Two school districts in Kentucky filed public nuisance lawsuits against the top social media platforms Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Kentucky, and two Florida school districts filed a combined public nuisance and negligence suit in Superior Court of California in Los Angeles Tuesday.

Amazon wants the U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana in Indianapolis to strike its outside counsel, Robert Cruzen of Klarquist Sparkman, from the plaintiffs' preliminary witness list, said Amazon’s motion Tuesday (docket 1:22-cv-02246). Plaintiffs Annie Oakley Enterprises and its owner Renee Gabet allege Amazon ignored the trademark infringement conduct of its third-party sellers (see 2302160029).

Plaintiffs “failed to establish a single adequate, common question of fact or law applicable to each member of either putative class,” said defendants in a Tuesday response (docket 22-cv-01213) to plaintiffs’ motion for class certification and for leave to file their third amended complaint in Missouri v. Biden. The court should deny both motions, they said.

The rejection of AT&T’s cell tower application in Muttontown, New York, “created a significant public safety issue as residents, visitors, and first responders do not have access to reliable wireless services in this area,” said AT&T’s opposition Monday (docket 2:22-cv-05524) to Muttontown’s motion to dismiss AT&T’s complaint in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Central Islip.

The U.S. District Court for Delaware should deny AT&T’s motion to dismiss Averon’s first amended complaint because Averon “pled facts that adequately support each of its causes of action,” said Averon’s redacted answer Monday (docket 1:22-cv-01341).

Google monopolized, “or attempted to monopolize,” key technologies that make digital advertising possible, said DOJ and eight states, in a Monday opposition response (docket 1:23-cv-00108) to Google’s motion to dismiss their antitrust case in U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria. Its “anticompetitive conduct” thwarted competition and “stifled innovation” in digital display advertising technology for 15 years, it said.

“Downstream defendants” Amazon.com, Audible and Blackstone jointly moved (docket 1:23-cv-00507) the U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Brooklyn to grant their motion to dismiss plaintiff Teri Woods Publishing’s complaint with prejudice, saying Friday the copyright lawsuit “should never have been brought.” They requested an oral argument before U.S. District Court Judge Dora Irizarry at a date and time to be determined by the court.

Here are Communications Litigation Today's top stories from last week, in case you missed them. Each can be found by searching on its title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The FCC improperly used its authority to award AT&T “significant rate reductions and massive (though incalculable) refunds,” said Duke Energy’s opening brief Monday (docket 22-2220) at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its petition for review of an FCC November order denying it reconsideration in a pole attachment rate dispute with AT&T (see 2211290053). The petition stems from a September 2021 Enforcement Bureau order partly granting AT&T's claims it was charged "unjust and unreasonable" pole attachment rates by Duke.

The complicated series of transactions in the Standard/Tegna deal and the companies’ own submission of “narrowly crafted” concessions at a “late stage” of the process led to the protracted review of the purchase and subsequent hearing process (see [Ref;2304040063]), said the FCC in a partially redacted response filing Tuesday (docket 23-1084) with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The broadcasters' response is due Friday.