BREAKING: The Fifth Circuit blocks an order from Judge Reed O'Connor that Media Matters turn over donor information to X Corp. in a lawsuit over the group's coverage of X, holding MM is likely to succeed in stopping disclosure.
The panel had a far-right majority, too, with both Judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, and Judge Kurt Engelhardt, a Trump appointee, on it — so, if O'Connor had a shot, it was here. Judge James Graves, an Obama appointee, was the third judge. Opinion: documentcloud.org/documents/2524…
Here's my big report at Law Dork from last month on O'Connor — troubling figure in today's federal judiciary, both on the substance of his rulings and the many direct and indirect conflicts that his extensive individual stock ownership has caused. lawdork.com/p/judge-overse…
I do think it's important to talk about this as it is. The GOP AGs are *asking* to amend their complaint in the existing lawsuit. It has some new claims, but most was already in their earlier complaint. And, DOJ has already said the entire case should be tossed.
They are doing this because they want to stay in front of Kacsmaryk — despite the fact that he is a Northern District of Texas judge and they are the Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho AGs. And despite the fact that SCOTUS already said the original plaintiffs lacked standing.
The AGs filed a motion for Kacsmaryk to accept their amended complaint on Friday, Oct. 11.
Before that, though, on Sept. 30, all the parties told Kacsmaryk what they thought should happen to the case now that it was back to him from SCOTUS. DOJ said it should be dismissed:
NEW: Alito continued, as of the end of 2023, to own shares of more than 25 companies' stocks.
Under our "financial disclosure" system, we learned of Alito's 12/31/23 stock holdings in a delayed report not filed until 8/13/24 and not posted until today. documentcloud.org/documents/2510…
As you might recall, Law Dork reported on two of Alito's stock trades earlier this year, when a "Periodic Transaction Report" revealed that he sold at least some of his stock in Anheuser-Busch and bought stock in Molson Coors on 8/14/23. lawdork.com/p/alito-bud-li…
In today's posted annual disclosure, we confirm that Alito sold *all* of his Anheuser-Busch stock that day when he replaced it with Molson Coors stock.
Background: Here's my Law Dork report on the July Supreme Court immunity ruling. lawdork.com/p/robertss-maj…
Jack Smith added "private" to all of the co-conspirators, to highlight their clearly non-official roles — and got rid of Jeffrey Clark, the DOJ guy who was willing to be acting AG and pursue Trump's fake election fraud claims if Trump let him.
NEWS: The ACLU has filed their brief at the Supreme Court on behalf of the plaintiffs challenging Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors.
Here's the ACLU brief, calling on the Supreme Court to vacate the Sixth Circuit's ruling from last year holding that the Tennessee ban is likely constitutional: supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/2…
DOJ's brief is also due today. I'll have more at Law Dork after it is in.
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