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U.S. Supreme Court To Rule On Trump’s Immunity Claim In 2020 Election Challenge

(CTN News) – In a pivotal development on Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to weigh in on Donald Trump’s assertion of immunity from prosecution related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

This decision serves as a significant boost for the former president, who is aiming to delay potential criminal prosecutions while actively campaigning to reclaim the presidency.

The Supreme Court has temporarily halted the criminal case pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith, opting to review a prior rejection by a lower court of Trump’s claim of immunity.

This claim is based on the argument that as president, he is shielded from prosecution for actions taken in an attempt to reverse President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Scheduled for oral argument during the week of April 22, the case centers around a crucial question: “Whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”

As the first former president facing criminal prosecution, Trump currently stands as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in the upcoming November 5 U.S. election, where he aims to challenge Biden, a Democrat.

This development once again thrusts the U.S. Supreme Court, with its conservative 6-3 majority, including three justices appointed by Trump, into the political and legal spotlight.

Simultaneously, the court is expected to rule on whether to overturn a decision barring Trump from Colorado’s Republican primary ballot, based on a constitutional provision related to insurrection.

In a unanimous decision on February 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Trump’s immunity claim, emphasizing the need to prevent “unbounded authority to commit crimes” that could undermine the fundamental check on executive power—election results.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022, brought four federal criminal counts against Trump in the election subversion case in August 2023.

Trump’s Legal Battles: Trial Postponed Amid Immunity Claim

A trial, initially set for March 4, was postponed as Trump pursued his immunity claim, with a new date yet to be determined.

Trump currently faces three other pending criminal cases, including a trial in a New York state court concerning hush money paid to a porn star, scheduled to begin on March 25. Trump has consistently pleaded not guilty in all cases, portraying them as politically motivated.

Responding to the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump took to his social media platform, asserting the necessity of presidential immunity for proper functioning and decision-making in the best interest of the United States.

Meanwhile, representatives for the special counsel’s office did not immediately provide comments on the development.

Smith’s charges against Trump include conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of congressional certification of Biden’s electoral victory, and conspiring against the rights of Americans to vote.

The allegations stem from false claims of election theft and a devised plan to use false electors to thwart certification, culminating in the Capitol attack by Trump supporters aiming to prevent the certification process.

If Trump were to regain the presidency, he could potentially use his powers to halt the prosecution or even pardon himself for any federal crimes.

Trump’s Immunity Claim Denied: Supreme Court to Weigh In on Pivotal Legal Battles

In a continued legal saga, former President Donald Trump’s attempt to dismiss charges based on his claim of immunity faced a setback last October when U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected the immunity assertion in December.

During the January arguments in his appeal, Trump’s legal team took an assertive stance, contending that even if a president engaged in egregious actions such as selling pardons, divulging military secrets, or orchestrating a Navy commando unit to assassinate a political rival, criminal charges could not be brought unless the president is first impeached and convicted in Congress.

However, the three-judge panel at the D.C. Circuit, in their decision rejecting Trump’s immunity claim, wrote, “We cannot accept that the office of the presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.”

Supreme Court justices, in arguments on February 8, signaled skepticism towards a ruling by Colorado’s top court that excluded Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot based on the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

The Colorado decision stemmed from findings that Trump engaged in insurrection related to the Capitol attack.

The convergence of the Colorado case and Trump’s immunity battle places the Supreme Court at the forefront of the election spotlight, reminiscent of its pivotal 2000 ruling that effectively determined the presidency in favor of Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore.

Adding to the legal complexities, a separate case scheduled for April 16 prompts the Supreme Court to decide whether a man involved in the Capitol attack can be charged with obstructing an official proceeding, specifically the congressional certification of the 2020 election results.

This case holds potential implications for Trump, as Special Counsel Jack Smith has brought two obstruction-related charges.

The outcome of these legal battles is poised to significantly impact Trump’s political future and the broader interpretation of presidential immunity in post-presidential legal matters.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

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Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

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Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

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Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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2024 | Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

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Washington — Trump Media,  The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from social media platform X about a search warrant acquired by prosecutors in the election meddling case against former President Donald Trump.

The justices did not explain their rationale, and there were no recorded dissents.

The firm, which was known as Twitter before being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, claims a nondisclosure order that prevented it from informing Trump about the warrant obtained by special counsel Jack Smith’s team violated its First Amendment rights.

The business also claims Trump should have had an opportunity to exercise executive privilege. If not reined in, the government may employ similar tactics to intercept additional privileged communications, their lawyers contended.

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Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

Two neutral electronic privacy groups also joined in, urging the high court to hear the case on First Amendment grounds.

Prosecutors, however, claim that the corporation never shown that Trump utilized the account for official purposes, therefore executive privilege is not a problem. A lower court also determined that informing Trump could have compromised the current probe.

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Trump utilized his Twitter account in the weeks preceding up to his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to spread false assertions about the election, which prosecutors claim were intended to create doubt in the democratic process.

The indictment describes how Trump used his Twitter account to encourage his followers to travel to Washington on Jan. 6, pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification, and falsely claiming that the Capitol crowd, which battered police officers and destroyed glass, was peaceful.

musk trump

Supreme Court Won’t Hear Appeal From Elon Musk’s X Platform Over Warrant In Trump Case

That case is now moving forward following the Supreme Court’s verdict in July, which granted Trump full immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president.

The warrant arrived at Twitter amid quick changes implemented by Musk, who bought the company in 2022 and has since cut off most of its workforce, including those dedicated to combating disinformation and hate speech.

He also welcomed back a vast list of previously banned users, including Trump, and endorsed him for the 2024 presidential election.

SOURCE | AP

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

Supreme Court

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Scientists Awarded MicroRNA The Nobel Prize in Medicine.

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