Google didn’t infringe Oracle’s copyright when it used that company’s programming code in the Android cellphone operating system, the Supreme Court ruled April 5 in overturning a lower court ruling that favored Oracle. Android is the most popular cellphone operating system in the world. Oracle had been seeking $9 billion in damages in the decade-old litigation between the tech companies that could have changed the rules of the road for the software industry. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the 6–2 decision for the high court in Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc., court file 18-956. The case came to the court on appeal from the U.S. … Continue reading Supreme Court rules Google didn’t violate copyright law when it used Oracle code for Android

The Texas Supreme Court has directed courts in the state to stop honoring the federal moratorium on residential evictions that a federal judge in the state already struck down in late February as unconstitutional. The Texas Supreme Court’s 34th emergency order that applied the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) moratorium on evictions expired March 31 and hasn’t been renewed, which means new and paused eviction applications may now move forward. The Texas Justice Court Training Center, which is responsible for training eviction court judges, is now encouraging judges to set new hearings for old cases that were put on hold by the … Continue reading Texas no longer observing CDC eviction moratorium

Vaccination passports, like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want everyone to be forced to carry, are profoundly un-American. This data-driven authoritarianism, if it comes to pass, will wash away what remains of the rule of law and the Constitution, and annihilate the American way of life. First, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) inflicted their possibly lab-designed Wuhan Virus on America, and now we get their Social Credit System, their totalitarian digital architecture for society as well. America’s placeholder president, the Communist Chinese ventriloquist’s dummy who fantasizes about becoming the new Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wants these vaccination passports badly. POTUS 46* … Continue reading Vaccination passports: the cornerstone of a totalitarian state ushering China’s social credit system into America

A proposed class-action lawsuit accusing Facebook of violating a federal anti-robocall law may not go forward because the social media company’s unwanted text messages aren’t covered under federal law, the Supreme Court ruled April 1. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the unanimous decision for the high court in Facebook Inc. v. Duguid, court file 19-511. Justice Samuel Alito filed a separate opinion concurring in the judgment. The case, heard telephonically on Dec. 8, 2020, concerns a federal law that imposes penalties of up to $1,500 for each unwanted call or text. The prohibition on such calls applies to dialing systems that can “store or produce telephone … Continue reading Unwanted Facebook messages don’t justify anti-robocall class-action lawsuit, Supreme Court rules

Before a skeptical Supreme Court on March 31, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) defended its rules that preclude paying student-athletes. The Biden administration sided with the student-athletes during telephonic oral arguments that ran 94 minutes instead of the allotted 60. The case is actually two cases heard together: National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston, court file 20-512, and American Athletic Conference (AAC) v. Alston, court file 20-520. Former football player Shawne Alston, one of a group of football and basketball athletes challenging the NCAA, was a running back for the West Virginia University Mountaineers from 2009 to 2012. For years, college football has … Continue reading Supreme Court unsympathetic to NCAA arguments justifying not paying student-athletes

News Analysis A radical piece of legislation that sponsors say will “supercharge civics education” by devoting $6 billion to the left’s pet projects will, according to critic Stanley Kurtz, actually “supercharge” the “culture war by injecting it into the heart of federal education policy.” The Biden administration is firmly behind this effort to further entrench what critics say is an ahistorical, politically slanted interpretation of American history and civics into the nation’s classrooms, where, in many cases, the writings of communist scholar Howard Zinn, along with dubious revisionist material provided by the 1619 Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center, … Continue reading Civics bill would devote $6 billion to woke education, critics say

A $40 million class-action verdict against a national credit reporting company for falsely reporting that plaintiffs’ names appeared on a government list of individuals prohibited from conducting business in the United States should be thrown out, the Supreme Court heard March 30. The case is TransUnion LLC v. Ramirez, court file 20-297. Sixty minutes were allotted for the telephonic oral arguments, but they ran 90 minutes. Business-related and conservative groups hope the Supreme Court scales back federal laws such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which allows consumers to recover damages without demonstrating they suffered actual harm. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, … Continue reading Supreme Court asked to reject $40 million verdict against TransUnion

The Supreme Court decided March 29 to take up an abortion case from Kentucky, its first since Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s addition to the court gave its conservative wing a 6–3 majority. The case is Cameron v. EMW Women’s Surgical Center, court file 20-601. EMW Women’s Surgical Center, in Louisville, is Kentucky’s only licensed abortion clinic. The case revolves around Kentucky’s 2018 ban on dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortions on unborn, living children. “I promised Kentuckians that I would defend our laws all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and that’s what we’ve done,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, said … Continue reading Supreme Court takes up Kentucky abortion case, with 6–3 conservative majority

Texas and 13 other states have filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court asking to be allowed to defend the so-called public charge rule in court proceedings after the Biden administration decided not to defend it in court. The public charge rule, which requires prospective immigrants to be able to support themselves financially, has been very heavily litigated in federal courts. The Supreme Court stayed a lower court’s injunction against the rule in January 2020, allowing it to be enforced, pending disposition of the government’s appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Over vigorous left-wing opposition, the Trump administration … Continue reading 14 States ask Supreme Court to let them defend immigrant self-sufficiency rule

Never was the saying that Democrats import the electorate they prefer more obviously true than in recent days as Biden campaign flag-waving future Democrat voters overwhelmed the nation’s southern border at the invitation of the Biden-Harris regime. Having ceded whites and blue-collar voters to Republicans, Democrats and their placeholder president who can barely climb the stairs to Air Force One, are mobilizing armies of illegal aliens from Latin America. They do this as a failsafe in case their signature legislation, H.R. 1, the proposed “For the People Act,” which would gut the First Amendment and turn America into a one-party … Continue reading Illegals for Biden: A voter drive masquerades as a border incursion

A California law that gives labor organizers permission to trespass on private property and disrupt business operations 120 days a year to recruit new members should be struck down as unconstitutional, farmers urged a seemingly receptive Supreme Court. The case, Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, court file 20-107, is an appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The telephonic oral arguments on March 22 lasted 69 minutes. The petitioners are Cedar Point Nursery, a strawberry farm in Dorris, and Fowler Packing Co. Inc., in Fresno, which produces grapes and mandarin oranges. Together, they employ about 3,000 people. The … Continue reading Farmers ask Supreme Court to strike down California rule allowing aggressive labor organizing

Chemicals giant Bayer AG won’t appeal a $20.5 million jury verdict against it over Roundup, a weedkiller containing glyphosate whose use a California school groundskeeper said gave him cancer. Dewayne Anthony Lee Johnson, who worked for the Benicia Unified School District, sued Monsanto Co., claiming he developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after being soaked in Roundup, which has been on the market since 1976 and contains glyphosate, the most popular herbicide in the United States. Bayer acquired Roundup with its 2018 purchase of Monsanto. The day of the accident, “the sprayer broke, and I got drenched in the [herbicide], I didn’t think that … Continue reading Bayer won’t appeal Roundup cancer verdict to Supreme Court

Columbia University in New York is planning to conduct six additional graduation ceremonies for students according to their race, ethnic backgrounds, income level, and other self-identifications—a move that critics labeled as undoing the work of the civil rights era and taking a step toward re-segregating society. The school’s website provides details of upcoming graduation ceremonies for Native, Asian, “Latinx,” and black students scheduled for late April for Columbia College, Columbia Engineering, General Studies, and Barnard College. Another ceremony, “FLI Graduation” is for “first generation and/or low income community,” and the “Lavender” graduation is intended for the “LGBTIAQ+ community.” Because of continuing pandemic-related restrictions, the events … Continue reading Columbia University to hold ‘multicultural graduation celebrations’

An isolated Amish community in Minnesota is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling by the state’s high court that allows a regulator to force its members to install a septic system that conflicts with their religious beliefs. The case is Mast v. Fillmore County, court file 20-7028. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled against the Amish on Aug. 25, 2020. The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, which is representing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), has been asked by the U.S. Supreme Court to respond to the petition brought by members of the Fillmore County Amish community. The attorney general’s … Continue reading Amish challenge forced water treatment system in Supreme Court on religious grounds

Low-level crack cocaine defendants should benefit from a 2018 federal law that reduced prison sentences for certain offenses, the Biden administration advised the Supreme Court, distancing itself from a more hardline position taken by the Trump administration. Although then-President Donald Trump signed the criminal justice reform measure known as the First Step Act into law, his administration held the view that possession of a small amount of crack cocaine wasn’t covered under the statute. Acting Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar let the high court know in a March 15 letter about a pending case that the new administration has reversed course and now … Continue reading Biden DOJ reverses position on crack cocaine appeal before Supreme Court

A military-readiness group is urging the Supreme Court not to take up a petition from a men’s rights group that asks the court to strike down the law that authorizes military conscription solely for men as unconstitutional. The case is National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System, court file 20-928. Based in San Diego, the National Coalition for Men (NCFM) was “founded in 1977 upon the realization that men needed a unified voice in addressing issues concerning men and boys,” according to its website. The NCFM is represented in the case by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which … Continue reading Group urges Supreme Court not to hear challenge to military draft