An apparent rift is developing in the dozen or more fraud class actions over Samsung’s summertime data breach, between plaintiffs who want the cases consolidated and transferred to the U.S. District Court for Northern California and those who want them centralized and moved to the U.S. District Court for New Jersey.

Saturday’s 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denial of Kelli Ward’s motion for an injunction to quash the House Jan. 6 Select Committee’s subpoena ordering T-Mobile to produce her phone records was the third such setback for the Arizona GOP chair in a month. U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa in Phoenix previously denied Ward’s motions to quash on Sept. 22 and again on Oct. 7 (see 2210070026).

Communications Litigation Today is providing readers with the 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.

Lead plaintiff Walleye Group in the April 2020 securities class action alleging insider trading of Intelsat stock is seeking a 30-day deadline extension to file its second amended complaint in the action, if it opts to file one at all, said its motion Monday (docket 4:20-cv-02341) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland.

Amazon “does not dispute” that Sailed Technology’s application for a subpoena to compel discovery by Amazon for patent infringement litigation in the Chinese courts “falls squarely within” the scope of Section 1782, said Sail’s reply Friday in U.S. District Court for Western Washington in Seattle (docket 2:22-cv-01396).

Publicly available emails "prove” Anthony Fauci communicated and acted as intermediary to censor information across multiple social media platforms, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana said Friday in an order granting the deposition of several high-ranking Biden administration officials in 3:22-CV-01213.

CCIA and NetChoice petitioned the Supreme Court Monday in docket 22-277 to grant cert in Florida’s challenge of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the state’s social media moderation law. Florida filed its own cert petition in September, and attorneys general from 16 states and former President Donald Trump filed amicus briefs in support Friday. “Given the proliferation of proposals in other states that also abridge editorial discretion, the best course for all is for this Court to grant review now and establish clear bulwarks against state efforts that are antithetical to the First Amendment,” said the petition from CCIA and Netchoice.

Issues central to the case involving defendant Peerless Network in its legal fight with plaintiffs Qwest, Level 3 and Global Crossing should be referred to the FCC “under the doctrine of primary jurisdiction,” said the plaintiffs in a legal brief Thursday (docket 1:21-cv-03004) in U.S. District Court for Colorado. The case was moved last week into a proceeding under a magistrate judge for alternative dispute resolution (see 2210130069).

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) reached a settlement agreement Thursday in his October 2021 complaint alleging that Startel Communications and its CEO Wanda Hall assisted actors in India, the Philippines and Singapore to inundate Indiana residents with scam robocalls in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule. Startel and Hall “knew or consciously avoided knowing these calls were illegal,” alleged his complaint.

A federal judge on Friday was receptive to the FTC’s argument that Meta’s attempts to have Chair Lina Khan recused from a lawsuit against the company’s purchase of Within Unlimited should be settled at the agency level and not before the U.S. District Court for Northern California (see 2210190038).