DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

May 2 (Reuters) - A lawyer for a Florida prosecutor on Tuesday urged a federal appeals court to reinstate his client after the state's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, indefinitely suspended him over his pledge not to prosecute people seeking or providing abortions. "This governor punishes dissenting voices," David A. O'Neil, a lawyer for suspended prosecutor Andrew Warren, told a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Henry Whitaker, a lawyer in the Florida Attorney General's office representing DeSantis, said Warren was suspended for his conduct of refusing to enforce the law, not for his speech. Whitaker urged the court to uphold a January ruling in favor of DeSantis by U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle. Warren, who won re-election in 2020 as the Hillsborough County state attorney, sued DeSantis last August.

☆ Brazil court lifts Telegram suspension for not complying with order on neo-Nazi groups
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRASILIA, April 29 (Reuters) - Brazil's second instance appeals court lifted on Saturday the suspension of the encrypted messaging app Telegram, imposed earlier this week for its noncompliance in sharing information about extremist and neo-Nazi groups using the platform. However, the judge upheld the imposition of a daily fine of one million reais ($200,553) on the company for failing to provide the requested data. The federal police requested the suspension order after Telegram failed to comply with a previous court decision to handover data about two neo-Nazi groups on the app accused of inciting violence in schools. Telegram brands itself as a messaging app focused on speed and privacy and says its special secret chats use end-to-end encryption not stored on its servers. ($1 = 4.9862 reais)Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier, Writing by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas ordered the head of a South African firm to pay a whopping $3.4 billion for what the U.S. commodities regulator said was its largest-ever fraud case involving bitcoin. Cornelius Johannes Steynberg was ordered to pay $1.7 billion in restitution to victims of the fraud scheme and another $1.7 billion as a civil penalty, a record for any Commodity Futures Trading Commission case, the regulator said in a statement on Thursday. The CFTC charged Steynberg in July, saying Mirror Trading solicited bitcoin online from thousands of people to purportedly operate a commodity pool. The firm claimed to trade off-exchange, retail foreign currency with participants who were not eligible to trade, the regulator said. The default judgment against Steynberg was granted by Judge Lee Yeakel in the Western District of Texas, according to a court filing.

☆ Federal appeals court tosses state antitrust suit seeking to break up Meta
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The decision is a blow to regulators who have cited Meta as a prime example of the way tech giants have allegedly abused their dominance. And it casts a shadow over a parallel antitrust case against Meta that was brought by the Federal Trade Commission at around the same time. The states’ original complaint had sought to unwind Meta’s past acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, accusing the company of a “buy-or-bury” approach that violated antitrust laws. In addition, Randolph wrote, state allegations claiming that Meta’s — then Facebook’s — policies placing restrictions on app developers were anticompetitive didn’t hold up. Last year, the same federal judge who dismissed the state suit, James Boasberg, allowed the federal suit to proceed.

Circuit Court of Appeals said that Uber drivers do not qualify for an exemption from the arbitration law for workers involved in interstate commerce because they rarely cross state lines when transporting passengers. The Federal Arbitration Act requires the enforcement of agreements to bring employment-related disputes in arbitration rather than court, but exempts transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce. A majority of private-sector U.S. workers, and most Uber drivers, have signed such agreements. The 3rd Circuit on Wednesday said evidence presented in the case showed that nearly two-thirds of Uber drivers never cross state lines, and only 2.5% of Uber trips are interstate. "Take away interstate trips, and the fundamental character of Uber drivers' work remains the same," Circuit Judge Anthony Scirica wrote for the court.

☆ Brazil court suspends Telegram for not complying with order on neo-Nazi groups
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRASILIA, April 26 (Reuters) - A Brazilian court on Wednesday ordered a temporary suspension in the country of the encrypted messaging app Telegram until it complies with an order to share information on extremist and neo-Nazi groups using the platform. The federal police requested the suspension order after Telegram failed to comply with a previous court decision to handover data about two neo-Nazi groups on the app that were accused of inciting violence in schools. Due to Telegram's non-compliance with the court order, the judge said telecommunications firms in the country should start to suspend access to the messaging service and downloading of the app. Local media reported that the federal police requested the contacts of administrators and members, as well as phone numbers of users from those groups. Telegram brands itself as a messaging app focused on speed and privacy and says its special secret chats use end-to-end encryption that is not stored on its servers.

☆ Brazilian Judge Bans Telegram App Amid School Attacks Inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( André Spigariol | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

BRASILIA — A judge in Brazil on Wednesday ordered that the messaging app Telegram be blocked throughout the country, as the authorities investigate neo-Nazi groups that they say have used the platform to incite school attacks. The Federal Police requested that the app be suspended because Telegram failed to comply with court orders demanding complete user data from two antisemitic group chats. Judge Wellington Lopes da Silva ordered the app shut down and imposed a fine of $200,000 per day against it for noncompliance with previous court decisions. He also ordered Google and Apple to remove the app from their stores in Brazil and mobile carriers to block access to it in the country. The court order against Telegram follows a series of aggressive moves by the Brazilian authorities to hold social media and messaging companies accountable for what users post on their platforms.

☆ App Store developers can link to payment methods outside the store, avoiding Apple's 30% fee, court rules in 'Fortnite' case
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Epic Games brought a lawsuit against Apple after "Fortnite" was removed from the App Store in 2020. On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that Apple's "anti-steering" provision was uncompetitive. So now App Store developers can link to outside payment systems to avoid the 30% fee. Developers using Apple's App Store are now allowed to bypass its 30% commission fee by steering users to their own payment systems, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. Epic had integrated its own payment system into the app for users to buy VBucks, "Fortnite's" in-game currency, which went against App Store guidelines.

☆ Appeals court largely sides with Apple on ‘Fortnite’ antitrust case
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington CNN —A federal appeals court largely sided with Apple on Monday in a closely watched case about its app store policies, a decision that could complicate future efforts to regulate app store operators and frustrate claims that Apple behaves monopolistically. Apple responded by removing Fortnite from the iOS App Store, a move Epic anticipated and that prompted Epic to sue. On Monday, in addition to siding with Apple on the antitrust claims, the appeals court held that Apple is entitled to have Epic cover its legal fees stemming from the countersuit, reversing a lower-court decision. That finding could give some ammunition to critics of app store operators. Both sides now have several weeks to determine whether to seek a rehearing from the appeals court or to appeal to the Supreme Court.

On that unredacted form, Kacsmaryk reported owning about $2.9 million in stock in the Florida-based supermarket company Publix. Federal judges are only required to report financial holdings in ranges, and don’t have to provide exact figures. One possible source of the Publix stock Kacsmaryk reported in 2017 is the judge’s grandmother. In 2020 and 2021, less than 4% of officials required to file judicial financial disclosures requested redaction, according to reports from the Administrative Office of the US Courts. In any case, experts said, the judge’s redacted report prevents transparency that litigants deserve.

☆ New York appeals court halts first subpoena in House Judiciary Committee's Trump prosecution inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Laura Italiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A NY court has blocked the first subpoena issued by a House GOP inquiry into Trump's hush-money prosecution. Ex-Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz had been ordered to submit to Judiciary Committee questioning Thursday. That's now on hold while committee chair Jim Jordan and DA Alvin Bragg continue fighting over the inquiry. Bragg's office must file court papers by Friday explaining why Pomerantz should not testify, and why Wednesday's decision should be overturned. Bragg has sued to fight the committee's inquiry into the hush-money prosecution, under which Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

April 19 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) must face a proposed U.S. nationwide class action accusing the company of illegally monitoring private Facebook groups that delivery drivers used to discuss working conditions, a U.S. appeals court said on Wednesday. Circuit Court of Appeals said an agreement that driver Drickey Jackson signed requiring him to bring work-related disputes in arbitration rather than court did not apply to his 2020 lawsuit. The ruling means Jackson can continue seeking to represent a class of at least 800 Amazon drivers instead of pursuing his claims in individual arbitration. Jackson in court filings cited a leaked document purporting to show an internal social media monitoring list of 43 private Facebook groups that drivers ran in different cities. Amazon has argued the case belongs in arbitration, citing the agreement Jackson signed.

April 19 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden had the power to require employees of federal contractors to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday, throwing out a judge's ruling that had blocked the mandate in Arizona. The court reversed a federal judge in Phoenix who blocked the mandate in Arizona last year. The office of Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes, a Democrat who took office in January, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Supreme Court last year blocked Biden's separate mandate that businesses with 100 or more employees require workers to receive COVID-19 vaccines or undergo regular testing. Last month, a New Orleans-based federal appeals court ruled that federal agencies could not enforce a requirement that government employees receive vaccines.

☆ U.S. Supreme Court boosts Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed's DNA testing bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( John Kruzel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a boost to Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed's bid for DNA testing of crime-scene evidence that he argues will help exonerate him in the 1996 abduction, rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman. A Texas trial court in 2014 denied Reed's bid for DNA testing. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals also rejected it in 2017 based on the procedures it determined were required under the state law that gives prisoners a chance to seek post-conviction DNA testing. That court denied a request for rehearing six months later. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 decided that Reed should have filed suit within two years of the initial 2014 trial court decision.

☆ Elizabeth Holmes is asking a judge to reverse her 'unjust' conviction or reduce her 11-year sentence one week before she's set to report to prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Charles R. Davis | Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is asking a judge to grant her a new trial or reduce her prison sentence. Holmes' attorneys claim she was unfairly barred from citing "compelling evidence" of her innocence. She's currently set to begin serving her 11-year prison sentence next week. Holmes has made several attempts to throw out her conviction, or to delay or reduce her sentence, in the past year. In May, her attorneys asked the judge to overturn her conviction, saying there was "insufficient evidence" for any "rational juror."

But even if those legal efforts fail and last Friday's order by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas goes into effect, essentially rendering the drug unapproved, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could nonetheless continue to allow access to the drug, legal experts say. The FDA, which has said it stands behind it determination that mifepristone is safe and effective, declined to comment. CONTRADICTORY RULINGSThe FDA approved mifepristone, which is the first of a two-drug regimen to terminate a pregnancy within the first 10 weeks, in 2000. Kacsmaryk put his ruling on hold until Friday to give the Biden administration, which supports access to abortion, time to pursue its appeal. 1985 PRECEDENTBut, even if the abortion pill's approval remains suspended, the FDA has precedent on its side to do nothing, legal experts said.

☆ A teacher who refused to call trans students by their preferred names because of his Christian beliefs can't have his job back, says court
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A US court has ruled that a high school did not violate the First Amendment rights of a music teacher. John Kluge refused on religious grounds to use transgender students' preferred names. "Kluge "stigmatized" transgender students, causing them "demonstrable emotional harm," said a judge. Music teacher John Kluge refused to use the student's preferred name and pronouns due to his Christian religious beliefs, according to a civil complaint filed in 2019, which said Kluge "believes encouraging students to present themselves as the opposite sex by calling them an opposite-sex first name is sinful." Students and fellow teachers complained, and the decision was reversed, according to court filings.

Circuit Court of Appeals said. Kluge said his Christian religious beliefs barred him from complying with a school policy requiring faculty to use students' preferred names and pronouns. Federal law only requires employers to accommodate workers' religious beliefs if it would not cause them an undue hardship. The 7th Circuit on Friday disagreed, upholding an Indiana federal judge's ruling that dismissed the case. "Kluge's last-names-only practice stigmatized the transgender students and caused them demonstrable emotional harm," Circuit Judge Ilana Rovner wrote for the court.

☆ The Supreme Court allowed a transgender girl to continue playing sports, but a Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissent signals their willingness to review the hot-button issue
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Supreme Court allowed a transgender girl to continue playing on her school's girls track team. Yet two conservative justices — Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — dissented from the decision, suggesting the court may soon wade into the Republican-led culture war over trans athletes. Her lawyers argued that the ban violated the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection, as well as Title IX, the 1972 federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination. West Virginia then turned to the Supreme Court to lift that ruling. "Among other things, enforcement of the law at issue should not be forbidden by the federal courts without any explanation."

☆ US GAO denies Lockheed protest of Textron $7 bln Army helicopter deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Mike Stone | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Thursday denied Lockheed Martin Corp's (LMT.N) protest of the Army contract for the Future Long Range-Assault Aircraft worth as much as a $7.1 billion, awarded to Textron Inc's (TXT.N) Bell helicopter unit over Lockheed's Sikorsky unit. The initial contract award was for $232 million, but the first batch of helicopters in low rate production will be worth $7.1 billion. Ultimately, the contract is potentially worth around $70 billion - over decades - depending on how many the Army and U.S. allies order, the Army has said. In the FLARAA competition was Bell's V-280 "Valor," a tiltrotor aircraft that has reached speeds in excess of 340 mph (547 kph) according to the Army. “We remain confident the Lockheed Martin Sikorsky and Boeing team submitted the most capable, affordable and lowest-risk Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft solution.

☆ Elon Musk broke the law with a tweet about Tesla stock options, court rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk broke labor law with a 2018 tweet about Tesla employees' stock options, a court ruled. The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said Musk threatened staff in the wake of a unionization drive. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Tesla argued that because Musk said there was nothing stopping Tesla workers joining a union, it couldn't be regarded as a threat. "Because stock options are part of Tesla's employees' compensation, and nothing in the tweet suggested that Tesla would be forced to end stock options or that the UAW would be the cause of giving up stock options, substantial evidence supports the NLRB's conclusion that the tweet is as an implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization," the panel wrote in its conclusion.

Companies Tesla Inc FollowMarch 31 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday said Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk violated federal labor law by tweeting that employees of the electric vehicle maker would lose stock options if they joined a union. Amid an organizing campaign at Tesla's Fremont, California, plant by the United Auto Workers union, Musk tweeted: "Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union ... But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?" In Friday's case, Tesla had argued that the tweet about unionizing was not a threat and merely reflected the fact that union workers at other auto companies did not receive stock options. The labor board in a separate case last year said Tesla violated labor law by prohibiting workers at the Fremont plant from wearing shirts supporting the union campaign.

In the data privacy case, Google has said its Chrome browser users consented to the company's data collection. The sanction in the data privacy action is not the first time Van Keulen has punished Google in the same case. The new sanctions order and the prior one from May 2022 addressed internal Google evidence concerning consumer use of the company's private browsing mode. Google, according to the judge's order, will be barred from relying on certain employee witnesses in the case. Van Keulen also said Google must pay fees associated with two experts working for the plaintiffs, and must also pay a $79,000 fine.

"Phhhoto has failed in its 69-page amended complaint of 222 paragraphs to allege sufficient facts that cure the untimeliness of all of its federal claims," Matsumoto wrote. The court declined to allow Phhhoto to fine-tune its case and bring another complaint. Phhhoto's lawsuit, filed in 2021, alleged Facebook aimed to "crush" the photo-sharing application, which called itself in court filings "an innovative nascent competitor." Facebook is defending against claims from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., federal court that the company abused its personal social networking dominance. The case is Phhhoto Inc v Meta Platforms, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, No.

U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco said in his order that Google "fell strikingly short" in its duties to preserve records. Separately, the plaintiffs will have a chance to urge Donato to tell jurors that Google destroyed information that was unfavorable to it. The lawyers said Google was deleting chat records every 24 hours and "did so even after this litigation commenced." Google is separately fighting claims in a U.S. Justice Department antitrust case in Washington, D.C., federal court of destroyed chat records. The case is In re Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

Search resuls for: "US Court"

25 mentions found