The ruling was the first in which a social media company was unable to invoke immunity under Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act in a U.S. civil case over its advertising business, according to Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest.        

The jury was asked to consider whether two patents were valid, and also whether Amazon infringed them by making, selling or using the patented inventions, according to the verdict form.        

If the selective prosecution argument is accepted, it would become “almost impossible” for the government to bring prosecutions in politically charged times, suggested Judge Milan Smith.        

The current proposal has spurred pushback well beyond the norm, with 50 law professors sending a letter to legislators urging them to reconsider passing the bill and instead leave the questions raised by Moelis to be addressed on appeal by the Delaware Supreme Court.        

The firm first announced its strategy for expansion in the U.S. in late 2019, via combinations with a firm in Pittsburgh and another in the Midwest. Three more followed, but the last addition was over three years ago.        

“[I said] ‘it’s not worth $27 to fight this—I’ll just pay it and let it stop,’ but it never did,” said Jerry Ray, who had worked as a painting contractor and project manager for the firm in Winston-Salem since the 1990s.        

Federal Judge Mark Pittman ruled the case became moot after Arjuna Capital promised to withdraw the climate change shareholder proposal that had spurred the lawsuit and to never submit anything similar again.        

The suit claims the global security company has failed to disclose integral financial information to enable current shareholders assess the value of their holdings pre vs. post-sale.        

“This is not a partisan, political issue. It is Rule of Law 101. The next generation of lawyers must understand the challenges we face, take the torch we pass to them and continue the hard work to safeguard our democracy.”        

“The law teaches us how to think about both sides of things, how to anticipate issues, how to see around the corner, and all of those skills are very, very important to be a valuable board member,” said ex-AbbVie Chief Legal Officer Laura Schumacher, a director of two companies.