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☆ Why WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg has gone 'nuclear' against tech investing giant Silver Lake
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-05 | by ( Ari Levy | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

Automattic founder, Matt Mullenweg Source: AutomatticMatt Mullenweg, who turned 40 in January, has now spent more than half his life working on WordPress. Silicon Valley private equity firm Silver Lake bought a majority stake in WP Engine in 2018, investing $250 million and obtaining three board seats. WordPress took the drastic step of banning WP Engine from using the WordPress resources necessary to serve its customers, which preceded a lawsuit filed on Wednesday by WP Engine against Mullenweg and Automattic. In the post, Mullenweg criticized WP Engine for not contributing enough back to the WordPress ecosystem. A Silver Lake spokesperson said WP Engine was handling all inquiries.

Persons: Matt Mullenweg, He's, —, I've, Mullenweg, he'd, Neal Katyal, Tomasz Tunguz, Tunguz, Automattic, Lee Wittlinger, they're, didn't, Bob Perkowitz, Perkowitz, he's, They've, wouldn't Organizations: WordPress, WP, Silver Lake, CNBC, Theory Ventures, WordPress.org Locations: U.S, WordCamp, Portland , Oregon, Silver, Auotmattic

☆ A Judge’s Dismissal of the Trump Classified Documents Case Is Deeply Dangerous - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-15 | by ( Neal K. Katyal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to throw out serious national-security criminal charges in the classified documents case against Donald Trump is legally unsupported, ignores decades of precedent and is deeply dangerous. Her decision is quite unlikely to survive the tests of time, or even the appeal Mr. Smith’s office said he intends to make. But it will further delay a case that has moved so slowly under her direction that it was already virtually certain it would never go to a jury before Election Day. Judge Cannon asserts that no law of Congress authorizes the special counsel. The special counsel regulations were drafted under specific congressional laws authorizing them.

Persons: Aileen Cannon’s, Donald Trump, Jack Smith, “, Judge Cannon Organizations: United Locations: United States

☆ Twin mosque demolitions in India underscore deep religious polarization months before nationwide election
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Rhea Mogul | Aishwarya S Iyer | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

The demolitions drew incensed residents onto the streets and at least six people have been killed in clashes with police. The image of India that Modi wants to project is one of a confident, vibrant, and modern superpower. In India, a country of diverse faiths, religious groups follow their own laws for matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance. Mohammad Zakir Hussain has said he barely slept since the demolition of his mosque, the madrasa, and his home in India’s capital Delhi. “(The government) rationalizes everything by blaming Mughal emperors,” he said, referring to India’s ancient Islamic rulers.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Modi, Ram, ”, Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, Imtiyaz Khan, Asaduddin, “, Mukhopadhyay, Mohammed Zakir Hussain, Mohammad Zakir Hussain, Aishwarya Iyer, Sanjay Katyal, Rana Safvi, ” Safvi, ” Mohammad Aman, Mohammad Arif, what’s, Mohammad Aman Organizations: New, New Delhi CNN, CNN, Authorities, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Indian, Anadolu, Getty, Amnesty International, Delhi Development Authority, –, Court Locations: New Delhi, India, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Uttarakhand’s Haldwani, Haldwani, AFP, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India’s, Jammu, Kashmir, BJP, Delhi’s Mehrauli, Akhondji

☆ Three Big Legal Questions
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( David Leonhardt | Ian Prasad Philbrick | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a two-hour oral argument at the Supreme Court yesterday, nearly all justices appeared skeptical of Colorado’s effort to keep Trump off the ballot. Maine has also moved to bar Trump, and other states would likely follow if the Supreme Court were to allow it. The legal issues are complex, and we walk through them below. As Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The Times, told us yesterday:Donald Trump is accused of doing grave wrongs in trying to overturn the election. Many legal experts expect the court to rule quickly (as this story explains) and to issue a broad decision that applies to all states.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Trump, Adam Liptak, Donald Trump, Neal Katyal, Obama Organizations: Colorado, Trump, The Times, ”, Republican Locations: Washington, United States

☆ Trump gag order reinstated in Jack Smith federal election case
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A federal judge reimposed a gag order on Donald Trump in his criminal election interference case, rejecting Trump's arguments that the restrictions on his speech were unconstitutional. Trump called Barr "dumb" and "weak" and a "loser," in response to Barr's remarks at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics last week. A spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith, whose team is prosecuting the case, declined to comment on whether Trump's latest attack on Barr violated the gag order. Lawyers for Trump had asked for a longer stay of the gag order while they appealed it in a higher court. Trump has already violated that gag order twice, drawing a total of $15,000 in penalties.

Persons: Donald Trump, Tanya Chutkan, Chutkan, Trump, Mark Meadows, William Barr, Barr, Jack Smith, Smith, Joe Biden, Neal Katyal, Obama Organizations: Trump, Republican, White, University of Chicago's Institute, Politics, Lawyers Locations: Washington, Meadows, U.S, New York

☆ 5 TED Talks that will make you smarter and more persuasive: 'Conventional wisdom' for winning arguments is 'wrong'
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-22 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Winning an argument may boil down to one simple tactic: Getting people to listen to you. That's according to five TED Talk speakers, whose backgrounds — from business and law to journalism and academia — helped them become more persuasive. Some conventional persuasion tactics do work, they say: You can speak more slowly or lower your voice to draw listeners in. One of the most effective ways to change people's minds is by listening to what other people say and finding common ground, multiple of the speakers say. Watch these five TED Talks from Katyal and others to get smarter at winning arguments — and better at changing people's minds with your voice.

Persons: —, Neal Katyal, who's, Julian Treasure Organizations: TED Locations: U.S, Katyal

Unlike federal prosecutors – who kept their indictments carefully restricted to easily understood and more provable infractions, with few co-defendants – Willis went big. Under the agreement, Powell entered a guilty plea in six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to intentionally interfere with the election in Georgia, a state that President Joe Biden won narrowly. And it's bad for Trump," O'Brien says. Trump once considered appointing Powell as a special counsel investigating election fraud in late 2020, after he lost the election. Her guilty plea, entered in a Fulton County courthouse Thursday, means Powell is formally acknowledging her role in attempting to subvert the election Trump lost.

Persons: Fani Willis, Donald Trump, –, – Willis, Rudy Giuliani, Scott McAfee, Willis, Sidney Powell, Trump, Scott Hall, Hall, Kevin O'Brien, Ford O'Brien Landy, O'Brien, Powell, Joe Biden, it's, Mai Ratakonda, Ratakonda, Giuliani, It's, Neal Katyal, Barack Obama Organizations: Fulton, Trump, United Democracy Center, of Locations: Fulton County, Coffee County, New York City, Georgia, of Georgia

The news outlet is hyper-focused on Trump's legal jeopardy, with a team of experts ready to dissect every ruling, every filing, every comment. “MSNBC has pretty well-established themselves as the leading anti-Trump network, certainly of late,” said Jon Klein, a former CNN president and news analyst. So far this year, Fox has averaged 2.18 million viewers, MSNBC 1.51 million and CNN 639,000. It was par for the course on a day Trump's legal issues made headlines. MSNBC has assembled a team of legal experts that has appeared throughout its lineup and gained trust through familiarity.

Persons: Joe, Donald Trump, Ken Dilanian, ”, Jon Klein, “, you've, Trump, it's, Trump's, Nicolle Wallace, Missouri Sen, Claire McCaskill, Joy Reid, —, Jen Psaki's, Cyrus Vance Jr, Preet Bharara, Rachel Maddow, Jimmy Carter's, “ Donald Trump, Lawrence O'Donnell, that's, Klein, Ari Melber's, Melber, Peter Navarro, Joe Tacopina, Andrew Weissmann, Robert Mueller's, Mary McCord, ” Chuck Rosenberg, Obama, Neal Katyal, Donald Trump ”, Barbara McQuade, Joyce Vance, Weissmann, Andrew, Psaki, Ariana Pekary, “ It's, ” Klein, there's, ” Pekary Organizations: NBC, MSNBC, Trump, CNN, Social, NBC News, Fox News Channel, Nielsen, Fox, GOP, Fox News, Malaysia Airlines, Manhattan District, New, Department of Justice, District of Columbia, FBI, Drug, U.S, Supreme Locations: Russia, America, Ohio, Indiana , Michigan , Illinois, Iowa, spurts, New York, Missouri, New York U.S, Trump, U.S, Michigan, Alabama

☆ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said that stuck Burning Man festivalgoers are 'probably being brainwashed' that climate change is 'the root of all evil'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

More than 70,000 Burning Man attendees were stranded at the Nevada campsite following torrential floods. GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said they're probably being 'brainwashed' about climate change. The annual weeklong Burning Man festival, which is held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, faced a series of challenges this year. Greene isn't the only member of Congress who's been outspoken recently against Burning Man. "God's judgement is real," he wrote online before then openly wondering if any festivalgoers had been influenced into converting to Christianity due to this year's tumultuous Burning Man.

Persons: Marjorie Taylor Greene, they're, festivalgoers, Alex Jones, Greene, Jones, Greene isn't, who's, GOP Sen, Mike Lee of, there's, hasn't, Diplo, Chris Rock, Neal Katyal, Greene didn't Organizations: GOP, Service, Republican, CNN, concertgoers, Burning Man, Twitter Locations: Nevada, Wall, Silicon, Georgia, Mike Lee of Utah

The North Carolina controversy arose after the state Supreme Court struck down the state’s 2022 congressional map as an illegal partisan gerrymander, replacing it with court drawn maps that favored Democrats. Reggie Weaver, at podium, speaks outside the Legislative Building in Raleigh, North Carolina, Feb. 15, 2022, about a partisan gerrymandering ruling by the North Carolina Supreme Court. Gary D. Robertson/APAfter the state high court ruled, North Carolina Republican lawmakers appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court, arguing that the state Supreme Court had exceeded its authority. After the last election, the North Carolina Supreme Court flipped its majority to Republican. With the US Supreme Court rejecting the lawmakers’ theory that state courts could not police federal election rules, lawyers for the legislature’s opponents celebrated Tuesday’s ruling.

Persons: Donald Trump, John Roberts, ” Roberts, Roberts, ”, “, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Barack Obama, ” Obama, Reggie Weaver, Gary D, Robertson, Tuesday’s, Neal Katyal, Today’s, court’s, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, ” Thomas, Gorsuch, Thomas, –, Jessica Ring Amunson, Sam Hirsch, Jenner, Hilary Harris Klein – Organizations: CNN, North Carolina, Independent, Chief, Federal, North Carolina Supreme, AP, North, North Carolina Republican, Supreme, North Carolina Supreme Court, Republican, US, Block, Southern Coalition for Social Justice Locations: North Carolina, Federal, Raleigh , North Carolina, “

☆ US dollar falls, but off four-week lows, as Fed signals more rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The dollar index was last down 0.3% at 103.01 after hitting a four-week low of 102.66 in the session. While signaling more rate increases, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a press briefing that the U.S. central bank was not so far away from its target on the benchmark fed funds rate. Officials now expect the fed funds rate to top out at 5.6% this year, implying two more 25 bps increases in 2023, up from the 5.1% estimate in the last set of forecasts released in March. He noted that in 2006, the fed funds rate stood at 5.25% from July 2006 to August 2007 before being cut in the wake of the global financial crisis. Elsewhere, sterling rose 0.4% against the dollar to $1.2660, after hitting its highest since April 2022 of $1.2699.

Persons: Jerome Powell, Chris Low, Louis, James Bullard's, James Bullard, Srijan, Gertrude Chavez, Dreyfuss, Amanda Cooper, Jonathan Oatis, Lisa Shumaker, Richard Chang Organizations: NEW YORK, U.S, Federal Reserve, Market, Officials, FHN, Louis Fed, Traders, Bank of Japan, Bank of England, Thomson Locations: U.S, New York, London

☆ How CNN broke the news from Trump's arraignment despite a courtroom ban on electronics
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Noah Gray, CNN’s senior coordinating producer for special events, had grown up in the Miami area and attended Palmetto Senior High School. The remarkable effort to report on the court proceeding was only necessary because of the archaic system in which U.S. federal courts operate. The public continues to have remarkably little access to proceedings in federal courts — no matter how consequential or extraordinary the case may be. Generally speaking, federal courts refuse to budge. “I think the benefits for public access cut for both Trump and the prosecution,” Katyal told Nicolle Wallace.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Noah Gray, CNN’s, Tierney Sneed, Hannah Rabinowitz, Sneed, Rabinowitz jotted, Brad Parks, ” Gray, ” Elie Honig, Jake Tapper, ” Honig, “, Neal Katyal, Katyal, ” Katyal, Nicolle Wallace, newsrooms Organizations: CNN, Palmetto Senior High School, MSNBC, Trump Locations: Miami, Washington, D.C

☆ George Conway says an insanity defense is Donald Trump's best shot against a possible indictment in New York, but that he'll never use it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

George Conway says an insanity defense might be Trump's best shot in New York. Conway was weighing in on a series of incoherent Truth Social rants Trump posted on Sunday. Conway was responding on Twitter to screenshots of one of Trump's Truth Social rants on Sunday. "Are the coup-attempter's lawyers intending to use these posts as their proof in an insanity defense?" Conway told Insider on Sunday that from a legal perspective, even an insanity defense won't help Trump get off the hook in New York.

☆ North Carolina urges US Supreme Court to toss major elections case
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( Andrew Chung | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court should dismiss a major case from North Carolina that could give more power over federal elections to state politicians because the matter is being reconsidered by a lower court, North Carolina said in a filing on Monday, while the Republican lawmakers at the center of the dispute disagreed. The case began as a legal fight over a map drawn by Republican state legislators of North Carolina's 14 U.S. House of Representatives districts - one that a lower court blocked as unlawfully disadvantageous for Democrats. The justices should "dismiss this case for lack of jurisdiction" given that the "decisions on review are nonfinal," the state said. The Republican lawmakers had urged the U.S. Supreme Court to embrace a once-marginal legal theory now embraced by many conservatives that would remove any role of state courts and state constitutions in regulating presidential and congressional elections. Since its decision invalidating the map, the state court has undergone a change in its ideological makeup.

J&J maintains its talc products are safe. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan was set to preside over the hearing for the subsidiary, called LTL Management, in Trenton, New Jersey. In October 2021, J&J offloaded the tidal wave of talc lawsuits it faced onto one of its newly created units, LTL, which then declared bankruptcy. Reuters last year detailed the secret planning of Texas two-steps by Johnson & Johnson and other major firms in a series of reports exploring corporate attempts to evade lawsuits through bankruptcies. LTL declared bankruptcy while J&J avoided seeking Chapter 11 protection, with all its inherent financial and reputational wreckage.

A lawyer for Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary said in a statement that the company would seek a rehearing of the panel’s decision by the full 3rd Circuit court. Gordon’s strategy worked in bankruptcy court but set up J&J for failure when it faced the 3rd Circuit appeals panel. Gordon, at the bankruptcy conference, described the lawsuits as “completely unmanageable” and a dire threat to J&J that could go on for decades. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to hear arguments in coming months on a challenge to the 3M subsidiary’s bankruptcy. The litigation, they asserted, should be allowed to proceed against Georgia-Pacific because the parent company did not file for bankruptcy.

☆ Court asked to void verdict against Derek Chauvin in George Floyd's murder
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

An attorney for Derek Chauvin asked an appeals court Wednesday to throw out the former Minneapolis police officer’s convictions in the murder of George Floyd, arguing that legal and procedural errors deprived him of a fair trial. But Neal Katyal, a special attorney for the state, said Chauvin got “one of the most transparent and thorough trials in our nation’s history. ... Chauvin’s many arguments before this court do not come close to justifying reversal.”Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced Chauvin to 22 1/2 years after jurors found him guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. “Judge Cahill managed this trial with enormous care, and even if Chauvin could identify some minor fault, any error is harmless,” Katyal said. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin addresses the court as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides over Chauvin's sentencing on June 25, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis.

☆ Trump's legal team better be able to get him to plead insanity at trial, a Harvard law professor says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Trump's lawyers should consider having him plead insanity at trial, a Harvard law professor said. Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe commented on Trump's response to the January 6 panel. "They'd better be psychiatrists expert at reflexive projection and capable of getting their client to plead insanity," Tribe added. In the video, Trump called the committee members "very bad people" while repeating baseless voter fraud conspiracy theories. In response, Trump said in a Truth Social post on December 19 that he felt the move made him "stronger."

In their appeal to the Supreme Court, the Republicans argued that North Carolina's top court usurped their authority by throwing out the map. In that context - a fight over counting ballots in Florida - Rehnquist said the U.S. Constitution limits the authority of state courts. "This court has never second-guessed state court interpretations of their own constitution," said Katyal. Thomas Wolf, an attorney at New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice, said if the Supreme Court gives itself too much leeway to intervene in state court disputes, it risks appearing politically motivated and lawless. The Supreme Court's ruling is due by the end of June.

The position of others including Chief Justice John Roberts was harder to read, raising the possibility of a ruling less broad than the Republican state lawmakers pursuing the appeal seek. The Republican lawmakers are asking the Supreme Court to embrace a once-marginal legal theory that has gained favor among some conservatives called the "independent state legislature" doctrine. The Republican lawmakers have argued that the state court unconstitutionally usurped the North Carolina General Assembly's authority to regulate federal elections. Thompson also argued that state constitutions cannot impose substantive limits on the actions of legislatures on federal elections. A lower state court subsequently rejected the legislature's redrawn map and adopted one drawn by a bipartisan group of experts.

☆ Supreme Court justices grapple with a Republican challenge that could upend how elections are run: 'This is a theory with big consequences'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Supreme Court heard three hours of oral arguments on a GOP-led challenge from North Carolina. Barrett said adopting the North Carolina Republicans' approach would mean judges would have "notoriously difficult lines to draw." The state supreme court ruled that the map was a partisan gerrymander that favored Republicans, deeming it a violation of the state constitution. Alito noted that in some places, like North Carolina, state supreme court judges are elected by voters. The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decision in the case by June.

☆ Former DOJ official says Trump's reaction to the January 6 panel is starting to look like the makings of an insanity defense
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Former DOJ official Neal Katyal commented on Donald Trump's 14-page response to the DOJ. Katyal said he did not think the response would help Trump unless he was trying to plead insanity. He said Trump's response was "evidence" of an insanity plea. But it does seem to dig the hole in deeper for Donald Trump," Katyal told MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart. A representative at Trump's post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Alums include 6 judges, Big Law partners, top law school professors, Hunter Biden, and a priest. Yale Law School is one of the most prestigious law schools in the world, and arguably one of the most powerful. Graduates of Yale Law are known for going into public service and academia, but alumni have also landed top positions at elite law firms and Fortune 500 companies. But Yale Law still carries cachet in the legal community, and many top law firms, schools, judges, and agencies hire its alumni. Here's a look at the careers of some notable alumni of the Yale Law Class of 1996, more than a quarter of a century years after their graduation.

☆ Cancer victims urge court to end J&J bankruptcy roadblock to lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Dietrich Knauth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The Johnson & Johnson logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 29, 2019. But J&J countered bankruptcy court allows all current and future talc lawsuits to be settled together, which it says is the fastest and fairest way. The cancer victims are asking the appeals court to overrule a New Jersey bankruptcy judge who allowed LTL's bankruptcy to continue. LTL's bankruptcy filing automatically stopped lawsuits from proceeding against it, and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan in Trenton, New Jersey ruled in February that LTL's bankruptcy should also stop talc lawsuits from proceeding against parent company J&J. In refusing to dismiss the case, Kaplan said the bankruptcy court is better equipped to handle mass tort litigation than other courts.

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