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WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Friday denied Google's motion to dismiss a Department of Justice antitrust case focused on advertising technology. "I'm going to deny the defendant's motion to dismiss," Judge Leonie Brinkema said in a federal court in Virginia. It also said that the government's estimate of Google's ad exchange as having "more than 50%" of the market fell short of the 70% needed to allege market power. Google's motion is the company's latest effort to end costly, time-consuming antitrust lawsuits. It also asked a federal court in Washington to dismiss claims in a 2020 lawsuit filed by the government.

☆ DeSantis' tough words may come back to haunt him in Disney lawsuit, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tom Hals | Thomson Reuters | Tom Hals Is An Award-Winning Reporter With Years Of Experience Working In Asia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] Florida Governor and likely 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis speaks as part of his Florida Blueprint tour in Pinellas Park, Florida, U.S. March 8, 2023. Disney on Wednesday sued DeSantis to prevent the state from ending the company's virtual autonomy in central Florida where it has its theme parks. Disney said DeSantis' actions amounted to a "targeted campaign of government retaliation." Disney claimed in its lawsuit that the state adopted a "targeted campaign of government retaliation — orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech." DeSantis' tough talk toward Disney is cited throughout the lawsuit, including 18 quotes referring to some form of "woke Disney."

Companies Johnson & Johnson FollowApril 27 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) said on Thursday it has agreed to retain all talc-related liabilities arising from litigation in the United States and Canada and will "indemnify" newly formed consumer health unit Kenvue for all costs. "As unequivocally and unambiguously stated, Johnson & Johnson has agreed to retain all the talc-related liabilities -and indemnify Kenvue for any and all costs - arising from litigation in the United States and Canada. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and misleading," Erik Haas, vice president of litigation, Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement. The news comes as Johnson & Johnson (J&J) seeks a valuation of up to $42.95 billion for Kenvue in its initial public offering. Their lawsuit claims Justin Bergeron contracted mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure, as a result of using J&J talc, FT reported.

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April 27 (Reuters) - Massachusetts' top court on Thursday revived the indictments against two former leaders of a veterans' home charged with criminal neglect for their roles in handling a COVID-19 outbreak that killed 84 people. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a 5-2 ruling, overturned a judge's decision to throw out the charges against former Holyoke Soldiers' Home Superintendent Bennett Walsh and former Medical Director David Clinton. "Of course, sometimes bad things happen for no discernable reason, and no one is to blame," Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt wrote for the majority. In bringing the charges against the men in September 2020, then-Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, now the state's Democratic governor, touted the criminal case as the first in the country tied to a COVID-19 outbreak at a nursing facility. The state of Massachusetts last year agreed to pay nearly $58 million to resolve a lawsuit by families of veterans who contracted COVID-19 during the outbreak.

Companies Meta Platforms Inc FollowWASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Thursday refused to revive a lawsuit filed by states against Meta's (META.O) Facebook that alleged the company had broken antitrust law. Dozens of states led by New York asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last year to reinstate the lawsuit, which U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia rejected, saying they had waited too long to file. The three-judge unanimous appeals court panel said it agreed that "the states unduly delayed in bringing suit." Both were publicized," Circuit Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote, noting that the FTC had investigated both transactions. Neither the New York attorney general's office nor Facebook immediately responded to a request for comment.

Under questioning from her lawyers on Wednesday, Carroll testified in graphic detail about how Trump allegedly assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump has consistently denied the allegations and claimed that Carroll made them up to sell books and hurt him politically. Lawyers for Carroll are expected to resume their questioning on Thursday, and Trump's team will then get to cross-examine her. He scorned the case in Wednesday posts on his Truth Social platform, saying Carroll was promoting a "fraudulent & false story" and calling her lawyer a "political operative." U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan warned that Trump could face more legal problems if he kept discussing the case outside of court, and twice advised Trump's legal team to speak with the former president about it.

April 26 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump has lost an appeal to block former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying in the special counsel probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, CNN reported on Wednesday. Earlier this month, Trump lawyers filed the appeal after a ruling related to the Justice Department investigation of efforts to undermine the election that Trump, a Republican, lost to Democrat Joe Biden. However, Pence disclosed that he would not appeal a judge's ruling that requires him to testify to a federal grand jury about conversations he had with Trump leading up to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reporting by Sheena K Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/6] Photo evidence collected during the investigation into U.S. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who is accused of leaking classified documents online, is released in a document by the U.S. Department of Justice. Department of Justice/Handout via REUTERSApril 26 (Reuters) - U.S. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking classified documents online, may still have access to classified materials, federal prosecutors said in court documents filed on Wednesday. Teixeira also "took steps to obstruct the government's investigation" into the leaks, prosecutors said, in a motion filed ahead of a hearing into his detention. "His release would heighten the risk that he would make further unauthorized disclosures of classified national defense information," prosecutors said in the documents. The motion said that in February 2022 Teixeira began to access hundreds of classified documents that had no bearing on his job.

Disney sued DeSantis on Wednesday to block a state law that created an oversight board that Disney said will interfere with billions of dollars of planned development. Disney alleges a law that imposed an oversight board was punishment for voicing opposition to DeSantis' classroom instruction law known as the Parental Rights in Education Act. The gender-education statute, derided by critics as the "Don't Say Gay" law, survived challenges in federal court before a different judge. Free speech has been central to several rulings by Walker against DeSantis, although the judge has also at times sided with the governor. Walker said Florida had become a place where the First Amendment allowed, rather than prevented, the state to limit speech.

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