• Kairos@lemmy.today
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    7 months ago

    We really need to stack the supreme court.

    “Well republicans!—” …are already doing it in state supreme courts.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    All that notwithstanding, Google cutting the check is a concession to the merits of the Antitrust Division’s case. As Lee Hepner put it, “If it wasn’t clear already, Google is acknowledging that actual monetary damages, even if trebled, are an insufficient deterrent for a trillion dollar entity to illegally maintain a monopoly.”

    There are a couple of things going on here. First, Google has an unlimited budget for its antitrust defense, and it also does an immense amount of product testing. It’s quite likely that it did mock trials in front of test juries, and found that the outcome probably wasn’t good. The judge in the case, Leonie Brinkema, has been pretty annoyed at Google, so it’s not a promising outcome if they go with a bench trial. But they will bet on the judge than a jury. Second, circuit courts are usually more reluctant to overturn a jury than a judge, so Google wants Brinkema to have to author an opinion that they can then try to overturn.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    7 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    This week, liquor monopolist David Trone lost a Democratic primary despite spending $60 million, the Supreme Court overwhelmingly ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is constitutional, and Google actually offered money to the Antitrust Division to try and avoid having a case go to a jury.

    They just cut a check for all proposed harms, tripled it in accordance with the Sherman Act’s treble damages charge, and claimed that the point is moot.

    Google hired a fancy medieval scholar, a guy at a Scottish university named Professor John Hudson, to explain how the founders were libertarians who thought the public was dumb.

    I’ve watched a bunch of antitrust trials, and it’s clear that judges have too much power, and that having normal people involved would be a significant improvement.

    As Lee Hepner put it, “If it wasn’t clear already, Google is acknowledging that actual monetary damages, even if trebled, are an insufficient deterrent for a trillion dollar entity to illegally maintain a monopoly.”

    The judge in the case, Leonie Brinkema, has been pretty annoyed at Google, so it’s not a promising outcome if they go with a bench trial.


    The original article contains 675 words, the summary contains 190 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    His article mentions that the Supreme Court ruled the CFPB is unconstitutional, but I hadn’t even seen that. I couldn’t read about google after reading that. What in the fuck

      • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Oh, good. I misread it, my b. I was wondering how I hadn’t heard this devastating news earlier.

  • lud@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    Kinda fair actually. What’s the point of having uneducated people judge things they don’t understand? Let the professionals handle it.

          • lud@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            Lol, that’s a stupid name.

            My username is just my previous username but truncated because I could.

            But yes fortunately jury’s doesn’t exist in my country except in some very specific cases.

            • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              Ah. The Luddites may have had a stupid name but they were proto socialists who were so actively slandered most people don’t know they were a social movement that was actually fine with technology if skilled labor didn’t have to suffer for its implementation.

              • lud@lemm.ee
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                7 months ago

                You were referring to the luddites?

                I thought you were referring to “King Lud” of Britain from pre-roman times that might or might not have existed and allegedly founded London.

                • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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                  7 months ago

                  Well yeah, I’m talking about social good vs advancing the means of production in the interests of the capital holding class

  • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    The entire concept of having idiots from the area decide your fate went out of style with the wild west. The average person has no ghastly idea what the case is even about. These are people that don’t even know the difference between WiFi, “the internet”, and google itself.

    If you really want a jury for a technical discussion it should be a jury of technical people versed in the subject.

    But overall, ban jury duty. Archaic stupid process.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Juries are vital. Yes we should be able to select for understanding and knowledge, but they’re also there to represent the will of the people from whom the government derives its power.

      If the people are too uneducated to understand things then maybe we need to fund education better.

      • maryjayjay@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        They are not vital. Almost no countries in the world practice trial by jury other than The US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and Ireland. The US is the only country in the world that uses trial by jury for civil cases.

        The law is complex and nuanced. Most people lack the understanding and background to apply the law justly and uniformly. It is an antiquated idea that should go.