Plaintiff Jerome Edmondson, CEO of EDN Global, attempted to avoid written contracts with AT&T when he tried to “plead around” them “by omitting a breach claim and instead asserting a host of tort claims,” said AT&T Tuesday in its memorandum in support (docket 3:23-cv-00355) of its motion to dismiss Edmondson and EDN's amended complaint for failure to state a claim.

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.

DOJ and the FCC on Monday defended the commission’s order last year further clamping down on gear from Chinese companies, preventing the sale of yet-to-be authorized equipment in the U.S. (see 2211230065). Dahua USA and Hikvision USA challenged the order, which implements the 2021 Secure Equipment Act, questioning whether the FCC exceeded its legal authority (docket 23-1032). The case is in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Oral argument isn't scheduled.

CEO Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) spared few punches Tuesday in attacking Elon Musk, owner of the X platform, formerly Twitter, a day after the platform sued his group for allegedly running a "scare campaign" to drive away advertisers. Musk’s "latest legal threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook," emailed Ahmed.

Plaintiff Tracy McCarthy’s fraud claims against Amazon and its Audible subsidiary for deceptive practices under New York General Business Law (GBL) are time-barred and “duplicative,” said Amazon’s motion to dismiss (docket 2:23-cv-01019) the first amended complaint (FAC) Monday in U.S. District Court for Washington in Seattle.

Rochester, New York, enacted a new telecommunications code three years ago that imposes “excessively high fees” on telecom providers in violation of federal law, said plaintiffs Verizon, Extenet and Crown Castle in a joint memorandum of law Monday (docket 6:19-cv-06583) in U.S. District Court for Western New York in Rochester. Their opening brief in support of their motion for judgment in their favor followed a two-day consolidated bench trial in early June (see 2212200065).

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty’s July 4 injunction barring dozens of Biden administration officials from conversing with social media companies about content moderation is an “unconstitutional prior restraint” on the rights of organizations to speak “freely and petition the government for a redress of grievances,” said an amicus brief Friday (docket 23-30445). Filed at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the government’s efforts to vacate the injunction, the brief was submitted by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law and Common Cause.

ByteDance's CapCut videoediting app, launched three years ago in the U.S. and fast approaching 250 million monthly active users, “facilitates” the unlawful collection “of a wide range of private information from users, including their biometric information,” alleged a privacy class action Friday (docket 1:23-cv-04953) against ByteDance and TikTok, for heavily promoting the app, in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago.

Communications Litigation Today is tracking the following lawsuits involving appeals of FCC actions:

The July 4 injunction barring dozens of Biden administration officials from conversing with social media platforms about content moderation (see 2307050042) was “erroneous,” said an amicus brief Friday (docket 23-30445) in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals from the Democratic attorneys generation of 20 states, plus the District of Columbia, in support of DOJ’s appeal to reverse the injunction. “In purporting to protect First Amendment values,” U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty for Western Louisiana in Monroe, a President Donald Trump appointee, “significantly restricted the flow of public discourse on vitally important issues,” said the AGs.