Afternoon Briefs: Author sues Trump for defamation; court tosses bias suit by white male lawyer
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Author files defamation suit against Trump for denying he raped her
Author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll has filed a lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of defaming her when he denied raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. The suit claims Trump’s denial was accompanied by “a swarm of related lies” that included his accusation that she was lying to increase book sales and to advance a conspiracy with the Democratic Party. Carroll is represented by lawyer Roberta Kaplan, a co-founder of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. (The Washington Post, the New York Law Journal, Courthouse News Service, the Nov. 4 lawsuit)
Court tosses bias suit by white male in-house lawyer
A federal judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a discrimination suit filed by a white 52-year-old former in-house lawyer at the Hershey Co. The lawyer, Kurt Ehresman, was told his position as senior counsel for global intellectual property was eliminated. But the company created a nearly identical position months later and filled it with a younger black woman, Ehresman’s suit alleges. U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo said Ehresman’s claims were barred by a release he signed as part of his severance agreement. (Law360, Bloomberg Law)
3rd Circuit reinstates suit claiming lack of LSAT accommodation violated disability law
The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday reinstated a lawsuit by a woman seeking accommodations for dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when she takes the LSAT. The Jane Doe plaintiff claimed the Law School Admission Council violated the Americans With Disabilities Act when it refused to accommodate her disabilities because she couldn’t provide documentation. Doe says she was unable to provide proof because her school records from the 1980s have been destroyed and she can’t afford to pay $5,000 for an updated diagnostics report. The 3rd Circuit said the plaintiff’s claims must be construed liberally because she is representing herself, and her suit alleges a concrete injury. (Law360, the 3rd Circuit opinion)
Ocasio-Cortez settles suit over Twitter blocking
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has settled a suit filed by a politician who alleged the Democratic congresswoman wrongly blocked him from her Twitter account. Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement that the politician, a former New York state assemblyman, “has a First Amendment right to express his views and should not be blocked for them.” The settlement follows a July appeals court ruling that found President Donald Trump engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by blocking critics from his Twitter account. (The New York Times, the New York Law Journal)
