![]() ![]() Texas House Bill 20 (“HB20”) is an unprecedented assault on the editorial discretion of private websites (like, ,, ,, and ) that would fundamentally transform theirīusiness models and services. ![]() These are not coincidences.Īs for the content of the request, it comes in with a strong opening: Another lawyer on this filing is Katherine Yarger, who clerked for Neil Gorsuch when he was on the 10th Circuit and Clarence Thomas at the Supreme Court. Notably, Hawkins also clerked for Alito at the Supreme Court (and one of the judges on the 5th Circuit panel). I mean, Hawkins only stepped down from that role last year. And then it also includes two recent Texas Solicitor Generals, Kyle Hawkins and Scott Keller, who both were appointed by current governor Greg Abbott, who pushed for this law. Bush, who is extremely well known in legal circles and has been involved in tons of high profile cases. The eye catching name is Paul Clement, former Solicitor General of the US under George W. We’ll get to the content in a moment, but it’s worth noting that there is some serious legal fire power here, with a heavy focus on both knowing the law in Texas, and knowing the conservative Justices. In this case, on Saturday, Alito gave Texas until Wednesday to file a response. ![]() If that Justice refuses, then the petitioners can try other Justices. So these kinds of emergency applications, which are part of the now infamous “shadow docket” of the court, have to go up to the Justice for that Circuit. Got it? Got it.Īlso, the reason they petitioned Alito is that each Circuit court gets one of the Justices as that Circuit’s Justice, and Alito covers the 5th. ![]() So, to block the law again, they need the Supreme Court to vacate the stay on the preliminary injunction blocking the law. The 5th Circuit’s reversal was putting a “stay” on the preliminary injunction, meaning that the law could go into effect. Technically, it’s an “emergency application for immediate administrative relief and to vacate stay of preliminary injunction.” Just to break that apart: the law was passed, and the district court granted a preliminary injunction, blocking the law from going into effect (while noting the law was pretty clearly unconstitutional). Late on Friday, the trade associations, NetChoice and CCIA, petitioned Justice Alito with an emergency application to stop the law from going into effect. The bigger surprise was that they reinstated the law just two days later, without any written opinion, or giving the plaintiffs (trade groups that represent many large internet companies) a chance to appeal. The surprise wasn’t necessarily the judges’ decision, which had been telegraphed two days earlier via the judges’ (plural) extremely confused questions regarding the law (including saying that Twitter was not a website, which it is). Mon, May 16th 2022 09:30am - Mike MasnickĪs you’ll recall, last Wednesday, the 5th Circuit surprised lots of people by immediately reinstating Texas’s ridiculous content moderation law that basically creates an open season to sue large social media sites for any moderation choices those sites make. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |