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☀️ Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today’s top legal news:
A federal judge in Manhattan has blocked the Trump administration from using taxpayer money to pay for political advertisements, after publicly funded television ads glorifying President Trump began airing in late September and sparked a bipartisan backlash.
US District Judge Jennifer Rochon on October 11 temporarily barred the advertisements after plaintiffs including watchdog group Common Cause brought a lawsuit alleging the ads were political propaganda designed to help Republican candidates in the November 3 midterm elections, not public service announcements.
The Trump administration was already planning to stop running the ads before Rochon’s order, according to a separate statement filed with the court on October 10.
The White House said Trump’s political action committee will not reimburse taxpayers for the ads that have already run. The ads end with a disclaimer saying they were paid for by the US government.
Read more.
The US military says it will livestream the December 3 firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. If it goes ahead, death penalty experts say it would be the first time a lawful execution anywhere has been broadcast live. Here’s what US law says about public executions and death by firing squad:
Is death by firing squad legal in the US?
Yes. The US Supreme Court said in a unanimous 1879 decision that execution by firing squad is not “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Constitution. The justices last year cleared the way for South Carolina to carry out its first execution by firing squad in decades.
Five states currently allow executions by firing squad: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah. The Trump administration earlier this year said it would allow execution by firing squad in the federal prison system.
The US Army also once regularly carried out executions by firing squad of US soldiers found guilty of desertion or other offenses. Hundreds of US soldiers were sentenced to death during the Civil War from 1861 to 1865.
Can the government actually livestream it?
Probably, because of a gap in the rules. Federal rules ban recording or broadcasting executions in federal prisons, but military regulations don’t include that ban. States usually limit witnesses to officials, family, lawyers and a few journalists. Courts have consistently rejected media requests for wider access. In 2001, for example, a judge refused to let an internet company stream Timothy McVeigh’s execution. Survivors and victims’ families got only a restricted closed-circuit feed.
The US Supreme Court has never ruled on this question. Military law expert Eugene Fidell of Yale Law School said it’s an open question whether today’s originalist court would decide that public executions were fine in 1790 and are therefore fine now.
Read more.
Prominent Wall Street law firm Milbank has taken on at least its third case defending personal injury lawyers against racketeering claims, expanding a niche practice for the firm amid a wave of cases accusing plaintiffs’ attorneys of fraudulent litigation.
Its latest client is Asher & Associates, a small Manhattan law firm that was sued by New York City last week for allegedly lodging bogus injury claims by people who falsely attributed their injuries to accidents on the city’s roadways.
Milbank’s Matthew Laroche, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor representing the law firm defendants, said in a statement to Reuters that the Asher firm has been “tremendously successful in representing injured New Yorkers,” including when New York City fails to maintain its roads and sidewalks.
Companies including Uber Technologies and Federal Express Corporation have filed a string of lawsuits invoking civil RICO provisions against plaintiffs’ lawyers in US federal courts. Nearly 300 such cases have been filed since 2024, according to a report by the American Tort Reform Association, a pro-business legal advocacy group.
Read more.
The US Justice Department said on October 10 it is investigating whether television networks violated federal antitrust laws over their decision to boycott covering the White House following its decision to pull the credentials of reporters from three news organizations, including CNN.
The networks under investigation are ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News, the Justice Department said.
The investigation is the latest in a series of clashes between the Trump administration and major news organizations. President Trump has repeatedly called the mainstream media “fake news” and frequently clashes with reporters during encounters with the press.
The action also puts legal and potentially financial pressure on the media to continue coverage of the president even when they disagree with how the White House handles them.
The investigation comes after weeks of tension between the White House and the press.
Read more.
👋 That’s all for today. Thank you for reading The Legal File, and have a great day!
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