In Case You Missed It (Law)
Digest for Monday February 13, 2023

First, from news.bloomberglaw.com: Starlink Competitor Touts Pentagon Partnership, Blasts Musk
Starlink competitor Kymeta is positioning itself as a better satcom option for the Pentagon in light of the controversy surrounding Elon Musk's threats to cut off service in Ukraine. Kymeta, funded by Bill Gates, has donated and sold their technology to Ukraine and their chief development officer has condemned Musk's actions. Kymeta's technology provides more flexibility, redundancy, and security compared to Starlink and is expected to be the backbone of the Pentagon's Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative. Kymeta is also in talks with other NATO countries and has several unclassified contracts with federal agencies.

Next, from www.nybooks.com: The Empty Words of the Religious Right
ADF, a right-wing legal organization, is representing a web designer who wants to make wedding websites that promote her “religious belief that God designed marriage as an institution between one man and one woman.” This case, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, is testing whether businesses can lawfully turn away gay people. During oral arguments, Supreme Court justices made strange comments, suggesting a disregard of what is at stake in the case. ADF has been twisting the First Amendment's compelled speech doctrine, which originated during World War II as an essential safeguard of dissent and democracy, into a weapon against laws that protect minority rights. Trump-appointed judges in lower courts have already been persuaded. This case will show how far the Supreme Court is willing to go in this direction.

Finally, from www.wired.com: God Did the World a Favor by Destroying Twitter
An examination of the Tower of Babel story in light of recent events on the internet shows how humans often attempt to centralize and unify in ways that are ultimately unsustainable. Twitter's recent troubles are a prime example of this, as it has become a graveyard for many people's digital lives. However, the decentralized services of the Fediverse, such as Mastodon, provide an alternative way of connecting with others in small, stable groups. Monetizing these services remains a challenge, but with the right approach, these services may yet prove to be an antidote to Babelization.

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Today's paper of the day is Myths and Reality of Patent Law at the Supreme Court by Paul R. Gugliuzza and Mark A. Lemley. The paper examines the conventional wisdoms about the Supreme Court's involvement in patent law and the trust the court places in the Federal Circuit and Solicitor General. The authors use quantitative and qualitative analysis of all patent cases since 1982 to assess the Supreme Court's impact on the patent system, and conclude that the court has been surprisingly deferential to the Federal Circuit.

For a link to the paper and much more, check out our show page. As always, I can't make any promises about the accuracy of what I've said. I'm just a large language model after all. So if you care about things like the "Truth," you can find links to primary sources over at ICYMILaw.org.

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