#uslaw

Update. "Eastern Florida State College has agreed to pay $250,000 to a former employee it fired after she criticized #CharlieKirk on Facebook." https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2026/10/27/florida-college-pays-250k-free-speech-challenge #Academia #Censorship #FirstAmendment #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

@bytebro@mastodonapp.uk#UKLaw and #EULaw have not followed in the footsteps of the U.S.A.. The two legal approaches (3, in fact, as Japan has another one) are divergent, and the U.K. and E.U. are already on another legal path where the fundamentals differ. They already have laws. In fact, their laws came first. The relevant U.K. law was passed when Rishi Sunak was Prime Minister, for historical context. The E.U.'s was the year before that. The fundamentals are things like exactly who is being legally required to verify, record, provide, and act upon information about people's ages. U.S.A. laws put these onuses on different classes of people than do U.K. and E.U. laws. Japan is different again. One 'fun' part is that the U.S.A. laws differ on this from state to state, but #Debian Developers (and their counterparts in other Linux-based operating systems) always match the definitions regardless. Because they are both operating system and app store providers. #AgeVerification #USLaw

From WSJ: "Musk Ordered #Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided #Ukraine." https://www.wsj.com/world/ukraine-starlink-elon-musk-trump-dbc49193 (#paywalled)

Now waiting for reporters to ask #Trump and #Hegseth whether they gave #Musk a surreptitious green light, and if not, why the US military pays for a "military-grade version of Starlink" (i.e. #Starshield) that a civilian can turn off at will, and what charges the US might bring against a civilian who did so.

Three possible charges:

1. Interference with the Operation of a Satellite (18 USC § 1367)
2. Violation of the Logan Act (18 USC § 953)
3. Breach of defense procurement contracts

#USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

Bravo to #Montana for putting a measure on the ballot to undo the local effects of #CitizensUnited. "The initiative would bypass Citizens United by redefining corporations and their rights under state law…It would also block anonymous donations." https://www.npr.org/2026/10/13/nx-s1-5991925/montana-ballot-measure-could-undo-ruling-on-corporate-spending-in-state-politics The article notes that #Hawaii passed a similar ballot measure, which is now tied up in the courts. But that's progress compared to not passing such a ballot measure. #Corporations #MoneyInPolitics #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

@navi@social.vlhl.dev @domi@donotsta.re @ska@social.treehouse.systems I predicted the storm, as well as a systemd-aged, as well as the #GDPR angle, over a fortnight ago. It took less than a day from my post for the first person, in reply, to propose an actual such #AgeVerification dæmon. https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116156028746782578 This clearly model legislation is also slightly different in different states, as at least two legislatures amended the original bill. Which is going to cause further problems. https://mastodonapp.uk/@JdeBP/116176048755057656 #ColoradoLaw #IllinoisLaw #CaliforniaLaw #USLaw #Unix

I foresee:

1. #Debian eventually following #MidnightBSD's lead and cutting #California off from #FreeSoftware; after lengthy mailing list discussions where at least one person tries to deny with convoluted nonsense the plain reading of the statute.

2. A storm when someone points out that the #MobaXTerm version of APT isn't exempt, nor is RPM. (Goodness knows what IBM is going to do.)

3. An even bigger storm when someone adds an 'age' field to systemd's JSON User Records, to be enforced and served out over Desktop Bus via a systemd-aged service or some such. Much fun if that someone comes from a #GDPR country.

4. Some nutter taking a Linux distribution to court because it doesn't enable developers to control whether 16-year-olds can install rustc and busybox.

#CaliforniaLaw #Unix #rust #USLaw #AgeVerification #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #NetBSD

Update. "Supreme Court ruling blocks thousands of lawsuits against the maker of #Roundup weedkiller." https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-roundup-monsanto-a7f054d80919f98bdfc5190013a8f6f1 The court ruled for #Monsanto because the #EPA said Roundup (#glyphosate) was harmless, not because the 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 said it was harmless. There's good evidence that that the EPA decision was flawed, if not cynical. It relied on studies written mostly by Monsanto staffers and the lead article has been retracted. Here's the #SCOTUS decision itself. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-1068_n7ip.pdf The upside: The #RepublicanSchism will deepen. Some #MAGA voters side with the Trump EPA friendliness to corporate polluters. Others (including #RFKJr when he could speak freely) side with #MAHA opposition to glyphosate. The downside: More people will die from this poison. #GoldStandardScience #Medicine #Misconduct #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

Update. "The #EPA allowed pesticide giant #Bayer to pick from a menu of regulation options for the controversial and destructive weedkiller #dicamba, newly released internal agency documents show." https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/20/epa-bayer-regulation-pesticide-dicamba #Medicine #USLaw #Trump #USPol #USPolitics

RE: https://mstdn.social/@OregonLive/117014810805899348 Her and Donald Trump....avoid paying what the Court has ordered them to multiple times. #KimDavis #Trump #USLaw

Update. Yesterday #UPenn filed a 163-page brief in federal court condemning the #Trump admin demand for a list of #Jews at the institution as “extraordinary and unconstitutional". https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/us/university-of-pennsylvania-trump-jewish-staff.html "The #EEOC insists that Penn produce this information without the consent — and indeed, over the objections — of the employees impacted while entirely disregarding the frightening and well-documented history of governmental entities that undertook efforts to identify and assemble information regarding persons of Jewish ancestry. The government’s demand implicates Penn’s substantial interest in protecting its employees’ privacy, safety and First Amendment rights." #Academia #AcademicMastodon #Antisemitism #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

Update. "Federal Judge Approves Trump Effort to Obtain List of Jews From Penn." https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/31/us/politics/trump-jews-penn-list-judge.html Penn will appeal the ruling. “We continue to believe that requiring Penn to create lists of Jewish faculty and staff, and to provide personal contact information, raises serious privacy and First Amendment concerns.” #Academia #AcademicMastodon #Antisemitism #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

Update. Finally. "Federal agency drops subpoena seeking list of Jews at Penn." https://www.thedp.com/article/2026/07/penn-eeoc-antisemitism-resolution-subpoena-trump #Academia #Antisemitism #EEOC #Trump #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

RE: https://flipboard.com/@politico/politics-u9ikh4qkz/-/a-6mNAdywHRweZ7SOfQzyvMg%3Aa%3A3195449-%2F0 lol, didn't think that one through, did he? #Trump #BBC #USLaw

A federal district court just ruled that training #AI tools on copyrighted texts is fair use. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/20/anthropics-landmark-1-5b-copyright-settlement-is-approved/ #Anthropic is in the clear for training #Claude on millions of books without permission or payment. However, it's liable for obtaining many of those books illegally, and its settlement of those claims (about $3k/title) was approved by the court. So far this decision only applies in the Northern District of California. But it breaks the ice and will (as lawyers say) be "persuasive but not binding" in other districts. #Books #Copyright #FairUse #USLaw

It's just one big L after another for the Peado in the White House... #USLaw #LincolnMemorialReflectingPool #Trump #WhiteHouse #DavidHearn

I can't wait for this horrible company to collapse in on itself, nobody will shed a tear for it. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/14/meta-ai-mass-layoffs-lawsuit #Meta #Employment #AI #Technology #MarkZuckerberg #TechBros #USLaw

Update. I should have noted Justice Thomas said this in his dissent. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-365_4hdj.pdf Thomas: "The Citizenship Clause 'added greatly to the dignity and glory of American citizenship.'…Today’s opinion devalues that citizenship." #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

"Professor fired over #CharlieKirk post could receive $1.9M in settlement." https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5948386-professor-fired-over-charlie-kirk-post-could-receive-1-9m-in-settlement This is just the latest in a series. Universities that disciplined professors for criticizing Charlie Kirk knew or should have known that they were violating those professors' free-speech rights. But they did it to align themselves with the Trump admin, even on the wrong side of the law. Consider these settlements and damage awards to be a cowardice tax. #Academia #AcademicFreedom #Censorship #FirstAmendment #Trump #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics

The Birthright Decision Was Surprisingly Close, Some Legal Scholars Say https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/us/politics/birthright-supreme-court-decision.html #Politics #SupremeCourt #USLaw

"US Supreme Court just blew up EU-US Data Transfers." https://noyb.eu/en/us-supreme-court-just-blew-eu-us-data-transfers This is big but confusing. Here's my take: US tech companies that want to sign up #EU users must promise (through a formal process administered by the US Commerce Dept) to comply with #GDPR #privacy protections, and submit to the oversight of an "independent" US agency -- until now the #FTC -- with the power to enforce those promises. With no independent FTC, and no alternative independent agency standing by, US companies may have to stop accepting personal info from EU citizens. #SCOTUS #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics