Discovery in Dispute in Charter Discrimination Complaint
Charter Communications and Entertainment Studios Network and National Association of African American Owned Media (ESN/NAAAOM) disagree whether the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles should lift a stay to permit discovery, said a joint status report (in Pacer). The stay…
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was issued in December while Charter seeks interlocutory appeal before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals of its unsuccessful bid to have the ESN/NAAAOM complaint alleging racial bias in the operator's programming choices tossed out (see 1612140054). Thursday, ESN/NAAAOM said it's almost certain that if the 9th Circuit permits interlocutory appeal it will let the lower court case proceed into discovery, but that 9th Circuit decision could take years. "The economical and equitable solution is for the Court to lift the stay to permit discovery so that the parties can prepare this case for trial after the Ninth Circuit provides guidance on the proper standard of review for Charter’s First Amendment defense," ESN/NAAAOM said. Charter said plaintiffs' request to brief the court is effectively a motion to reconsider the stay when there are no changed facts to warrant new briefing. "Plaintiffs’ dissatisfaction that the Ninth Circuit has not acted more quickly provides no basis for re-opening the issue of the stay," Charter said.