Supreme Court Rejects Affirmative Action in University Admissions - SpaceX Accused of Discrimination Here on Earth - Law Firm Attorney Charged with Insider Trading

• Pages: 10-10
• Date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Hon. Oran F. Whiting (Ret.)
• Subject Matter: Derecho Civil

Published in Litigation News Volume 49, Number 1, Fall 2023. © 202 3 by the American Bar As sociation. Reprodu ced with permission . All rights reser ved. This information o r any portion ther eof may not be copied o r disseminated in any form

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Supreme Court Rejects Armative Action in

University Admissions

SpaceX Accused of Discrimination Here on Earth

Law Firm Attorney Charged with Insider Trading

U.S. SUP REME COUR T

Constitutional Law

The Court, reversing 45 years of legal

precedent, struck down race-conscious

admissions programs at two universi-

ties, by vote counts of 6–3 against the

University of North Carolina and 6–2

against Harvard. It ruled that arma-

tive action admissions programs that

consider an applicant’s race violate the

U.S. Constitution’s promise of equal

protection under the law.

Writing for the majority, Chief

Justice John Roberts wrote a student

“…must be treated based on his or her

experiences as an individual, not on the

basis of race. Many universities have for

too long done just the opposite. And in

doing so, they have concluded, wrongly,

that the touchstone of an individual’s

identity is not challenges bested, skills

built, or lessons learned but the color

of their skin. Our constitutional history

does not tolerate that choice.”

Though the ruling appears to

exempt military service academies, it

will force many colleges and universi-

ties tooverhaultheir admissions poli-

cies. Students for Fair Admissions Inc.

v. Univ. of N.C. and Students for Fair

Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows

of Harvard Coll., Nos. 21-707 and

20-1199.

First Amendment

In a 6–3 vote, SCOTUS ruled that the

constitutional right to free speech

allows certain businesses to refuse to

provide services for same-sex wed-

dings. The Court overturned a lower

court’s ruling rejecting a web designer’s

bid for an exemption from a Colorado

law prohibiting discrimination based

on sexual orientation and other factors

due to her evangelical Christian beliefs

against gay marriage.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for

the conservative majority, stated that

AND MORE . . . BY HO N. ORAN F. WHITI NG (RET.), LITIGATION NEWS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Colorado’s antidiscrimination law would

force the designer to create speech

that she does not believe, in violation

of the Constitution’s First Amendment.

Dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor

labeled the decision a “license to dis-

criminate,” which could cause a ripple

eect of discrimination against mem-

bers of protected classes, as the case

was decided on free speech grounds,

rather than religious rights. 303 Creative

LLC et al. v. Elenis et al, No. 21-476.

U.S. FED ERAL COUR T

N. Dist. of Cal. : Copyright

Comedian Sarah Silverman and two

others are lead plaintis in a copyright

infringement class action suit brought

against OpenAI Inc., developer of the

ChatGPT AI language generator. The

plaintis accuse OpenAI of using copy-

righted books as training material for

the large language models power-

ing ChatGPT. Seeking a permanent

injunction, damages, and prof‌its, they

claim that when prompted, OpenAI’s

ChatGPT generates summaries of their

work. Their books appear in the data-

set Meta has admitted using to train its

AI generator, LLaMA. Silverman et al. v.

OpenAI, Inc. et al., No. 3:23-cv-03416.

DEPARTMENT O F JUSTICE

Civil Rights

The DOJ reversed its earlier position

that former President Donald Trump

could be immune from writer E. Jean

Carroll’s $10 million defamation lawsuit,

as Trump did not act within the scope

of his oce and employment as presi-

dent in June 2019 when he denied rap-

ing Carroll in the mid-1990s.

According to the department,

“[e]vidence of Mr. Trump’s state of

mind, some of which has come to light

only after the department last made a

certif‌ication decision, does not establish

that he made the statements at issue

with a ‘more than insignif‌icant’ purpose

to serve the U.S. government.” Biden's

administration previously adopted the

prior conclusion of immunity.

Discrimination/Immigration

The DOJ f‌ileda hiring discrimina-

tion lawsuit against Space Exploration

Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) for

improper actions against asylees and

refugees from at least September 2018

to May 2022. The department’s lawsuit

alleges, among others, that SpaceX dis-

criminated against asylees and refugees

based on citizenship status at multiple

stages of the hiring process.

SpaceX routinely discouraged

asylees and refugees from apply-

ing and refused to consider them due

to citizenship status, in violation of

the Immigration and Nationality Act.

SpaceX’s claim that federal regulations

limited its hiring to citizens and law-

ful permanent residents is misplaced,

according to the department. U.S.A. v.

Space Expl. Tech. Corp. d/b/a SpaceX.

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE

COMMISSION

Insider Trading

The SEC f‌iled insider trading charges

against a global law f‌irm attorney for

trading based on material, nonpublic

information concerning a client of the

f‌irm. The attorney allegedly accessed

conf‌idential client information concern-

ing an acquisition, purchased shares of

the target company the day before the

deal was publicly announced, and then

sold those shares at a $42,000 gain.

The complaint specif‌ically alleges

violations of the antifraud provisions

of section 10(b) of the Securities

Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5,

seeking injunctive relief, disgorgement

with prejudgment interest, and civil

penalties. SEC v.Costa, No. 23-cv-2451.

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