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May 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to the legality of an Indiana requirement that abortion providers bury or cremate embryonic or fetal remains following the procedure, sidestepping another dispute involving a contentious Republican-backed state policy concerning abortion. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the state's requirement after a federal judge had invalidated it. Indiana's ban is currently blocked after decisions by lower court judges. The Supreme Court on April 21 blocked restrictions set by lower courts on a widely used abortion pill while litigation continues in lower courts in a challenge by abortion opponents to the drug's federal regulatory approval. Women themselves "may choose to take custody of the remains and dispose of them as they please," that court added.

The U.S. Treasury Department since 2020 has protected Citgo from creditors with claims against Venezuela, and its change of heart will allow claims to be settled by negotiation or through an auction of shares in Citgo parent PDV Holding. Citgo is PDV Holding's only asset. Houston-based Citgo is the seventh-largest U.S. oil refiner. Other creditors with at least $2.6 billion in claims against Venezuela have received conditional approvals to join the case. Pincus proposed starting the sales process on Sept. 5 with the highest bid reviewed by the court in June 2024.

According to complaints filed on Friday, Energizer agreed "under pressure from Walmart" to inflate wholesale battery prices for other retailers starting around January 2018, and require those retailers not to undercut Walmart on price. Walmart rivals allegedly risked higher wholesale prices or being cut off by Energizer, the largest U.S. disposable battery maker, if they charged less at checkout than Walmart, the world's largest retailer. According to the plaintiffs, Energizer's share of the U.S. disposable battery market has risen to more than 50% from 40% in 2018. The cases in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, are: Copeland et al v Energizer Holdings Inc et al, No. 23-02091, and Schuman et al v Energizer Holdings Inc et al, No.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the law, which instructed the U.S. Circuit said the law "makes clear" that those leases are no longer subject to requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires a thorough look at environmental impacts of proposed major federal actions. Earthjustice attorney Steve Mashuda, who represented the environmental groups, said in a statement that the decision will harm Gulf communities and ecosystems. A spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute called the order a “positive step toward more certainty and clarity for energy producers.”The Interior Department, which did not appeal the lower court decision, declined to comment. v. Debra Haaland et al., U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, case No.

At issue is whether a public official's social media activity can amount to governmental action bound by First Amendment limits on government regulation of speech. The Garniers sued O'Connor-Ratcliff and Zane in federal court, claiming their free speech rights under the First Amendment were violated. Zane and O'Connor-Ratcliff each had public Facebook pages identifying them as government officials, according to the Garniers' court filing. O'Connor-Ratcliff also had a public Twitter profile. Circuit Court of Appeals last July agreed, finding that the school board members had presented their social media accounts as "channels of communication with the public" about school board business.

That is because algorithms that power generative AI tools like ChatGPT and its successor GPT-4 operate in a somewhat similar way as those that suggest videos to YouTube users, the experts added. While the case does not directly relate to generative AI, Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that AI tools that generate "poetry" and "polemics" likely would not enjoy such legal protections. Section 230 protections generally apply to third-party content from users of a technology platform and not to information a company helped to develop. 'CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR OWN ACTIONS'Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who helped draft that law while in the House of Representatives, said the liability shield should not apply to generative AI tools because such tools "create content." They said tools like ChatGPT operate like search engines, directing users to existing content in response to a query.

[1/2] Police officers guard the Tree of Life synagogue following Saturday's shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 28, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron JosefczykApril 24 (Reuters) - The man accused of opening fire and killing 11 worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history faces a potential death sentence at the end of a federal trial that begins on Monday with jury selection. Robert Bowers, 50, is accused of dozens of charges, including 11 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, in a massacre that unfolded at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018. In seeking the death penalty, federal prosecutors will try to prove aggravating factors in their case against Bowers, including that he substantially planned the attack and that he targeted vulnerable victims. Federal authorities said Bowers entered the synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood where many residents are Jewish, armed with multiple firearms.

[1/2] Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs from Trump Tower to give a deposition to New York Attorney General Letitia James who sued Trump and his Trump Organization, in New York City, U.S., April 13, 2023. Former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz will testify May 12, a spokesperson for the chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee said. The committee subpoenaed him in connection with the probe that led to Trump becoming the first ex-president to be criminally charged. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, sued Jim Jordan, the Republican chair of the committee, to block the subpoena. Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential nominating campaign, pleaded not guilty on April 4 to 34 felony charges.

April 21 (Reuters) - Paramount Global (PARA.O) has agreed to pay $167.5 million to investors to settle a case stemming from the 2019 merger of Viacom Inc and CBS Corp that created the entertainment company, a filing showed. Paramount and the investors agreed to the settlement reached on April 18, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing published on Friday. Paramount did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Paramount reached a $122.5 million settlement in March with Viacom shareholders that also stemmed from the merger. Reporting by Shubhendu Deshmukh in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The prospective class action complaint, filed in 2021 by two members of the annual paid subscription service Amazon Prime, alleged Amazon was unlawfully "tying" the online sale of third-party products to the use of the company's "Fulfillment by Amazon" program. The lawsuit said Amazon's alleged anticompetitive fulfillment practices had harmed "hundreds of millions of its loyal customers." Amazon's attorneys argued that fulfillment services are sold not to consumers who buy products but to third-party businesses that are selling goods on the company's platform. The antitrust case against Amazon was among private and state actions alleging violations of competition law. The case is Angela Hogan et al v. Amazon.com Inc, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, No.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is expected to act before the deadline to either grant or reject the requests or further pause the litigation. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. agency that signs off on the safety of food products, drugs and medical devices, approved mifepristone in 2000. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 12 declined to block the curbs ordered by Kacsmaryk. Anti-abortion groups led by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors sued the FDA in November. The plaintiffs contend that the agency used an unlawful process to approve the drug, which they consider to be dangerous.

[1/2] Alec Baldwin attends the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala in New York City, U.S., December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew KellyTAOS, New Mexico, April 21 (Reuters) - New Mexico special prosecutors dropped charges against actor Alec Baldwin in the shooting death of "Rust" cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Friday, marking what legal experts said was a logical conclusion to a flawed prosecution. The move followed new evidence about the gun Baldwin was holding when it fired the bullet that killed Hutchins during the movie's filming, a person close to state prosecutors said. "The case is dismissed without prejudice and the investigation is active and ongoing," prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis said in a filing. Special prosecutors said on Thursday they might refile charges against Baldwin once new evidence was examined.

Private equity firm Staple Street Capital valued Dominion at $80 million when it purchased a controlling stake in it in 2018. The Fox settlement was nearly 10 times that amount and far outstripped the $226 million average of four pre-election valuations cited in Fox's court papers. Dominion's damages claim in the Fox case was based upon a report it commissioned from an accounting expert, half of which remains under seal. It is difficult to place a dollar value on the U.S. voting-machine industry because Dominion and its competitors all are privately held. While Dominion's report cites dozens of lost clients due to Fox's coverage, the company still has landed recent contract renewals including in California's Republican-majority Kern County.

It has also asked a federal court in Washington to dismiss claims in a 2020 antitrust lawsuit filed by the Justice Department. And it has asked a federal court in Virginia to dismiss a complaint that the federal government filed this year. In its court filing in federal court in California on Thursday, Google asked that five claims be thrown out. Google argued it does not have a legal obligation to put other app stores in Android and, in fact, most Android phones come preloaded with more than one app store and others can be installed. Again, Google argued that game developers are not prevented from creating alternate app stores.

[1/2] Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts arrives before President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, February 7, 2023, in Washington. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS/File PhotoCompanies United States Senate FollowWASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - The Senate Judiciary Committee's chairman called on U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts to testify at a May 2 hearing on Supreme ethics reform after earlier urging him to investigate ties between Justice Clarence Thomas and a wealthy Republican donor. The court did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Roberts. The chief justice is a member of the court's 6-3 conservative majority. In inviting Roberts to testify, Durbin also said the chief justice could designate another justice to appear instead.

[1/2] Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., April 14, 2023. Kaplan said Trump has no obligation to show up or testify, and his lawyers, who said Trump "wishes to appear," can renew the request if he doesn't. The judge also noted that Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential campaign, is planning a New Hampshire campaign stop on April 27, which would be the trial's third day. Carroll, 79, has accused Trump, 76, of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996. Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

April 20 (Reuters) - New Mexico prosecutors have decided to drop criminal charges against actor Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western movie "Rust" in 2021, Baldwin's lawyers said on Thursday. Baldwin, 65, was charged in January with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Hutchins' death and the injury of "Rust" director Joel Souza, who was also shot. He pleaded not guilty in February after prosecutors downgraded the seriousness of the charges, reducing the potential prison time. Baldwin settled a lawsuit in October with the cinematographer's husband, Matt Hutchins, in a deal that made Hutchins an executive producer on the movie. Gutierrez-Reed has blamed the shooting on other factors including possible sabotage, Baldwin's lack of training and a failure by Halls and Baldwin to ask her for extra checks.

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - An exiled Chinese businessman charged by U.S. prosecutors with leading a more than $1 billion fraud will remain in jail after a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday rejected a proposed $25 million bail package. Guo had also proposed 24-hour guard, and being subjected to detention with GPS monitoring at his wife's Connecticut home. He had also been a business associate of former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who was arrested in a 2020 fraud case while aboard Guo's yacht. In seeking bail, Guo's lawyer Stephen Cook said Guo would remain in the United States if released on bond "because the risk to his life is simply too great for him to leave." The defendant has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges including securities fraud, wire fraud and concealing money laundering.

[1/3] Dominion lawyers embrace after Dominion Voting Systems and Fox settled the defamation lawsuit over Fox's coverage of debunked election-rigging claims, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., April 18, 2023. At least 31 lawyers from nine different law firms worked on the case, court filings show. It was not immediately clear how large a share of the settlement the firm would receive in legal fees. The filings do not include recent costs associated with preparing for trial or the success fees lawyers could earn from the settlement. Fox News also hired Paul Clement and Erin Murphy, top appeals court lawyers who have advocated for conservative causes at the U.S. Supreme Court.

[1/2] U.S. President Donald Trump rape accuser E. Jean Carroll arrives for her hearing at federal court during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., October 21, 2020. There, he called Carroll's rape claim a "Hoax and a lie" for promoting her memoir, and maintained that she was "not my type!" Carroll first sued Trump for defamation in November 2019, five months after he first denied her rape claim. She has long accused Trump of stalling, and U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan has rejected multiple efforts by Trump to delay Carroll's case. Last year, Trump refused to let his Trump Organization concede wrongdoing in a New York criminal tax fraud case, which ended in a conviction that is being appealed.

April 19 Reuters) - Seagate Technology Holdings (STX.O) has agreed to pay a $300 million penalty in a settlement with U.S. authorities for shipping over $1.1 billion worth of hard disk drives to China's Huawei in violation of U.S. export control laws, the U.S. Department of Commerce said on Wednesday. Seagate sold the drives to Huawei between August 2020 and September 2021 despite an August 2020 rule that restricted sales of certain foreign items made with U.S. technology to the company. Seagate shipped 7.4 million drives to Huawei for about a year after the 2020 rule took effect and became Huawei's sole supplier of hard drives, the Commerce Department said. The other two primary suppliers of hard drives ceased shipments to Huawei after the new rule took effect in 2020, the department said. Even after "its competitors had stopped selling to them ... Seagate continued sending hard disk drives to Huawei," Matthew Axelrod, the Commerce Department's assistant secretary for export enforcement said in a statement.

[1/2] People stand in front of a welcome sign at a security checkpoint at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Washington, U.S. April 12, 2021. The residents asked for an order forcing the Port of Seattle, Alaska Airlines and Delta Airlines to establish a fund for medical monitoring to help screen for diseases. A representative for the Port of Seattle said the airport and its tenants follow strict federal, state and local requirements that address environmental issues like air quality and noise. The Seattle-Tacoma airport is located south of the city of Seattle, and is the primary commercial air hub for the region. The case is Codoni v. Port of Seattle, Superior Court of the State of Washington in and for the County of King, No.

Companies Trump Organization Inc FollowNEW YORK, April 19 (Reuters) - Donald Trump wants to attend next week's trial involving the writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of rape, but may not because of security issues his appearance would cause, his lawyer said on Wednesday. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court, Trump's lawyer Joe Tacopina said that while Trump "wishes to appear at trial," the judge should instruct jurors not to hold it against the former president if he stays away. Trump is also the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential campaign. On the day of Trump's plea, the southbound FDR Drive was closed for Trump's motorcade to the criminal court. Trump has until Thursday to advise whether he plans to attend at all.

The Boy Scouts' three-year Chapter 11 bankruptcy case resulted in the largest sexual abuse settlement fund in U.S. history and resolves claims by more than 80,000 men who say they were abused as children by troop leaders, according to the organization. The Boy Scouts settlement was supported by 86% of abuse claimants and the Boy Scouts' two largest insurers, which funded a large part of the settlement. The Boy Scouts organization was able to emerge from bankruptcy after the Philadephia-based 3rd U.S. Money for the settlement comes from the Boy Scouts, local councils, insurers and organizations that have chartered Scouting units and activities, including churches. The Boy Scouts organization has contributed additional insurance rights to the settlement fund, which may be worth as much $4 billion, according to court documents.

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