1, 2021, through Aug. 31, 2022.
Keyvan Samini voluntarily dismissed his complaint against Apple in its entirety, said his notice of dismissal Wednesday (docket 8:24-cv-00249) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Santa Ana. Samini, chief financial officer and acting general counsel of Navy contractor Mobix Labs, alleged that Apple contributed to the harm he suffered by not doing what it could within its "technological ability" to rectify the harm after John Does stole an Apple email account that Samini had controlled and used for more than 12 years (see 2402070049). Apple ultimately agreed to Samini’s request to block all external access to the account after he twice sought a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to enjoin Apple from restoring that access (see 2403050021).
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy for Montana in Missoula signed an order Wednesday (docket 9:23-cv-00056) permitting Missouri Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) and the plaintiffs in the consolidated cases seeking to defeat SB-419, Montana’s statewide TikTok ban, to conduct limited discovery (see 2402060044). A trial schedule will be set by separate order, it said. The plaintiffs contend that the case “raises predominantly legal questions,” and argue that although further discovery isn’t necessary, if more discovery is warranted, it must be limited and targeted, said the order. The plaintiffs specifically limit their discovery to inquiries about the evidence lawmakers considered in passing SB-419 and whether the state’s consumer protection interest is “pretextual,” it said. The state “has established that some additional discovery is warranted, so limited discovery will be allowed,” said the order. But the judge disallowed the state’s request for discovery related to past agreements between ByteDance and TikTok and ByteDance and its other subsidiaries because those “are outside the scope of this litigation,” said the order. He also disallowed discovery into TikTok’s historical data-related processes and procedures, it said. “Nothing in SB-419 aims to regulate other ByteDance subsidiaries or historical user data collected by TikTok,” said the order: “Historical data cannot justify a forward-looking restraint on speech.” The judge’s Nov. 30 opinion and order granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction blocking SB-419 from taking effect Jan. 1, pending a final determination on the merits of the plaintiffs' claims that the statute violates the First Amendment and the Constitution’s supremacy and commerce clauses (see 2312010003). The injunction remains under appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court (see 2401030007).
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register April 11 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department has released the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on mattresses from Thailand (A-549-841). Commerce continued to assign the only company under review, Saffron Living Co., Ltd., an AD rate of 763.28%. A new 736.28% AD cash deposit rate takes effect for Saffron Living on April 12. Commerce will assess AD on importers of subject merchandise from Saffron entered May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2023, at that 763.28% rate.
The Commerce Department has published the final results of the antidumping and countervailing duty administrative reviews on refillable stainless steel kegs from China (A-570-093/C-570-094). These final results will be used to set final assessments of AD/CVD on importers for subject merchandise entered Dec. 1, 2021, through Nov. 30, 2022, for AD and in calendar year 2021 for CVD.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 11 on AD/CVD proceedings:
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website April 10, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service (NWS) joined commenters from the broadcast, MVPD and emergency alerting industries in pushing back on an FCC proposal (see 2402150053) requiring multilingual emergency alert system warnings facilitated by scripted templates, according to comments posted this week in docket 15-94. Though nearly every commenter acknowledged the importance of multilingual EAS, they also said the FCC’s proposal is too preliminary, would greatly burden broadcasters and MVPDs, and in some cases isn’t technically feasible. “The use of pre-installed templates may not be an effective approach,” said the FEMA Integrated Public Alert Warning System Program Office.