Here’s the domestic legal news we covered this week:
Qualcomm [corporate website] filed three
lawsuits [complaint, PDF;
complaint, PDF;
complaint, PDF] against
Apple [corporate website] Thursday, seeking compensation for alleged patent infringement.
According to Qualcomm, Apple uses technologies that Qualcomm first marketed in the 1990s.
Former national security advisor to Donald Trump, Michael Flynn,
pleaded guilty [plea agreement, PDF] Friday to charges of making false statements to the FBI.
The US
House Judiciary Committee [official website] on Wednesday approved a
bill [text, PDF] that would allow gun owners with state-issued concealed carry permits to carry their guns into other states that also allow concealed carrying.
The bill would amend chapter 44 of Title 18 [text] of the federal criminal code and require individuals be eligible to possess and transport a firearm under federal law, obtain a valid concealed carry permit from one’s state of residence, and carry a valid photo identification document.
Richard Hudson (R-NC), the bill’s original sponsor, stated [press release] “the patchwork of reciprocity laws and agreements between states is confusing and has caused law-abiding citizens …
US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website]
extradited [press release] 75-year-old Inocente Orlando Montano, a former El Salvador colonel, to Spain to face charges for his alleged involvement in the
1989 murder of eight individuals [CJA backgrounder] that included six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and the housekeeper’s 16-year-old daughter during the country’s decade-long civil war strife.
The murders occurred in the early morning hours of November 16, 1989, at the Universidad Centroamericana at the behest of the El Salvador military.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday
rejected [opinion, PDF] a challenge to a campaign finance law that set limits on federal donations to primary and general elections.
The law placed a per-election donation cap: $2,600 for primary elections and $2,600 for general elections.
A Florida couple, Laura Holmes and Paul Jost, brought an action against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) [official website] in 2014, arguing that they should be able to donate $5,200 during the general election, rather than being forced to split the maximum donation between the primary and general elections.
A jury in Washington, DC,
acquitted [press release] Ahmed Abu Khatallah, the ringleader of the 2012 Benghazi attacks, of murder on Tuesday, but convicted him on terrorism charges.
[JURIST] The US
Supreme Court [official website] heard oral arguments in two economic related cases on Tuesday.
Freedom Watch [advocacy website]
announced [press release] Monday that they have filed a
lawsuit [complaint, PDF] seeking the removal of Robert Mueller as head of the investigation into Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
The US Supreme Court on Monday
declined to hear [order list, PDF] an appeal from African-American attorney Carlos Moore who sought to have the Mississippi state flag’s Confederate battle emblem “declared an unconstitutional relic of slavery.”
Moore filed suit [complaint, PDF] against Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant [official website] in February, 2016, arguing that the current official state flag’s confederate emblem “encourages or incites private citizens to commit acts of racial violence in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.”
The case was dismissed [opinion, PDF] in September 2016 [JURIST report] by the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi [official website], and further rejected on appeal.
The Mississippi flag was adopted in 1894.
The US Supreme Court stated on Monday that it
would not review [order list, PDF] a lawsuit over a drone strike in Yemen that killed five people.
Former chief of staff Leandra English
filed a suit [complaint] on Sunday in the
US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] against the Trump administration over the currently vacant director position at the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) [official website], to which US President Donald Trump seeks to name budget director Mick Mulvaney as acting director.
Former director Richard Cordray formally resigned on Friday and named English as his temporary replacement [press release].
Trump immediately sought to place Mulvaney as the director until he can confirm a permanent director through the Senate.
The suit hinges on which law applies when filling a temporary leadership vacancy at a new regulatory agency.
News