Cases of Note

DALLAS - A Texas law requiring parental consent for children to create a social media account is now in effect partially. "Parents would be given the authority to consent to the platforms their children interact with online," said North Texas Republican Rep. Shelby Slawson, who authored House bill 18 that Gov. Greg Abbott signed in 2023. The SCOPE Act or   the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act is a piece of U.S. legislation introduced to enhance consumer protections against harmful online practices. The act is primarily focused on regulating online platforms and marketplaces to prevent deceptive or dangerous product listings. It is part of a growing wave by lawmakers in multiple states to give more power to parents when it comes to their children’s digital footprint. In a committee hearing last year, Slawson described wide-ranging threats from unmonitored social media use, including cyberbullying and child predators. "A Texas teenager was rescue

An artificial intelligence safety bill named  SB 1047  was overwhelmingly approved by California Congress on Wednesday and now heads to the Senate for final consideration. If enacted, the "fiercely debated" bill would require tech companies to safety-test AI programs prior to release, and empower the attorney general to sue AI companies for any major harm caused by their technologies. The bill earned cautious support from the likes of Elon Musk and Anthropic, while its opponents include OpenAI and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. This bill seeks to establish guardrails for the development of the most powerful AI models to avoid the more catastrophic possibilities about which experts have raised alarms. It places a series of obligations on developers of “covered models” and providers of the cloud compute for training such models. This bill also seeks to establish a framework for developing a public cloud-computing cluster that facilitates equitable participation in th

  Update On April 19th, the complaint and petition was dismissed without leave to amend. The judge decided, that the county was not in violation of the Sherman Act stating "in creating the state-action immunity doctrine, the Supreme Court made clear the Sherman Act was not intended to reach the activities of state governments," citing Llewellyn v. Crothers, 765 F.2d 769, 774 (9th Cir. 1985). The judge in regards to dismissal without leave to amend wrote, "A claim is futile, and the court may dismiss without leave to amend,“if it determines that ‘allegation of other facts consistent with the challenged pleading could not possibly cure the deficiency,’ or if the [party] had several opportunities to amend its [pleading] and repeatedly failed to cure deficiencies.” Telesaurus VPC, LLC v. Power , 623 F.3d 998, 1003 (9th Cir. 2010). Case Summary American Medical Response is suing the board in federal court. This is three months after the San Bernardino County Board of Supervi

Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act passes House Update Passed Senate, under the order of April 19, 2024, having achieved 60 votes in the affirmative, without amendment by Yea-Nay Vote. 60 - 34. Record Vote Number: 150 .On April 20, 2024 RISSA Became Public Law No: 118-49  after being signed by President. 'Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act ' RISAA April 12, 2024—The House voted to reauthorize a key U.S. spy program considered essential to national security. In a 273 to 147 vote, lawmakers renewed Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to expire on April 19, through 2026. H.R. 7888 added amendments such as modifying the definition of electronic communication service provider and prohibits warrantless searches of U.S. person communications in the FISA 702 database, with exceptions for imminent threats to life or bodily harm, consent searches, or known cybersecurity threat signatures. Section 702 allows the U.S. government

Actress Paula Patton at the 2022 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater L.A. Live on June 26, 2022 — Photo by Image Press Agency Case Summary Plaintiff Gina Conte stated that she visited Paula Patton’s home in Calabasas on August 2, 2020. She said while at the home Patton’s German shepherd mix dog named “Bear” attacked and bit her. In court documents filed on July 27, 2022, Conte accused Patton of negligence in the dog bite incident. Conte's suit prays actual damages, special damages (costs associated with medical expenses, lost wages etc.), punitive damages, legal fees with interest and other relief deemed by the court. Court documents state that Conte “was hurt and injured in her health, strength, and activity, sustaining serious and significant injury to her body and shock to her nervous system and person, all of which injuries have caused, and will continue to cause mental, physical, and nervous pain and suffering.” Patton's answer filed on September 15, 2022 claims many, many leg

Update April 8 - Jonathan Majors, whose promising acting career stalled after a domestic violence conviction in New York, was sentenced to domestic violence programming after the judge decided "jail is not necessary." Majors must complete a 52-week in-person batterers intervention program in Los Angeles, continue mental health counseling and stay away from the victim, his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, said Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Michael Gaffey. April 3 - Jonathan Majors faced a legal setback when the judge in his domestic violence case declined his lawyer’s motion to set aside his December guilty verdict. “Jonathan feels disappointed by the outcome of the motion, yet he upholds respect for the process,” his lawyer Priya Chaudhry said in a statement. Due to the judge’s decision, the 34-year-old former Marvel star — will still be sentenced as scheduled on April 8. Case Summary On March 25, around 12:40am, Jonathan Majors and Grace Jabbari were taking a private car servi

Google recently resolved its fourth case in four months, agreeing to delete billions of data records it compiled about millions of Chrome browser users, according to a legal filing. The suit, Chasom Brown, et al. v. Google, said the company had misled users by tracking their online activity in Chrome’s Incognito mode, which they believed would be private. Relevant here, individual plaintiffs brought this suit on behalf of two classes: Class 1, for Incognito users, and Class 2, for users of other private browsing modes. The grounds being invasion of privacy, unauthorized interception under the Wiretap Act; violation of CIPA; violation of CDAFA and intrusion upon seclusion. Since December, Google has spent well over $1 billion to settle lawsuits as it prepares to fight the Justice Department, which has targeted Google’s search engine and its advertising business in a pair of lawsuits. In December, Google resolved a suit with dozens of attorneys general claiming it strong-armed app maker

Case Summary Almost three years ago,  Debbie Sisco and Marie Varsos  were murdered. Marie's husband Shaun Varsos, who had threatened her family and friends, hunted them down, shot and killed them. Marie was a tragic victim of domestic violence, and her sister died trying to protect her. My sister had the cards stacked in her favor to protect her. She contacted the police. She received a restraining order. She followed up with local enforcement for updates. She was surrounded by family, who advocated for her and provided a safe haven. She kept disturbing messages from her husband as proof that his behavior was a threat to her life. She even secured a firearm, which she ultimately used against him the morning of her death. However, she still ended up as a casualty of domestic violence. If Marie had these advantages, how great is the risk for other women who lack similar support, resources and advocates? In Tennessee, the  National Coalition Against Domestic Violence  estimates nearly