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Attorneys for Virginia House Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, say he and the institution he leads shouldn’t have to pay a roughly $800,000 legal bill tied to the racial gerrymandering suit House Republicans spent years fighting. Perkins Coie, a Democratic-aligned law firm that filed the suit in late 2014 on behalf of a group of African American voters, is seeking to recover almost $4.6 million from the state to cover its legal work and expenses related to the case. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a final appeal by House Republicans, declining to reverse a lower court ruling that found 11 House districts were unconstitutional. In a motion filed in federal court last week, attorneys with BakerHostetler, the firm representing Cox and the House, said their side is not willing to concede that Perkins Coie and the plaintiffs won the case. They said the “winning argument” before the Supreme Court — that the House lacked legal standing to appeal — was advanced by Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring and U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, an appointee of President Donald Trump.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
McClatchy in a new court motion called Rep. Devin Nunes’ lawsuit against the media company a “cynical maneuver to score cheap political points” and argued the case should be dismissed because it does not belong in the Virginia court where the California Republican filed it. Nunes, R-Tulare, in April sued McClatchy alleging his hometown paper The Fresno Bee defamed him in the midst of his 2018 reelection campaign. McClatchy on Monday filed to dismiss Nunes’ lawsuit in Virginia, arguing he has no grounds to sue the Sacramento-based company there. The article at issue was published in California, the company’s headquarters is in California and Nunes has offices in California and not in Virginia. None of the 30 daily newspapers owned by McClatchy publishes in Virginia. McClatchy also argues that Nunes is violating a user agreement by attempting to sue the company in Virginia. Nunes has subscribed to The Fresno Bee online since September 2016, and he agreed in the terms of service to file lawsuits against the newspaper in Fresno County courts.“Unlike Virginia’s anti-SLAPP statute, California’s anti-SLAPP statute gives defendants the right to obtain attorneys’ fees and costs for defending ‘strategic lawsuits against political participation,’ like this one,” McClatchy’s motion to dismiss reads.
McClatchy
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