Washington
2 senior judges, appointed by Republicans, speak out about threats against federal judiciary
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senior federal judges, both appointed by Republican presidents, spoke out Tuesday against threats of violence and impeachment against their colleagues in the judiciary.
“Threats against judges are threats against constitutional government. Everyone should be taking this seriously,” said Judge Richard Sullivan, whom President Donald Trump appointed to the federal appeals court in New York.
Billionaire Elon Musk and other Trump allies have railed at judges who have blocked parts of Trump’s agenda, threatening impeachment and launching personal attacks. The Federal Judges Association, the largest such organization, issued a rare public statement decrying “irresponsible rhetoric shrouded in disinformation” that could undermine public confidence in the judiciary.
Sullivan joined Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the federal appeals court based in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a call with reporters following a meeting of the Judicial Conference, the judiciary’s governing body.
Security for judges in courthouses and their homes was part of the discussion in the closed-door meeting, Sullivan and Sutton said.
“We allocate disappointment to half the people that come before us. Criticism is no surprise as part of the job. But I do think when it gets to the level of a threat, it really is about attacking judicial independence. And that’s just not good for the system or the country,” said Sutton, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush.
Both judges stressed that threats have been rising for years and neither mentioned Musk or Trump. Chief Justice John Roberts also devoted his year-end report to efforts to undermine judicial independence through intimidation, disinformation and the prospect of public officials defying court orders.
Congress is not giving judges as much as they say they need for security, the judges said. Funding has been “flat” for the past two years, Sullivan said.
“Which means we’re not even keeping up with inflation in an environment that is always changing and challenging,” he said.
On impeachment talk, Sullivan said that parties to lawsuits get multiple cracks at the system, from the trial court to the Supreme Court.
“Impeachment is not, it shouldn’t be a short-circuiting of that process. And so it is concerning if impeachment is used in a way that is designed to do just that,” he said.
Paris
French publishers and authors sue Meta over copyright works used in AI training
French publishers and authors said Wednesday they’re taking Meta to court, accusing the social media company of using their works without permission to train its artificial intelligence model.
Three trade groups said they were launching legal action against Meta in a Paris court over what they said was the company’s “massive use of copyrighted works without authorization” to train its generative AI model.
The National Publishing Union, which represents book publishers, has noted that “numerous works” from its members are turning up in Meta’s data pool, the group’s president, Vincent Montagne, said in a joint statement.
Meta didn’t respond to a request for comment. The company has rolled out generative-AI powered chatbot assistants to users of its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms.
Montagne accused Meta of “noncompliance with copyright and parasitism.”
Another group, the National Union of Authors and Composers, which represents 700 writers, playwrights and composers, said the lawsuit was necessary to protect members from “AI which plunders their works and cultural heritage to train itself.”
The union is also worried about AI that “produces ‘fake books’ which compete with real books,” the union’s president, Francois Peyrony, said.
The third group involved in the lawsuit, the Societe des Gens de Lettres, represents authors. They all demand the “complete removal” of data directories Meta created without authorization to train its AI model.
Under the European Union’s sweeping Artificial Intelligence Act, generative AI systems must comply with the 27-nation bloc’s copyright law and be transparent about the material they used for training.
It’s the latest example of the clash between the creative and publishing industries and tech companies over data and copyright.
British musicians released a silent album last month to protest the U.K. government’s proposed changes to artificial intelligence laws that artists fear will erode their creative control.
Media and technology company Thomson Reuters recently won a legal battle against a now-defunct legal research firm over the question of fair use in AI-related copyright cases, while other cases involving visual artists, news organizations and others are still working through U.S. courts.
New York
Woman drops lawsuit accusing boxing champion Mike Tyson of rape
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A woman who accused Mike Tyson of raping her in a limousine in 1991 is dropping her lawsuit against the former heavyweight boxing champion, according to a letter filed in U.S. District Court.
The letter from Tyson’s attorney, Daniel Rubin, said the accuser’s attorney “has informed me that plaintiff is withdrawing her complaint and voluntarily discontinuing” the case.
The March 7 letter to Judge Mitchell Katz was first reported by USA Today.
The woman’s attorneys said Tuesday in a statement that the case had to be dismissed on procedural grounds.
“We are extremely disappointed that the court did not allow us to amend the pleadings in the case. It’s a shame our client’s case had to be dismissed on procedural grounds,” the statement provided by attorney Darren Seilback said. “We stand by our client’s account of the events and support her 100%.”
In her January 2023 lawsuit, the woman said Tyson, the undisputed heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990, raped her after she met him at an Albany nightclub. She said she has suffered in the years since from “physical, psychological and emotional injury.”
Tyson denied the allegations.
He was convicted of rape in a separate 1992 case and served three years in prison.
Georgia
Court records say a male passenger attacked a flight attendant and swallowed rosary beads on plane
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Court records say a passenger on a small regional flight to Miami attacked a flight attendant, kicked and punched the seat of the person in front of him and swallowed rosary beads as pilots returned to the airport in Savannah, Georgia.
The passenger was traveling with his sister, who said her brother told her before the violent outburst to “close her eyes and pray because Satan’s disciple(s) had followed them onto the plane,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
No one was seriously hurt on the Monday night flight operated by Envoy Air, a regional carrier for American Airlines. The 31-year-old passenger was jailed on charges including misdemeanor battery, misdemeanor obstruction of police and a felony count of criminal property damage.
FBI Agent Savannah Solomon described the violent episode in her affidavit, saying there was probable cause to charge the man with a federal crime of interfering with a flight crew.
Solomon wrote that eight passengers were on the plane and flight attendants became concerned immediately after takeoff when they noticed one of them appearing to have a “fit of epilepsy” that included “stomping, incoherent yelling, and shaking.”
When a flight attendant approached the man, he turned in his seat and kicked the attendant in the chest, sending the worker flying into a window across the aisle, the agent wrote. The passenger then started kicking and punching the seat of the person in front of him, who moved before the back of the seat collapsed.
The pilots returned to the Savannah airport. After the plane landed, the man who had kicked the flight attendant charged toward the exit and threw punches at another flight attendant before being subdued by other passengers, the affidavit says.
He was apprehended by airport police and taken to a local hospital for “ingestion of rosary beads,” the affidavit says. Then the passenger was booked into the Chatham County jail.
Federal court records and online jail records did not list an attorney for the arrested passenger.
His sister told the FBI agent that they were traveling to Haiti “to flee religious attacks of a spiritual nature.” According to the affidavit, the woman said her brother had “swallowed the rosary beads because they are a weapon of strength in the spiritual warfare.”
The woman told the agent her brother was not suffering from mental health problems or medical issues.
Washington
Law firm sues over Trump EO that seeks to suspend security clearances
WASHINGTON (AP) — A law firm targeted by President Donald Trump over its legal services during the 2016 presidential campaign sued the federal government Tuesday over an executive order that seeks to strip its attorneys of security clearances.
The order, which Trump signed last week, was designed to punish Perkins Coie by suspending the security clearances of the firm’s lawyers as well as denying firm employees access to federal buildings and terminating their federal contracts.
It was the latest retributive action taken by Trump against the legal community, coming soon after an earlier order that targeted security clearances of lawyers at a separate law firm who have provided legal services to special counsel Jack Smith, who led criminal investigations into the Republican before his second term.
Perkins Coie represented the 2016 presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent, and also represented Democrats in a variety of voting rights challenges during the 2020 election. The firm made headlines in 2017 when it was revealed to have hired a private investigative research firm during the 2016 campaign to conduct opposition research on Trump. That firm, Fusion GPS, subsequently retained a former British spy, Christopher Steele, who researched whether Trump and Russia had suspicious ties.
Lawyers representing Perkins Coie said in their lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, that the executive order was an illegal act of retaliation. They called on a judge to block it from being implemented. A hearing was set for Wednesday afternoon.
The lawsuit notes that the two primary attorneys whose work appears to have most angered Trump left the firm years ago and accounted for a tiny fraction of the firm’s more than 1,200 attorneys. They said the order had already hurt the firm’s revenue and bottom line, noting that some clients of clients have “terminated their engagements” over the last week, and illegally discriminated against the firm based on viewpoint.
“The Order is an affront to the Constitution and our adversarial system of justice. Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the President perceives as adverse to the views of his Administration, whether those views are presented on behalf of paying or pro bono clients,” the lawsuit states.
Trump had sued the law firm in 2022, along with Clinton, FBI officials and other defendants, as a part of a sprawling complaint alleging a massive conspiracy to concoct the Russia investigation that shadowed much of his administration. The suit was dismissed.
2 senior judges, appointed by Republicans, speak out about threats against federal judiciary
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senior federal judges, both appointed by Republican presidents, spoke out Tuesday against threats of violence and impeachment against their colleagues in the judiciary.
“Threats against judges are threats against constitutional government. Everyone should be taking this seriously,” said Judge Richard Sullivan, whom President Donald Trump appointed to the federal appeals court in New York.
Billionaire Elon Musk and other Trump allies have railed at judges who have blocked parts of Trump’s agenda, threatening impeachment and launching personal attacks. The Federal Judges Association, the largest such organization, issued a rare public statement decrying “irresponsible rhetoric shrouded in disinformation” that could undermine public confidence in the judiciary.
Sullivan joined Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the federal appeals court based in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a call with reporters following a meeting of the Judicial Conference, the judiciary’s governing body.
Security for judges in courthouses and their homes was part of the discussion in the closed-door meeting, Sullivan and Sutton said.
“We allocate disappointment to half the people that come before us. Criticism is no surprise as part of the job. But I do think when it gets to the level of a threat, it really is about attacking judicial independence. And that’s just not good for the system or the country,” said Sutton, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush.
Both judges stressed that threats have been rising for years and neither mentioned Musk or Trump. Chief Justice John Roberts also devoted his year-end report to efforts to undermine judicial independence through intimidation, disinformation and the prospect of public officials defying court orders.
Congress is not giving judges as much as they say they need for security, the judges said. Funding has been “flat” for the past two years, Sullivan said.
“Which means we’re not even keeping up with inflation in an environment that is always changing and challenging,” he said.
On impeachment talk, Sullivan said that parties to lawsuits get multiple cracks at the system, from the trial court to the Supreme Court.
“Impeachment is not, it shouldn’t be a short-circuiting of that process. And so it is concerning if impeachment is used in a way that is designed to do just that,” he said.
Paris
French publishers and authors sue Meta over copyright works used in AI training
French publishers and authors said Wednesday they’re taking Meta to court, accusing the social media company of using their works without permission to train its artificial intelligence model.
Three trade groups said they were launching legal action against Meta in a Paris court over what they said was the company’s “massive use of copyrighted works without authorization” to train its generative AI model.
The National Publishing Union, which represents book publishers, has noted that “numerous works” from its members are turning up in Meta’s data pool, the group’s president, Vincent Montagne, said in a joint statement.
Meta didn’t respond to a request for comment. The company has rolled out generative-AI powered chatbot assistants to users of its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms.
Montagne accused Meta of “noncompliance with copyright and parasitism.”
Another group, the National Union of Authors and Composers, which represents 700 writers, playwrights and composers, said the lawsuit was necessary to protect members from “AI which plunders their works and cultural heritage to train itself.”
The union is also worried about AI that “produces ‘fake books’ which compete with real books,” the union’s president, Francois Peyrony, said.
The third group involved in the lawsuit, the Societe des Gens de Lettres, represents authors. They all demand the “complete removal” of data directories Meta created without authorization to train its AI model.
Under the European Union’s sweeping Artificial Intelligence Act, generative AI systems must comply with the 27-nation bloc’s copyright law and be transparent about the material they used for training.
It’s the latest example of the clash between the creative and publishing industries and tech companies over data and copyright.
British musicians released a silent album last month to protest the U.K. government’s proposed changes to artificial intelligence laws that artists fear will erode their creative control.
Media and technology company Thomson Reuters recently won a legal battle against a now-defunct legal research firm over the question of fair use in AI-related copyright cases, while other cases involving visual artists, news organizations and others are still working through U.S. courts.
New York
Woman drops lawsuit accusing boxing champion Mike Tyson of rape
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A woman who accused Mike Tyson of raping her in a limousine in 1991 is dropping her lawsuit against the former heavyweight boxing champion, according to a letter filed in U.S. District Court.
The letter from Tyson’s attorney, Daniel Rubin, said the accuser’s attorney “has informed me that plaintiff is withdrawing her complaint and voluntarily discontinuing” the case.
The March 7 letter to Judge Mitchell Katz was first reported by USA Today.
The woman’s attorneys said Tuesday in a statement that the case had to be dismissed on procedural grounds.
“We are extremely disappointed that the court did not allow us to amend the pleadings in the case. It’s a shame our client’s case had to be dismissed on procedural grounds,” the statement provided by attorney Darren Seilback said. “We stand by our client’s account of the events and support her 100%.”
In her January 2023 lawsuit, the woman said Tyson, the undisputed heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990, raped her after she met him at an Albany nightclub. She said she has suffered in the years since from “physical, psychological and emotional injury.”
Tyson denied the allegations.
He was convicted of rape in a separate 1992 case and served three years in prison.
Georgia
Court records say a male passenger attacked a flight attendant and swallowed rosary beads on plane
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Court records say a passenger on a small regional flight to Miami attacked a flight attendant, kicked and punched the seat of the person in front of him and swallowed rosary beads as pilots returned to the airport in Savannah, Georgia.
The passenger was traveling with his sister, who said her brother told her before the violent outburst to “close her eyes and pray because Satan’s disciple(s) had followed them onto the plane,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
No one was seriously hurt on the Monday night flight operated by Envoy Air, a regional carrier for American Airlines. The 31-year-old passenger was jailed on charges including misdemeanor battery, misdemeanor obstruction of police and a felony count of criminal property damage.
FBI Agent Savannah Solomon described the violent episode in her affidavit, saying there was probable cause to charge the man with a federal crime of interfering with a flight crew.
Solomon wrote that eight passengers were on the plane and flight attendants became concerned immediately after takeoff when they noticed one of them appearing to have a “fit of epilepsy” that included “stomping, incoherent yelling, and shaking.”
When a flight attendant approached the man, he turned in his seat and kicked the attendant in the chest, sending the worker flying into a window across the aisle, the agent wrote. The passenger then started kicking and punching the seat of the person in front of him, who moved before the back of the seat collapsed.
The pilots returned to the Savannah airport. After the plane landed, the man who had kicked the flight attendant charged toward the exit and threw punches at another flight attendant before being subdued by other passengers, the affidavit says.
He was apprehended by airport police and taken to a local hospital for “ingestion of rosary beads,” the affidavit says. Then the passenger was booked into the Chatham County jail.
Federal court records and online jail records did not list an attorney for the arrested passenger.
His sister told the FBI agent that they were traveling to Haiti “to flee religious attacks of a spiritual nature.” According to the affidavit, the woman said her brother had “swallowed the rosary beads because they are a weapon of strength in the spiritual warfare.”
The woman told the agent her brother was not suffering from mental health problems or medical issues.
Washington
Law firm sues over Trump EO that seeks to suspend security clearances
WASHINGTON (AP) — A law firm targeted by President Donald Trump over its legal services during the 2016 presidential campaign sued the federal government Tuesday over an executive order that seeks to strip its attorneys of security clearances.
The order, which Trump signed last week, was designed to punish Perkins Coie by suspending the security clearances of the firm’s lawyers as well as denying firm employees access to federal buildings and terminating their federal contracts.
It was the latest retributive action taken by Trump against the legal community, coming soon after an earlier order that targeted security clearances of lawyers at a separate law firm who have provided legal services to special counsel Jack Smith, who led criminal investigations into the Republican before his second term.
Perkins Coie represented the 2016 presidential campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent, and also represented Democrats in a variety of voting rights challenges during the 2020 election. The firm made headlines in 2017 when it was revealed to have hired a private investigative research firm during the 2016 campaign to conduct opposition research on Trump. That firm, Fusion GPS, subsequently retained a former British spy, Christopher Steele, who researched whether Trump and Russia had suspicious ties.
Lawyers representing Perkins Coie said in their lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, that the executive order was an illegal act of retaliation. They called on a judge to block it from being implemented. A hearing was set for Wednesday afternoon.
The lawsuit notes that the two primary attorneys whose work appears to have most angered Trump left the firm years ago and accounted for a tiny fraction of the firm’s more than 1,200 attorneys. They said the order had already hurt the firm’s revenue and bottom line, noting that some clients of clients have “terminated their engagements” over the last week, and illegally discriminated against the firm based on viewpoint.
“The Order is an affront to the Constitution and our adversarial system of justice. Its plain purpose is to bully those who advocate points of view that the President perceives as adverse to the views of his Administration, whether those views are presented on behalf of paying or pro bono clients,” the lawsuit states.
Trump had sued the law firm in 2022, along with Clinton, FBI officials and other defendants, as a part of a sprawling complaint alleging a massive conspiracy to concoct the Russia investigation that shadowed much of his administration. The suit was dismissed.
