News & Media
Big Anti-SLAPP Win for TMZ Against Dan Bilzerian
Last year, Dan Bilzerian sued the Dirty World for publishing a story about a woman who alleged Bilzerian gave her an STD. The media news website TMZ posted an article about the lawsuit, and Bilzerian immediately amended his initial complaint to include TMZ as a defendant, alleging TMZ’s article was false and defamatory. Randazza Legal Group filed an Anti-SLAPP motion on behalf of TMZ, and the District Court in Clark County, Nevada GRANTED the Anti-SLAPP, dismissing all of Bilzerian’s claims against TMZ Productions. Another win for RLG and the Nevada Anti-SLAPP law! Read the entire Anti-SLAPP Order here: TMZ Anti-SLAPP Order
Big Win for TMZ & Nevada Anti-SLAPP law
Last year, Dan Bilzerian, professional poker player and Instagram playboy, sued gossip website “The Dirty World” for publishing a story about a woman who alleged Bilzerian gave her Chlamydia. The media news website TMZ posted an article about the lawsuit, and Bilzerian amended his initial complaint to include TMZ as a defendant, alleging TMZ’s article was false and defamatory. Of course, we (Randazza Legal Group) filed an Anti-SLAPP motion on behalf of TMZ in Clark County District Court. We’re happy to say the court granted the Anti-SLAPP, dismissed all of Bilzerian’s claims against TMZ, and awarded costs and attorneys’ fees. Just another good day in the world of journalism and Anti-SLAPP law. Check out the TMZ Anti-SLAPP Order here.
Attorney Marc Randazza Beats Bad Business for Suing Yelp Reviewer
(Pace Vegas) Pamela Boling probably didn’t expect to end up in court when she hired iQTAXX to assist with filing special paperwork with the IRS. However, when she found out that they hadn’t done the work they promised and she had paid for, she turned to YELP to get assistance, posting a negative review and her personal experience. That’s how she ended up getting sued. That’s when she turned to Marc Randazza, one of the Las Vegas’ heavy hitting attorneys that knows how to bring down the legal hammer when it’s needed to address the rights of consumers. Read the complete article here.
Randazza on Above the Law’s "Thinking Like a Lawyer"
On Above the Law’s “Thinking Like a Lawyer,” Elie and First Amendment Lawyer Marc Randazza talk about the Hulk Hogan verdict, the right to be forgotten, and how Europe seems to be getting along just fine without ruining everybody’s Google footprints. Listen to the full discussion here.
‘The dice were loaded in Hulk Hogan’s favor,’ Randazza says of the Gawker trial
A Florida jury decided on Friday evening that Gawker Media must pay Hulk Hogan, aka Terry Bollea, $115 million in damages after running a portion of sex tape of the famous wrestler on its site. The case centers on a 2012 post by former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio, in which he posted an edited section of a sex tape filmed without Bollea’s consent. . . Read the full article here.
Violence and Political Speech
My most recent CNN Column discusses violence in political settings. See Defend Donald Trump’s right to free speech I don’t get to write my own headlines, ok? Some good people think that sometimes being violent is ok. What they don’t understand is that when we use violence in politics, no matter what, the bad people always win. They get to escalate the violence, feeding off of it, up to a point where the good people lose the stomach for it — or at least a critical mass of them lose the stomach for it. Always. And the bad people will always have more of a stomach for it, so in the war of attrition, they will win. They’ll always be
A fabulous Roman candle exploding like a spider across the stars
On March 12th, 1922, the universe lit the fuse on the roman candle of the existence of one Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac. Somewhere along the line after that there were girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl was handed to him, but like so many that stand at the center when the blue light pops, the pearl drops into the grate on a street where you can still smell the last exhale of the cigarette that the guy put out as he got into the taxi. The taxi that drove down the wet street, where most of the streetlights were still working, but that one keeps flickering, and no more taxis come and you knew none would. So you
The USPTO Would Prefer Not to Follow the First Amendment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BMsDJrjZHY The USPTO is, apparently, a big Melville crowd. In December, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided In re Tam, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 22593 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 22, 2015). In it, the Federal Circuit made a sweeping pronouncement that the First Amendment applies to trademark registrations, and that a long-criticized prohibition on “disparaging” trademarks could no longer stand. The portion of the trademark act that fell was Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.S. § 1052(a). Then, the Department of Justice conceded that § 2(a) was no longer enforceable in light of In re Tam. We do not believe that given the breadth of the Court’s Tam decision and in view of the totality of
Defend Donald Trump’s right to free speech
(CNN) Is Donald Trump finally learning about the meaning of free speech? Other candidates might be bad for free speech once elected. But Trump is the only candidate to actually campaign to reduce our First Amendment rights. This is the guy who said, “There used to be consequences to protesting. There are none anymore. These people are so bad for our country, you have no idea, folks.” Marc Randazza says Trump, who has talked about curtailing First Amendment protections, deserves the right to speak freely . . . Read the CNN Opinion Article here.
Randazza: Violence and Political Speech
My most recent CNN Column discusses violence in political settings. See Defend Donald Trump’s right to free speech I don’t get to write my own headlines, ok? Some good people think that sometimes being violent is ok. What they don’t understand is that when we use violence in politics, no matter what, the bad people always win. They get to escalate the violence, feeding off of it, up to a point where the good people lose the stomach for it — or at least a critical mass of them lose the stomach for it. Always. And the bad people will always have more of a stomach for it, so in the war of attrition, they will win. They’ll always be
Randazza: A fabulous Roman candle exploding like a spider across the stars
On this day in 1922, the universe lit the fuse on the roman candle of the existence of one Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac. Somewhere along the line after that there were girls, visions, everything; somewhere along the line the pearl was handed to him, but like so many that stand at the center when the blue light pops, the pearl drops into the grate on a street where you can still smell the last exhale of the cigarette that the guy put out as he got into the taxi. The taxi that drove down the wet street, where most of the streetlights were still working, but that one keeps flickering, and no more taxis come and you knew none would.
Randazza: The USPTO Would Prefer Not to Follow the First Amendment
The USPTO is, apparently, a big Melville crowd. In December, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided In re Tam, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 22593 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 22, 2015). In it, the Federal Circuit made a sweeping pronouncement that the First Amendment applies to trademark registrations, and that a long-criticized prohibition on “disparaging” trademarks could no longer stand. The portion of the trademark act that fell was Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.S. § 1052(a). Then, the Department of Justice conceded that § 2(a) was no longer enforceable in light of In re Tam. We do not believe that given the breadth of the Court’s Tam decision and in view of the totality of the
Something Doesn’t Click Here
A Missouri professor has gotten more than her share of negative pixels this year. I actually decided after my last column on her that I was done writing about her. Even when she claimed that her now-infamous plea for “some muscle over here” was not the real her. I resisted. “I try to remember that’s only one moment of a full day, and only one moment in a 12-year career,” she said. (source) And after she hired a public relations team to give her a makeover, she now claims that the real reason she got fired is because she was the scapegoat for a racist patriarchy or something. (source) Ok, fuck it, I’ll write about this idiot again. From her
Randazza: Something Doesn’t Click Here
A Missouri professor has gotten more than her share of negative pixels this year. I actually decided after my last column on her that I was done writing about her. Even when she claimed that her now-infamous plea for “some muscle over here” was not the real her. I resisted. “I try to remember that’s only one moment of a full day, and only one moment in a 12-year career,” she said. (source) And after she hired a public relations team to give her a makeover, she now claims that the real reason she got fired is because she was the scapegoat for a racist patriarchy or something. (source) Ok, fuck it, I’ll write about this idiot again. From her
The Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Case
Marc Randazza was quoted in Business Insider today about the first amendment issues in the Hulk Hogan sex tape suit against Gawker Media. Hulk Hogan’s sex tape is hardly the Pentagon Papers, but the outlet might have had a right to publish the clip even if it wasn’t in the best taste. “I could see maybe posting a few seconds to show it’s authentic,” Randazza said. “But what was the journalistic necessity of the entire minute? I think that’s a hair that ought to be split.” “Do journalistic outlets have a right to publish that?” continues Randazza. “My conclusion is this: God help us, but unfortunately yes. May [James] Madison have mercy on our souls for what we’ve done with the First Amendment.”
Is the First Amendment safe from Donald Trump?
I write this as someone who was willing to vote for Trump. This gives me great pause…. Donald Trump has said a lot of strange things — some funny, some creepy, but none scarier than what he said on Friday: that if he is elected president, he will “open up our libel laws” to make it easier to sue the media and “win lots of money.” No matter what you may think about his other policy ideas, if he keeps this promise, we won’t be able to effectively express dissent against anything else he might want to do. We can fight any bad policy if we have a robust First Amendment. Read the rest on CNN. This post originally appeared
Pirate Apprenticeships
by Jay Marshall Wolman How quaint the ways of Paradox! At common sense she gaily mocks! Though counting in the usual way, Years twenty-one I’ve been alive. Yet, reckoning by my natal day, Yet, reckoning by my natal day, I am a little boy of five! -The Pirates of Penzance, “When You had Left Our Pirate Fold” In Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Frederic was apprenticed to a pirate (his nursemaid misheard “pilot”) until he reached twenty-one. He was born, however, on February 29, leap day. Thus, when he had lived twenty-one years, he had only celebrated five and a quarter birthdays, and a quandary ensued as to whether Frederic was liberated from his apprenticeship. Last night, the U.S.
Randazza: Is the First Amendment safe from Donald Trump?
I write this as someone who was willing to vote for Trump. This gives me great pause…. Donald Trump has said a lot of strange things — some funny, some creepy, but none scarier than what he said on Friday: that if he is elected president, he will “open up our libel laws” to make it easier to sue the media and “win lots of money.” No matter what you may think about his other policy ideas, if he keeps this promise, we won’t be able to effectively express dissent against anything else he might want to do. We can fight any bad policy if we have a robust First Amendment. Read the rest on CNN. Marc Randazza is the
From the Trenches at the Nevada Caucuses – Part 3 – Amongst Republicans
This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on the Nevada Caucuses. Here is the Previous episode, Part 2 3.0 – I enter the nest of the Republicans I approached the high school where the Republican Caucus was going to take place as if I were scrambling over rocks to approach Mordor. I hadn’t even told that many people where I was going. I calculated the odds in my head… 50-1, I would die here today. Not bad odds, but still. 75-1, sold into slavery. 14-1, gang raped with a plunger like Amadou DialloAbner Louima. Fistfight? Even money. I got out of my car and started following a woman who seemed to know where she was going. No yoga pants,
From the Trenches at the Nevada Caucuses – Part 3 – Amongst Republicans
This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on the Nevada Caucuses. Here is the Previous episode, Part 2 3.0 – I enter the nest of the Republicans I approached the high school where the Republican Caucus was going to take place as if I were scrambling over rocks to approach Mordor. I hadn’t even told that many people where I was going. I calculated the odds in my head… 50-1, I would die here today. Not bad odds, but still. 75-1, sold into slavery. 14-1, gang raped with a plunger like Amadou DialloAbner Louima. Fistfight? Even money. I got out of my car and started following a woman who seemed to know where she was going. No yoga pants,
