Legal

A judge rejected a request from publisher Chelsea Green and authors of the book The Truth About COVID-19 that Sen. Elizabeth Warren retract a letter that criticizes the book as “vaccine misinformation,” the AP reports. Chelsea Green and authors Dr. Joseph Mercola, Ronald Cummins and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sued Warren in November after Warren wrote a letter to Amazon criticizing the retailer for “peddling misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments through its search and ‘Best Seller’ algorithms” that led the book to top search results. The plaintiffs argue in their lawsuit that Warren’s letter infringes on their First Amendments […]

A status conference in the case of accused manuscript thief Filippo Bernardini has been postponed for the second time at the request of the defense, now rescheduled from May 4 to July 6. Federal defender Hannah McCrea wrote that “the defense is preparing a mitigation submission” and wants more time to complete the package “and give the government time to consider it.” The previous postponement was for the defense to “complete review of the discovery that has been produced.”

After the state of Maryland’s law attempting to regulate the licensing of ebooks to libraries was quickly found unconstitutional by District Court Judge Deborah L. Boardman, the plaintiff AAP is asking the judge to ensure the endurance of her ruling with a permanent injunction. Earlier in the month Maryland’s state attorney general had requested that Judge Boardman issue declaratory judgment for the AAP without issuing a permanent injunction, looking to avoid “having to invoke the Court’s ongoing jurisdiction over the State’s compliance” (and, perhaps, trying to leave some wiggle room for future legislation). Maryland had argued that it did not […]

The state of Maryland has replied to Judge Deborah L. Boardman’s order “to show cause why the preliminary injunction” blocking their unconstitutional library digital lending law “should not be converted to a permanent injunction.” Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh concedes the loss and does not offer any new evidence, noting, “The State acknowledges that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and that the Court may grant or deny further relief in this matter without a further hearing or trial.” Instead he reaches for a final sliver, asking the judge to issue declaratory judgment in the AAP’s […]

The state of Maryland did not file an appeal of District Court of Maryland Judge Deborah L. Boardman’s clear and forceful imposition of a preliminary injunction in February blocking implementation of the state’s library ebook lending law. In that ruling the judge found that the plaintiff AAP “will likely succeed on its claim that [Maryland’s law] is preempted by the Copyright Act.” In a March 28 letter, Judge Boardman ordered the state “to show cause by April 11, 2022, why the preliminary injunction should not be converted to a permanent injunction.” Maryland needs to come up with a new argument […]