WJI daily reads for Sept. 24, 2021

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Republicans ask U.S. Supreme Court to halt Wisconsin redistricting lawsuit.

Lawyers for the Republican legislators told the U.S. Supreme Court it should toss aside the challenge in federal court because there's no basis for a lawsuit at this stage. Federal courts have tight rules for when they allow cases to proceed and the Republicans contend there isn't sufficient conflict for the lawsuit to be considered now. 

Wisconsin Law Journal: Ceremonial swearing in for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is Oct. 1.

Reuters: Abortion providers ask U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in Texas case.

In their petition to the Supreme Court, the abortion providers including Whole Woman's Health and other advocacy groups said that the justices should decide if the state can "insulate" its law from federal court review by delegating its enforcement to the general public.

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Improvements in infant mortality being overtaken by gun violence.

Reuters: Federal appeals court rules woman can sue Facebook for using unauthorized photo.

In a dissent, Judge Robert Cowen vigorously disagreed. Cowen bemoaned the majority’s “drastic” ruling, which, he said, had opened the door to chaos, in the form of liability risk under state privacy laws that may -- or may not! -- be fairly defined as intellectual property claims. That’s exactly the sort of unpredictability that Congress was trying to avert when it adopted Section 230 to encourage “unfettered” free speech and innovation on the internet, Cowen said.
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Facebook’s amici from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups were even more dire in their predictions of the consequences of the theory that the 3rd Circuit majority just adopted: “It (will) upend the legal landscape that has promoted a flourishing internet for decades,” the amici’s brief said. Online sites and services, the brief hypothesized, will be thrown into a panic by their risk of exposure to meritless state-law claims. Some will adopt “draconian measures” to avoid liability, EFF said. Many others, the brief said, “will simply refuse to host user-generated content at all -- and we will all be the poorer for it.”

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