Ghost Gun’ Regulations Revived Temporarily by Supreme Court–Bloomberg Law

Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson 

The US Supreme Court allowed the Biden administration to continue to regulate so-called ghost guns, undoing a lower court ruling for the moment that prohibited enforcement nationwide.

Justice Samuel Alito’s order on Friday allows rules imposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to remain in force while the justices consider a challenge to them brought by manufacturers, distributors, and others.

Alito requested a response from challengers by Aug. 2. A further order is expected.

***

Jul 28 2023

Order issued by Justice Alito: Upon consideration of the application of counsel for the applicants, it is ordered that the June 30, 2023 order and July 5, 2023 final judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, case No. 4:22-cv-691, are hereby administratively stayed until 5 p.m. (EDT) on Friday, August 4, 2023. It is further ordered that any response to the application be filed on or before Wednesday, August 2, 2023, by 5 p.m. (EDT).

***

Read more…

Governor Hochul Announces Appointments to the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division–NYS Government Press Release

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced ten appointments to the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division. This class is comprised of highly skilled appointees who come from diverse personal and professional backgrounds, underscoring Governor Hochul’s commitment to ensuring New York State’s judiciary accurately reflects the wide array of people who call New York home. In addition to selecting nine new appointees, Governor Hochul is filling the vacancy in the constitutional bench that was created when she appointed Justice Dianne Renwick to serve as Presiding Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.

***

The Judicial Screening Committees for each of the four Appellate Departments review the applications and conduct interviews of dozens of applicants. Only those applicants deemed “highly qualified” by the Committees were submitted to the Governor for her consideration. To be found “highly qualified,” candidates must display integrity, independence, leadership, intellect, legal ability, judgment, temperament, and experience.

The Governor’s Office will continue to review candidates that successfully advance through the screening process to fill vacancies in the Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court.

Under the New York State Constitution and Judiciary Law, the Governor has the authority to appoint Justices to each Appellate Division from among those who have been elected as Justices of the Supreme Court. These appointments are not subject to Senate confirmation.

***

Read more…biographies…

IRS ends unannounced Revenue Officer visits to taxpayers–IRS

---

As part of a larger transformation effort, the IRS will end most unannounced visits to taxpayers by agency revenue officers to reduce public confusion and enhance overall safety measures for taxpayers and employees. The change reverses a decades-long practice by IRS revenue officers, the unarmed agency employees whose duties include visiting households and businesses to help taxpayers resolve their account balances by collecting unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns. Effective immediately, unannounced visits will end except in a few unique circumstances and will be replaced with mailed letters to schedule meetings. This news release is also available in Spanish and Simplified Chinese.

***

Read more…

READ: Superseding indictment says Trump team tried to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage–The Hill

BY SARAKSHI RAI

The Justice Department, in a new superseding indictment unveiled Thursday, is charging former President Trump with seeking to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance video footage last year in connection with the federal classified records case.

***

Read the full document here…

Rudy recants the Big Lie–Today’s Edition Newsletter

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

***

Giuliani resisted their efforts to secure his phone, but they persisted. In desperation, Giuliani finally admitted that he lied about Freeman and Moss. He made the admission as part of a legal strategy to argue that the contents of his phone are no longer relevant to proving that he lied about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. See CNN, Rudy Giuliani concedes he made defamatory statements about Georgia election workers.

          In the stipulation, Giuliani says he “does not contest” the following:

***

Read more…

Thousands of authors demand payment from AI companies for use of copyrighted works–CNN

By Brian Fung, CNN

WashingtonCNN — 

Thousands of published authors are requesting payment from tech companies for the use of their copyrighted works in training artificial intelligence tools, marking the latest intellectual property critique to target AI development.

The list of more than 8,000 authors includes some of the world’s most celebrated writers, including Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, James Patterson, Jodi Picoult and Philip Pullman, among others.

In an open letter they signed, posted by the Authors Guild Tuesday, the writers accused AI companies of unfairly profiting from their work.

***

Read more…

Court Rejects Trump’s Motion For New Trial, Brands Trump A Digital Rapist In Carroll Case –Above the Law

A+ lawyering there! 

By LIZ DYE 

“Mr. Trump is right that a $2 million award for such groping alone could well be regarded as excessive, that undermines rather than supports his argument,” he wrote (full text of decision), adding that “Mr. Trump’s argument therefore ignores the bulk of the evidence at trial, misinterprets the jury’s verdict, and mistakenly focuses on the New York Penal Law definition of ‘rape’ to the exclusion of the meaning of that word as it often is used in everyday life and of the evidence of what actually occurred between Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump.”

***

Read more…

About Free Law Project

Started in 2010, Free Law Project is the leading 501(c)(3) nonprofit using software, data, and advocacy to make the legal ecosystem more equitable and competitive.

We do this by:

• Curating and providing free, public, and permanent access to primary legal materials
• Developing software useful for legal research and innovation
• Fostering and supporting an open ecosystem for legal research
• Supporting academic research in the legal sector

A number of major projects exemplify this approach:

• The RECAP Suite — A collection of tools to open up federal court data.
• CourtListener.com — Our fully-searchable and accessible archive of court data including growing repositories of opinions, oral arguments, judges, judicial financial records, and federal filings.
• Bots.law — A collection of bots that help attorneys, journalists and the public keep up with court cases.

***

Read More…

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel Charges 16 ‘False Electors’ with Election Law and Forgery Felonies

LANSING – Today, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced felony charges against 16 Michigan residents for their role in the alleged false electors scheme following the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

***

A transcript of Attorney General Nessel’s recorded remarks can be found here

***

Read more…

Georgia Supreme Court Rejects ‘Desperate and Frivolous’ Attempt by Trump to Kill 2020 Probe–Common Dreams

By Jessica Corbett

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected a bid by former President Donald Trump—who is seeking the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination—to effectively end Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ probe into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The former president’s legal team last week filed petitions with the Georgia Supreme Court and the Fulton County Superior Court—after Willis signaled that charges in the investigation could come in early August. Trump aimed to disqualify Willis and to quash a related special purpose grand jury report.

However, Monday’s five-page order states that Trump has neither “presented in his original petition either the facts or the law necessary to mandate Willis’ disqualification by this court,” nor “shown that this case presents one of those extremely rare circumstances in which this court’s original jurisdiction should be invoked.”

***

Read More…