Carson v. Makin: First Circuit Court of Appeals Affirms Decision to Restrict State Funding for Religious Schools in Maine Posted on November 18, 2020 Reaffirming precedent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently held that a Maine Department of Education policy that requires private schools to be nonsectarian to qualify for tuition assistance payments does not violate parents’ constitutional rights to choose where to send their children to school. The Maine Constitution requires the legislature to support and maintain public schools...
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Speech First v. Fenves: A Challenge to University Speech Policies Posted on November 18, 2020 Speech First, Inc. v. Fenves, No. 19-50529 (5th Cir. Oct. 28, 2020). Complaint hosted by speechfirst.org. On October 28, 2020, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision in Speech First v. Fenves. The Court held that Speech First, a national free speech advocacy organization, had standing to challenge the University of Texas’s (“UT”) speech codes on behalf of...
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DOJ v. Google: DOJ Alleges Google’s ‘Anticompetitive’ Practices Violate Sherman Act Posted on November 18, 2020 Complaint, U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC, No. 1:20-cv-03010, (D.D.C. Oct. 20, 2020), complaint hosted by DOJ Office of Public Affairs. Following a sixteen-month investigation into the company’s allegedly anticompetitive practices, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”), joined by the Attorneys General of eleven states, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, LLC on October 20 of this year. The...
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Google v. Sonos: Google’s Patent Invalidated Under §101 Posted on November 17, 2020 Google LLC v. Sonos, Inc., No. 20-cv-03845-EMC (N.D. Cal. 2020). In January 2020, Sonos sued Google in the Northern District of California for infringing patents related to its home speaker technology. Five months later, Google countersued, alleging that Sonos infringed five of its own patents. Sonos moved to dismiss the cause of action asserting U.S. Patent No. 8,583,489 (the ‘48...
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Department of Justice Sues Google For Alleged Violations of Antitrust Laws Posted on November 17, 2020 Complaint, United States v. Google LLC, No. 1:20-cv-03010 (D.D.C. October 10, 2020) Last month, in the largest antitrust case against a tech company in over two decades, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued a lawsuit against tech giant Google. Eleven states—Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Texas—join the suit. The DOJ brings the action...
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Boardman v. Inslee: In union victory, Ninth Circuit finds government data-access prohibitions do not violate First, Fourteenth Amendment Posted on November 09, 2020 Boardman v. Inslee, No. 19-35113 (9th Cir. Oct. 22, 2020). Complaint, Boardman v. Inslee, No. 3:17-cv-05255 (W.D. WA. Apr. 5, 2017), complaint hosted by freedomfoundation.com (plaintiff). In a win for unions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently affirmed a district court’s summary judgment upholding the constitutionality of Washington state ballot initiative 1501. The court rejected First...
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Facial Recognition Technology’s Impact on Racial Injustice Posted on November 03, 2020 Beginning late this spring, protests around the United States have led to a renewed reckoning on the injustices faced by the Black community, especially with regard to misconduct by and lack of accountability within law enforcement. The conversation has extended to the realm of technology and, in particular, the use of facial recognition software by police departments. In June 2020...
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Why Racial Bias is Prevalent in Facial Recognition Technology Posted on November 03, 2020 In 2019, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) published a report analyzing the performance, across races, of 189 facial recognition algorithms submitted by 99 developers, including Microsoft, Intel, Idemia, and other major tech and surveillance companies. Many of these algorithms were found to be between 10 and 100 times more likely to misidentify a Black or East Asian...
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Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.: The Supreme Court Considers the “Copyright Lawsuit of the Decade” Posted on October 29, 2020 Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc., No. 18-956 When Google built its Android platform, it sought to make the platform compatible with Java, a programming language owned by Oracle. Java developers use application programming interface (API) packages to perform certain functions. To make Android Java-compatible, Google reverse-engineered the Java APIs. Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. now poses the question...
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Allele v. Regeneron & Allele v. Pfizer and BioNTech: The Cases of a Protein, a Patent, and a Pandemic Posted on October 20, 2020 Complaint, Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 5, 2020) (No. 7:20-cv-08255), complaint hosted by bloomberglaw.com; Complaint, Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Pfizer, Inc., BioNTech SE, and BioNTech US, Inc. (S.D. Cal. Oct. 5, 2020) (No. 3:20-cv-01958-GPC-AHG), complaint hosted by courtlistener.com. Earlier this month, San Diego-based Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Allele”) filed suits alleging...
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