Musk’s SpaceX to face off with the NLRB, first new law school since 2017 gets ABA provisional approval, and more ??
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?? SpaceX faces hearing on engineers fired after criticizing Elon Musk over sexism
Rocket maker SpaceX on Tuesday will appear before a U.S. labor board judge to face claims that it fired eight engineers for criticizing CEO Elon Musk in a letter to company executives.
The general counsel for the NLRB, which acts as a prosecutor, claims that SpaceX violated National Labor Relations Act by firing the engineers in 2022 after they circulated a letter accusing Musk of sexist conduct and claiming that the company tolerated discrimination against women.
The case before NLRB Administrative Law Judge Sharon Steckler prompted SpaceX, which has denied wrongdoing, to file a lawsuit in January seeking to block the board from going forward by claiming the NLRB's in-house enforcement proceedings violate the U.S. Constitution.?
The engineers have separately filed complaints with a California civil rights agency accusing SpaceX of tolerating sex discrimination and retaliating against workers who complained.
If SpaceX loses, it could be ordered to reinstate the workers and compensate them for lost pay and benefits. The company is represented by lawyers from law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius including John Ring, who was the chairman of the NLRB during the Trump administration.
Elon Musk's workplace woes also include:
?? First new US law school since 2017 gets ABA provisional approval
Jacksonville University College of Law has been granted provisional accreditation by the American Bar Association, making it the first new U.S. law school to gain that distinction since 2017.
Jacksonville Law opened in August 2022 and applied for provisional accreditation six months later. Such accreditation by the ABA is a key designation that ensures the school’s first cohort of graduates, set to complete their studies in the spring of 2025, will be eligible to sit for the bar exam in any state.
The number of ABA-approved law schools nationwide has been in decline over the past decade, with the closures of at least seven law campuses. The last new law school to obtain provisional ABA accreditation was the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law, which opened in 2014, gained provisional accreditation in 2017, and became fully accredited in 2022.
Jacksonville Law's first class of 14 students began courses in August 2022, with a second class of 26 first-years in 2023. The law school will be eligible to apply for full ABA accreditation in 2026.
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?? Infowars bankruptcy lawyer wants out of Chapter 11 case
The lawyer responsible for guiding Alex Jones' media company through bankruptcy has asked a judge for permission to drop out of the case, saying he has irreparable disagreements with the company's management.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston, Texas, said on Friday that he would convene an emergency hearing on March 11 to consider the request by Ray Battaglia, who has been lead bankruptcy counsel for Infowars' parent company Free Speech Systems since 2022 after Battaglia said his relationship with the company's chief restructuring officer, Patrick Magill is "fundamentally broken."
Magill, who is in charge of day-to-day operations at FSS, has withheld Battaglia's legal fees for January and February as "blatant retaliation" for a Jan. 25 disagreement about whether or not FSS should pursue litigation over a legal claim, Battaglia said in a Feb. 29 court filing.
FSS and Jones filed for bankruptcy after being sued over Jones' repeated lies about the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre.
Battaglia, a solo practitioner, was hired as co-counsel when FSS filed for bankruptcy in July 2022, but he became the company's sole bankruptcy lawyer after its other lawyers were kicked off the case due to a conflict of interest.
?? SCOTUS seeks security funding to protect justices, homes
The U.S. Supreme Court is seeking $19.4 million in federal funds to bolster security for the nine justices and assign protection of their homes to its own police force rather than the U.S. Marshals Service, citing "evolving" risks faced by the nation's top judicial body.
The proposal was included as part of an overall $9.4 billion budget request to provide funding for the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary in the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.
That funding would include $5.8 million to expand the security activities of the Supreme Court Police, its in-house security force, and $13.6 million to let the court's police take over the duties currently served by the Marshals Service of protecting the justices' homes.
"Ongoing threat assessments indicate that there are evolving risks that require continuous protection," according to the budget request.
The judiciary released its 2025 budget request even though Congress has yet to finalize funding for the government for the current fiscal year.
Serious threats against federal judges rose to 457 in fiscal year 2023, from 224 in fiscal 2021, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Last week, a Reuters investigation documented a sharp rise in threats and intimidation directed at judges who have been criticized by former President Donald Trump after ruling against his interests in cases they were hearing.
?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File, and have a great day!
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