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Regina Thomas Elected New MLRC Board Chair
At a recent MLRC Board meeting, Regina Thomas was unanimously elected as the Board’s new Chair.
Ten Questions to a Media Lawyer
News Corp. Australia lawyer on his start in media law, big cases, differences between legal cultures in New York and Sydney, Australia must-sees and more.
Authors’ Vicarious Infringement Claims Against ChatGPT Dismissed
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently dismissed most of a collection of claims brought by a group of authors against OpenAI, alleging that the artificial intelligence company infringes their copyright when it uses their works to train its large language model ChatGPT.
Texas Federal District Court Grants Access to Previously Sealed Judicial Records in True the Vote Litigation
In granting the motion to unseal, the court held that the “public access presumption” outweighed any confidentiality interest True the Vote asserted because True the Vote did not “articulate any specific harm created by the disclosure.”
Connecticut Supreme Court Reaffirms Public Right to Access Cold Case Records
The Supreme Court of Connecticut issued a ruling of first impression defining the scope of an exception to the state FOIA law allowing police to withhold investigative information “to be used in a prospective law enforcement action” if disclosure would be “prejudicial to such action.”
D.C. Circuit Reinforces FOIA’s Foreseeable Harm Requirement
The statute now generally requires agencies to show both that an exemption applies and that disclosure would cause recognized harm. But despite being on the books for eight years, the D.C. Circuit’s ruling is only one of a handful to grapple with the requirement.
Eleventh Circuit Declares Florida’s “Stop W.O.K.E. Act” a Constitutional Sin
In Honeyfund.com, Inc. v. Governor of Fla., the Court found unconstitutional a Florida law that prohibits mandatory workplace meetings and trainings that endorse a viewpoint the government finds offensive.
Texas Appellate Court Rejects LLC Plaintiff’s Bid for Statewide Venue in Defamation Case
A Texas court of appeals recently clarified the state’s venue statute governing libel and slander claims, rejecting an interpretation that would have given limited liability companies, partnerships, and other business entities the ability to file suit almost anywhere in the state.
Court Quashes Prosecution Subpoena to New Yorker Journalist
Judge Schofield held that, even though the government sought solely to authenticate non-confidential, on-the-record statements that were published in The New Yorker article, it must meet the heightened standard required for confidential information, because confidential source information is within the scope of a potential defense cross-examination of the reporter.
DC Court Holds Journalist in Contempt for Refusing to Disclose Confidential Sources
Though the district court found Herridge in contempt, Judge Cooper’s opinion noted the possibility that the D.C. Circuit could “take the opportunity to refine the applicable First Amendment test in Herridge’s favor or recognize a new federal common law newsgathering privilege broader than the constitutional analog.”