Jonathan Bilyk News
Judge: Landlords can't sue Alameda, Oakland over three-year-long eviction ban
Landlords said the eviction ban, which continued long after the Covid emergency had ended, amounted to a 'two-year rent holiday,' even for tenants who were well able to pay their bills. The judge said three years of government ordered lost rent doesn't amount to an unconstitutional government taking
Appeals court: CA can ban guns in many 'sensitive places,' but not as many as lawmakers wanted
A federal appeals panel delivered a split decision on SB2, saying they believe Second Amendment lets California ban concealed carry in parks, restaurants, libraries, stadiums and amusement parks, but not necessarily public transit, churches or hospitals, by simply declaring public spaces 'sensitive'
Musk, X Corp can't escape, for now, age discrimination lawsuit over 2022 layoffs
A federal judge said plaintiffs have done enough to allow a former Twitter comms worker, who lost his job amid mass layoffs that occurred at Twitter after Elon Musk acquired the company in 2022, to move forward with a collective action on behalf of all workers over the age of 50 who were fired at that time
California violated 1st Amend by trying to force X to turn over info on content moderation: Appeals court
California lawmakers said AB587 only about "transparency," but also hinted the law's reporting requirements could be used to force X Corp. to comply with state desires to censor "hate speech" and other kinds of controversial posts the state may find objectionable
Judge crumples class action vs Handi-Foil over 'Made in USA' label
The lawsuit had accused disposable aluminum pan maker Handi-Foil of allegedly violating California law by claiming their pans are "Made in the USA" when the ore for their aluminum allegedly could come from outside the country
Appeals court: Christian schools don't need to violate beliefs on sex, gender under Title IX
A federal appeals panel has rejected a lawsuit brought by LGBTQ students who sought to use the First Amendment to end an exemption for religious schools under the federal Title IX sex discrimination law and force them to abide by federal edicts concerning sex and gender in order to receive federal education money
Disney wants appeals court to rule it has First Amendment right to fire actors over political beliefs
The Walt Disney Company has asked a federal judge for permission to appeal to a federal appeals court over a judge's ruling that actor Gina Carano can continue her lawsuit against Disney for firing her from "The Mandalorian" TV series over political statements Disney said didn't align with its "values"
Salesforce must face privacy class action over 'intercepted' Kaiser, Rite Aid customer chats
A federal judge said plaintiffs had done enough to show that Salesforce may have violated online privacy laws by allegedly capturing otherwise confidential online customer chat messages involving their clients, Rite Aid and Kaiser Permanente
Judge: Female ex-Twitter workers still can't move ahead with sex discrimination suit over layoffs
A San Francisco federal judge said the lawsuit doesn't do enough to back claims that Elon Musk and his managers discriminated against women when laying off thousands of workers after Musk took over Twitter in late 2022
Federal law doesn't shield Glassdoor from defamation suit over negative employee reviews, judge says
A federal judge in Mississippi has ruled a charter air service can continue suing Glassdoor for allegedly defamatory reviews posted on the site by anonymous ex-employees, rejecting claims that Section 230 should protect Glassdoor from the lawsuit
L.A. must pay PricewaterhouseCoopers $2.5M for impeding PWC's efforts to uncover scheme in water billing lawsuits
The California Supreme Court said a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge didn't exceed his authority to order the city of Los Angeles to pay $2.5 million to PWC for attempting to conceal collusion with lawyers to settle a class action lawsuit over city utility billing overcharges and make PWC foot the bill
Google can't use 'browser agnosticism' to sidestep Chrome users' sync privacy class action
A federal appeals panel says an Oakland federal judge asked the wrong legal questions in deciding that Google could pull the plug on class action lawsuits accusing the tech giant of violating state and federal privacy laws by collecting browsing history and other info about Chrome users, allegedly without consent
Lawsuits: New CA tax law unconstitutional try to grab money from taxpayers for income earned in the past
Two lawsuits are challenging the passage of SB167, a new law that Dems say is a "clarification" of existing law, but that taxpayers say would give the state sweeping powers to force taxpayers to pay billions of dollars in taxes for income they earned decades in the past
CA appeals court: Prop 5 ballot language won't mislead voters into OKing easier property tax hikes
A California state appellate court overruled a Sacramento County Superior Court judge who had agreed the ballot language drafted by the California Attorney General's office for Prop 5 could dupe voters by providing a description that left out crucial details
Appeals panel: RFK can't sue Meta for censoring Covid vax posts, because Meta agreed with Biden-Harris admin
A divided federal appeals panel said Meta can't be sued for censoring Facebook posts from vaccine skeptic group, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., because Meta partnered with the Biden-Harris administration willingly. A dissenting judge said that reasoning allows a backdoor around the First Amendment
UCLA can't again allow pro-Hamas protesters to set up anti-Jewish 'checkpoints' on campus, judge says
An L.A. federal judge has issued an injunction forbidding UCLA leadership from again allowing pro-Hamas, anti-Israel protesters to set up "Jew Exclusion Zones" on campus, as they did this spring
$115M Oracle privacy class action settlement gets initial OK; Lawyers could get $28.75M
A San Francisco federal judge has given preliminary approval to a deal to settle claims Oracle acted as a data broker, gathering information about its users without their consent and selling the data to third parties to target ads
Ex-Pleasanton cop can't sue city, police chief for firing him after he attended 'Stop the Steal' J6 rally
A federal judge said it is enough the city can claim they fired the officer for policy violations, not for political speech. The officer has appealed the ruling
Newsom deploys National Guard to help prosecute crimes in Oakland, Alameda County
The governor says Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, a progressive prosecutor facing a recall election this year over persistently high violent and property crime rates, dragged her feet on signing off on the arrangement for five months, leading Newsom to turn to Attorney General Rob Bonta instead.
Falconers can continue suing California over permit requiring them to submit to warrantless inspections
A federal appeals panel says a lower court judge was wrong to toss a lawsuit from a group of falconers accusing the state of violating the Fourth Amendment protections against illegal property searches by requiring falconers to agree to "unannounced warrantless inspections" as a condition of their state license