The Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, plus the five individual co-plaintiffs in their social media complaint against the Biden administration, “would be entitled to a preliminary injunction” if they could demonstrate that a government threat directed at conduct by social media companies caused them “irreparable injury,” said DOJ attorney Daniel Tenny in 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals oral argument Thursday. “They have not made any such showing, despite months of discovery,” said Tenny.

T-Mobile collected from customers a “city license” or "utility” tax it wasn't authorized to collect under ordinances of various Missouri municipalities, alleged a class action Wednesday (docket 4:23-cv-00561) in U.S. District Court for Western Missouri in Kansas City.

The May 19 fraud complaint in which investor Locust Group alleges JMBT Live, owner of the Tilt entertainment platform, and its CEO, Michael Russell, “misrepresented” the status of the company’s contracts and negotiations with prospective content partners (see 2305220037), “should have never been filed,” said JMBT’s memorandum of law Tuesday (docket 1:23-cv-04203) in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan in support of its motion to dismiss the complaint.

A copyright infringement case by Gizmodo Editor-in-Chief Tom Ackerman alleges the Tetris movie “demonstrated the confiscation” of his original work and creation of his book, The Tetris Effect. Chapters and pages of Ackerman's book were “simply adopted from the book to the film,” said the complaint (docket 1:23-cv-06952), filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan,

The efforts by the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri to defend the social media injunction against the government “only underscore” the injunction’s many “deficiencies,” said DOJ’s reply brief Tuesday (docket 23-30445) at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of reversing the injunction. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty for Western Louisiana imposed the injunction July 4, temporarily stayed 10 days later by the 5th Circuit pending appeal (see 2307140067), barring dozens of Biden administration officials from conversing with the social media companies about content moderation.

T-Mobile’s July 13 claims that the town of Oyster Bay, New York, ran afoul of the Telecommunications Act by denying its application for a rear yard variance to install a wireless telecom facility (see 2307140001) violate the 10th Amendment “by commandeering local municipalities to issue zoning approvals and building permits,” despite local objections and compliance with state and local “substantive and procedural law,” said the town’s answer Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-05339) in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Central Islip.

By banning TikTok, Montana seeks to build “a virtual wall that will prevent the flow of information” to and from internet users within the state, said NetChoice and Chamber of Progress in an amicus brief (docket 9:23-cv-00056) in support of the injunction sought by six TikTok influencers and users to block Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) from enforcing the ban, SB-419, beginning Jan. 1 (see 2307070002).

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 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made clear that it stayed its mandate pending Apple’s forthcoming cert petition at the U.S. Supreme Court “only because Apple had barely satisfied that court’s requirement that an applicant articulate non-frivolous arguments,” said Epic Games’ SCOTUS reply brief Monday in support of its emergency application to Justice Elena Kagen to vacate the stay (see 2308070003).

The arguments that the FCC and AT&T raise in Duke Energy’s petition for review of the FCC’s November order denying the company reconsideration in a pole attachment rate dispute with AT&T (see 2211290053) “reinforce” that the FCC shouldn’t “assert jurisdiction" over the rates AT&T pays Duke where it lacks jurisdiction over the rates Duke pays AT&T, said Duke’s reply brief Monday (docket 22-2220) at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.