Court Watch

Court Watch

@courtwatch.bsky.social

The Definitive Source for Legal News. www.courtwatch.news Our original reporting has been the basis of hundreds of national and local news stories.

1,771 Followers 1 Following 152 Posts Joined Nov 2024
2 days ago
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Undercover informants. A crime lab. Operations like Middleman, Chameleon & Long Tailed Liberation.

For more than a century, one law has protected all of god's little creatures

Our Sunday story on the most important conservation act you've never heard of

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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4 days ago

Come for the legal writing smackdown, stay for the music recommendations. Never heard of Nathan Evans Fox before this morning and now I have his song stuck in my head. It’s a cousin song to Childer’s “Bitin’ List”

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4 days ago
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#166: "Good Luck Reading This” A federal judge trolls about font sizes. Plus: Judicial walls closing in on DOGE, Tariff refunds, U.S. Attorney’s office can’t do tables, and the State Department’s $20,000 payment to a news organizat...

Try as we might, we don’t think we’d ever reach the level of petty disdain that is oozing from these footnotes in this judge’s opinion.

www.courtwatch.news/p/166-good-l...

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1 week ago
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The Rabbit Hole: Exploiting A.I. to Exploit Children As artificial intelligence makes it easier to create explicit images of children, prosecutors and judges grapple with how to respond.

In this week’s The Rabbit Hole, reporter Peter Beck takes a look at how the distance between cutting-edge technology and decades-old criminal statutes is impacting our ability to protect the most vulnerable of society.

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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1 week ago
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Complaint – #1 in L.C. v. TRUMP (D.D.C., 1:26-cv-00688) – CourtListener.com Complaint

Francesca Albanese has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over sanctions.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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1 week ago
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FBI Got Grok to Hand Over Prompts Used to Create Nonconsensual Porn The FBI obtained prompts used to make more than 200 sexual videos of a woman in a harassment case.

A scoop with our friends at @404media.co

The FBI got a search warrant for X to provide details on the Grok prompts a man allegedly used to create more than 200 nonconsensual sexual videos of a woman he knew in real life.

www.courtwatch.news/p/fbi-got-gr...

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2 weeks ago
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The Rabbit Hole: Drugs, Death, and Rock Roll A federal investigation in Nebraska uncovered a nationwide drug operation that earned hundreds of millions of dollars. But it was there a larger untold story about the L.A. music scene, fine art, and ...

Who will own the Andy Warhol taken by law enforcement?

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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2 weeks ago
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The Rabbit Hole: Drugs, Death, and Rock Roll A federal investigation in Nebraska uncovered a nationwide drug operation that earned hundreds of millions of dollars. But it was there a larger untold story about the L.A. music scene, fine art, and ...

"To get a sense of how two struggling artists become purported drug kingpins, one must start at a famous L.A. music studio almost twenty years ago. Long before Nebraska law enforcement searched through trash bags overflowing with cold hard cash."

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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2 weeks ago
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#164: Epstein Estate Settles for Millions But doesn’t admit guilt? Plus: Slushie Forgery Scandal, Trump Arch, 764, Kevin O’Leary, Kicking Flight Attendants, and 764. Also: Here for Antifa? Turn left and drive straight for 32 miles.

We were passed up for the George Polk award for the 3rd year in a row.

It forced us to do a deeply researched investigation into the root causes of why independent news organizations like Court Watch are routinely ignored by journalist awards committees.

www.courtwatch.news/p/164-epstei...

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2 weeks ago

this is really good.

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3 weeks ago
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The Rabbit Hole: Covering the Courts from a Windowless Office For more than a decade, Rachel Weiner, until quite recently a Washington Post journalist, chronicled the news involving the D.C. metropolitan area, which included stints at the Eastern District of Vir...

New Piece: Court Watch commissioned @rachelweiner.bsky.social , until quite recently a journalist at the Washington Post, to write about reporting on the fastest court district in America and what is lost when there are no assigned reporters left to cover it.

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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3 weeks ago
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Last week, @tylermcbrien.com sat down with @pwbeck.bsky.social and @seamushughes.bsky.social to discuss what happens when “dockets die in darkness" in ‘news deserts,’ that are devoid of even a single newspaper, let alone a reporter dedicated to its federal court.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFZd...

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3 weeks ago
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Good catch here, via @courtwatch.bsky.social. Another college baseball player is suing the NCAA over athlete eligibility rules.

Baseball player at Nevada who previously played at DII and NAIA schools

www.courtlistener.com/docket/72253...

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3 weeks ago
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#163: Exclusive (!): CBS Protects it Flagship Television Programming Just not the one it should. Meanwhile our cortisol levels spiked from PACERmaxxing so many cases this week. Plus: AI hallucinations, Fulton County Searches, 764 lawyering, and Perry Mason

Exclusive (!): CBS Protects it Flagship Television Programming

www.courtwatch.news/p/163-exclus...

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3 weeks ago

A conversation about our recent story looking at federal courts that have no reporters watching. Read the original piece here:

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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3 weeks ago
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On Lawfare Daily, @tylermcbrien.com sat down with @pwbeck.bsky.social and @seamushughes.bsky.social to discuss the impact of ‘news deserts,’ a place that is largely devoid of even a newspaper that can cover its federal court and what happens when “dockets die in darkness.” youtu.be/oFZd2G--dJI

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1 month ago
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The Rabbit Hole: 4th & Felony On Superbowl Sunday, we look back at the intersection of crime and sports in the justice system.

In honor of Super Bowl Sunday —

From gambling rings to presidential pardons, reporters Peter Beck and Gigi Liman tell the stories of athletes who excelled on the field of play but performed poorly against federal prosecutors

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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1 month ago

Maybe support independent news and help us keep making court records free to the public?

Become a paid subscriber:
www.courtwatch.news/upgrade

Make a one time donation: www.CourtWatch.news/tipjar

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1 month ago
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hello darkness my old friend

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1 month ago
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#162: Nazis 🤝Hezbollah Things took a surprising turn in one Tennessee arson case. Plus: Judge orders deported families returned, Biden-era Congressional warrants will stay hidden, Minneapolis U.S. Attorneys office stops inv...

Among other interesting filings this week: Late last night, a federal judge ordered four deported families to be brought back to the U.S. at the government’s expense.

www.courtwatch.news/p/162-nazis-...

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1 month ago
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In a unique minute order, a federal judge praises an Assistant U.S. Attorney on a case she ruled against him on.

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1 month ago
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The Rabbit Hole: Dockets Die in Darkness Among the 17 counties in Georgia that don’t have a single local news source, 12 of them are in the Middle District of Georgia’s jurisdiction. This week, we sought to examine the dockets dying in the d...

212 counties in the US are "news deserts", without a single local news source. (Another 1,525 are limited to 1 source, usually a weekly lite-paper.) @courtwatch.bsky.social shows us what's missing in these deserts with a focus on the middle district of Georgia. www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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1 month ago
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The Rabbit Hole: Dockets Die in Darkness Among the 17 counties in Georgia that don’t have a single local news source, 12 of them are in the Middle District of Georgia’s jurisdiction. This week, we sought to examine the dockets dying in the d...

“There are dozens of other federal court districts around the country that lack well-resourced newsrooms and dedicated legal reporters. The solution can not be a three-year-old news startup, such as Court Watch, briefly devoting 2,000 words to a district..”

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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1 month ago
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The Rabbit Hole: Dockets Die in Darkness Among the 17 counties in Georgia that don’t have a single local news source, 12 of the counties are in the Middle District of Georgia’s jurisdiction. This week, we sought to highlight the dockets dyin...

We dropped our paywall for this new piece.

Court Watch picked one of the largest ‘news deserts’ in the South and examined all the new court dockets that went unreported to tell a larger story about the need for local journalism

‘Dockets Die In Darkness’

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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1 month ago
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The Rabbit Hole: When Overthrowing A Government Goes Wrong. While the former Venezuelan President faces federal charges after being captured by the U.S. military, we looked back at the stories of would-be coups by civilians that went awry and their intersectio...

New this morning: While the former Venezuelan President faces federal charges after being captured by the U.S. military, we looked back at the stories of would-be coups by civilians that went awry and their intersection with the federal courts.

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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1 month ago
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#1 in My Pillow, Inc. v. ACI International (D. Minnesota, 0:26-cv-00570) – CourtListener.com COMPLAINT against ACI International, Inc. (filing fee $ 405, receipt number BMNDC-12566986) filed by My Pillow, Inc.. Filer requests summons issued. (Attachments: # 1 Civil Cover Sheet) (Berens, Barba...

Who among us doesn’t read the 20th paragraph of a lawsuit between and pillow company and a slipper manufacturer. Court link here. Please credit Court Watch if you write it up.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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1 month ago
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In a court filing over a payment dispute, My Pillow includes a screenshot of an Jan 21 email where Mike Lindell offers a portion of a potential USGovt settlement over the Artic Frost investigation to the company My Pillow owes money to.

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1 month ago
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#160: Hacking For Press Release? We found the only person in the world who wanted to receive a press release. Plus: Shotgun Weddings, Frosting Cakes, Seizing Reporter Records, and we may very well become a U.S. Attorney soon enough.

In this week’s roundup of the most interesting federal court documents, we found a loophole to get free PACER.

www.courtwatch.news/p/160-hackin...

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1 month ago
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A federal judge bars Lindsey Halligan from using the title US Attorney in filings

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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1 month ago
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The Rabbit Hole: ‘Metastasizing Evil’ A nihilistic online group is targeting minors. We examined the prosecutions aimed at stopping what the Justice Department calls "one of the most heinous online child exploitation enterprises we have e...

A nihilistic online group is targeting minors. In this week's Rabbit Hole, we examined the prosecutions aimed at stopping what the Justice Department calls "one of the most heinous online child exploitation enterprises we have ever encountered"

www.courtwatch.news/p/the-rabbit...

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