Suing advertisers

"Mr. Free Speech"
is also availing himself of the courts to try to force companies to advertise on X.

On Tuesday, X filed a lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers ( #WFA ),
an advertising trade group,
in the Wichita Falls Division of the Northern District of Texas.

Why Wichita Falls, some 300 miles from Austin, where Tesla is located?

Because the Northern District of Texas enthusiastically embraces judge shopping,
and every case in Wichita Falls goes to #Reed #OConnor,
a George W. Bush appointee who
routinely tries to throw out the whole of the Affordable Care Act
and is a reliable vote for anything conservatives want.

The WFA announced Thursday that it’s shutting down because it does not have the financial resources to fight X in court.

Musk already has another case before Reed O’Connor on a similarly twisted legal theory.

Late last year, X sued Media Matters in O’Connor’s court after Media Matters accurately pointed out that ads were appearing next to the Nazi and white nationalist content that is rife on X now.

That case shouldn’t exist, period,
and it especially shouldn’t be in O’Connor’s courtroom.

As Mike Masnick pointed out over at Techdirt,
X is incorporated in Nevada,
with headquarters in California.

Media Matters is in DC, and the Media Matters writer named in the suit is in Maryland.

The only connection to Texas is that Reed O’Connor is very friendly to conservatives.

And O’Connor has already proven himself eager to help Musk along.

Although he’s a Tesla shareholder,
he has not recused himself from the case.

And even though Media Matters has a pending motion to dismiss
precisely because the lawsuit should not be in Texas,
O’Connor refused to stay discovery,
which means Media Matters is racking up litigation costs while O’Connor sits on the motion to dismiss, pending since March.

Back to the advertisers and X’s latest lawsuit.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino did an “open letter” explaining why X is suing the WFA,
the Global Alliance for Responsible Media,
and four individual companies
— CVS Health, Mars, Orsted, and Unilever.

It’s an antitrust lawsuit over what X calls an “illegal boycott”
that has “cost X billions of dollars.”

How dare companies not advertise on X,
which Yaccarino calls a “unique, dynamic, and safe environment”?

The failure of private companies to give Musk and Yaccarino money is,
per Yaccarino,
“threatening your global town square.”

Had the federal courts not gone full Calvinball over the last several years, it would be easy to say this nonsense would be thrown out.

These are #private #companies,
and to the extent they are boycotting X, they have a #First #Amendment #right to do so
— in two ways:

First, boycotts based on political reasons,
such as not wanting to support Nazis,
are considered #protected #speech.

Next, the First Amendment provides for #freedom of #association and freedom from association.

You aren’t obliged to engage in speech you find morally repugnant
or spend money subsidizing someone else’s speech you find repugnant.

Indeed, that concept is at the heart of so much litigation by evangelical conservatives who don’t want to bake a cake for a same-sex couple or allow their insurer to provide birth control for their employees.

But don’t expect Reed O’Connor or any other conservative judges to display the same tender concern for Media Matters
or companies that don’t want their ads to run next to hate speech.

Musk is, without a doubt, a uniquely terrible individual.

While his wealth and fame would always insulate him from some level of consequences,
thanks to the dysfunctional federal judiciary, these days,
he can truly thrive.

Republican AGs play the critical role.

They are the people who, under their own authority, can bend the law to their will and weaponize it against vulnerable communities.

There are currently 27 of them, and they include future Newsmax hosts like
Kansas AG Kris #Kobach, who finds his joy in suing to stop Joe Biden’s student debt relief program;
Florida AG Ashley #Moody, who spends her days fighting whatever “wokeness” conspiracy exists in her head at any given moment;
and Texas AG Ken #Paxton, who has effectively decided to make up his own immigration laws and enforce them at the point of a gun.

Republicans realized long ago that state AGs represent the steel gauntlet inside the velvet glove of states’ rights.

They also realized that they needed an organization to help them make that vision real,
so in 1999 they created one: the
Republican Attorneys General Association.

Much like the Democratic National Committee or the Republican National Committee or any number of partisan-affiliated outfits,
#RAGA identifies candidates, supports their efforts to win elections, and imposes national Republican priorities at the state level
—though that’s far from all it does.

The association sees its mission as “Defending the Rule of Law. Keeping America Safe”
and hails itself as “America’s last line of defense.”

You’d think that means keeping states safe from criminals and fraudsters,
but in most cases RAGA AGs think they’re “defending” us from transgender kids who need to use the bathroom or Uber drivers who take people across state lines to get abortions.

RAGA prosecutors share a hatred of reproductive rights, a love of guns, and an obsession with persecuting the LGBTQ community.

You probably didn’t need me to tell you that, though:
Hating women and gay people while using a .450 Bushmaster as a masculinity supplement when the testicle tanning wears off is simply standard GOP operating procedure these days.

But RAGA AGs are also committed to doing the dirty work for every other hellish Republican policy idea,
from destroying the environment to gutting voting rights to undermining vaccines, because apparently states need “defending” from science, facts, and public health.

No matter what awful thing they’re doing, the AGs always have enough money to do it.

RAGA is incredibly well-funded.
Federalist Society Svengali Leonard #Leo is a donor,
as are all the usual GOP donor-class supervillains,
including #Koch Industries, the #National #Rifle #Association, the #American #Petroleum #Institute, and a bunch of corporations, from #ExxonMobil to #CVS.

In exchange for this largesse, these corporations get more than one-off lawsuits or the occasional friendly AG.

Beyond backing individual officials, RAGA is involved with bigger, broader strategies.
RAGA attorneys general work hand-in-hand with preferred Trump judges to shape our national laws through targeted cases designed for appellate and eventually Supreme Court review.

They make rulings that trigger nationwide injunctions.

In recent months, RAGA AGs in 19 states have asserted their right to get access to the private medical records of patients seeking care out of state
—most likely so they can be prosecuted for receiving an abortion when they come back home.

In 13 states, RAGA AGs have threatened to sue companies over their diversity and inclusion programs.

Most of the time, the law is hiding in shadows, obscured under thick layers of jargon and confusing rules of procedure.

But RAGA attorneys general are not trying to hide the ball. They’re proud of their work.

These people are elected officials (many with ambitions for higher office), so when they menace a vulnerable community, they want you to know about it.