donal brown

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ordered the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission to stop investigating two judicial candidates for stating their Republican connections and their support from anti-abortion groups during their campaigns. The court said the investigation would chill the candidates’ First Amendment rights. (ABA Journal, October 31, 2022, by Debra Cassens Weiss) Two citizens had complained that the candidates had taken positions on issues likely to come before the court. The court said

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice David Cohen revived a count against Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit against Giuliani and associates including Fox News. The count alleged that Giuliani defamed Smartmatic with the claim that the company’s “election technology was designed and used to fix, rig and steal elections.” (Law & Crime, November 9, 2022, by Adam Klasfeld) In a related lawsuit, a judge ruled that Dominion Voting System’s defamation lawsuit against One America

Rupert Murdock publications jumped on former President Donald Trump in laying blame for the tepid Republican performance in the midterm elections. In a New York Post opinion piece conservative John Podhoretz called Trump “the most profound vote repellent in modern American history.” The Murdocks , Rupert and his son Lachlan, may have lost some trust in Trump partly over his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election. (The New York Times, November 10,

New transparency laws in New York City and California will enable workers as the laws require companies to post salary ranges for entry level jobs. The laws are intended to deal with unequal pay and help workers in their negotiations for pay raises. (Axios, November 1, 2022, by Emily Peck) Colorado, Rhode Island and Washington are also requiring companies to list salary ranges with national repercussions as workers anywhere in the U.S. can use the

The FBI settled two lawsuits in the case of an FBI agent posing in 2007 as a reporter for The Associated Press and writing a fake story. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) got a $145,000 payout after years of pursuing the case through Freedom of Information Act requests. (ABC News, November 4, 2022, by Lindsay Whitehurst of The Associated Press)