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Retired colonel weighs in on Putin suspending participation in nuclear arms pact with US
Retired US Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton weighs in on President Vladimir Putin's declaration that he is suspending Russia's participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty.
A big concern of justices seems to be what happens if the court rules against Google, namely a wave of lawsuits.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked Eric Schnapper, representing the plantiffs, to respond to various friend-of-the-court briefs warning of widespread disruption.
"We have a lot of amicus briefs that we have to take seriously that say this is going to cause" significant disruption, Kavanaugh said.
Schnapper argued that a ruling for Gonzalez would not have far-reaching effects because even if websites could face new liability as a result of the ruling, most suits would likely be thrown out anyway.
"The implications are limited," Schnapper argued, "because the kinds of circumstance in which a recommendation would be actionable are limited."
Many of the briefs Kavanaugh referenced had expressed fears of a deluge of litigation that could overwhelm startups and small businesses, whether or not they held any merit.
Later, Justice Elena Kagan warned that narrowing Section 230 could lead to a wave of lawsuits, even if many of them would eventually be thrown out, in a line of questioning with US Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart.
"You are creating a world of lawsuits," Kagan said. "Really, anytime you have content, you also have these presentational and prioritization choices that can be subject to suit."
Even as Stewart suggested many such lawsuits might not ultimately lead to anything, Justices Kavanaugh and Roberts appeared to take issue with the potential rise in lawsuits in the first place.
"Lawsuits will be nonstop," Kavanaugh said.
Chief Justice John Roberts mused that under a narrowed version of Section 230, terrorism-related cases might only be a small share of a much wider range of future lawsuits against websites alleging antitrust violations, discrimination, defamation and infliction of emotional distress, just to name a few.
"I wouldn't necessarily agree with 'there would be lots of lawsuits' simply because there are a lot of things to sue about, but they would not be suits that have much likelihood of prevailing, especially if the court makes clear that even after there's a recommendation, the website still can't be treated as the publisher or speaker of the underlying third party," Stewart said.
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Russia is suspending its participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.
Moscow is not withdrawing from the agreement, but is suspending its participation, Putin said in his state of the nation address.
Under the key nuclear arms control treaty, both the United States and Russia are permitted to conduct inspections of each others weapons sites, but inspections have been halted since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the New START treaty is still in force after a previous agreement between Moscow and Washington extended it through February 4, 2026.
According to US officials, Russia has continually refused to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities.
Russia is not complying with its obligation under the New START Treaty to facilitate inspection activities on its territory," a US State Department spokesperson said in January.
"Russias refusal to facilitate inspection activities prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control.
Some context: The New START treaty is the only agreement left regulating the worlds two largest nuclear arsenals.
The treaty puts limits on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that both the US and Russia can have. It was last extended in early 2021 for five years, meaning the two sides will soon need to begin negotiating on another arms control agreement.
A session of the Bilateral Consultative Commission on the treaty was slated to meet in Egypt in late November but was abruptly called off.
The US has blamed Russia for this postponement, with a State Department spokesperson saying the decision was made unilaterally by Russia.
