Washington
High court to hear case about Andy Warhol art, Prince photo
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review a copyright dispute involving works of art by the artist Andy Warhol that were based on a photograph of the musician Prince.
A lower court had at first said the artwork created before Warhol’s 1987 death was “fair use” of the photograph by Lynn Goldsmith because it had transformed the original work. But the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. The Supreme Court said it would review that ruling. The case will be argued sometime after the court begins its new term in October.
Warhol created a series of 16 artworks based on a 1981 photo of Prince taken by Goldsmith, a pioneering photographer known for portraits of famous musicians. The series came about after Vanity Fair commissioned Warhol to create an illustration of Prince in 1984 to accompany a magazine article.
The magazine paid $400 to license Goldsmith’s photograph for Warhol to use as a reference to create his own work.
The agreement limited the use of the photograph to the single instance in the magazine and required Vanity Fair to give credit to Goldsmith, among other things. In 2016, after Prince’s death, the magazine published a tribute issue with one of Warhol’s works on the cover. It did not include credit to Goldsmith. Goldsmith has said it was only then that she became aware of the Prince series.
The dispute the court agreed to hear is between the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, which now licenses Warhol’s works, and Goldsmith.
Alabama
Judge tosses suit over hazing claims on prep football team
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Former high school football players and their parents can’t sue an ex-coach and others over claims that young team members were beaten in a hazing ritual, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer dismissed a lawsuit seeking $12 million from former Davidson High School coach Fred Riley, three of his assistant coaches and school officials, WALA-TV reported Monday. Riley was ousted over the allegations in 2018.
One incident resulted in a broken arm to then-freshman quarterback Rodney Kim, who was shown on cellphone video being beaten by several players after he was promoted to the varsity team. Twenty players were involved, Mobile police said at the time, and several were arrested.
But the coaches and school leaders can’t be sued because of qualified immunity that shields government employees unless the law clearly shows a violation of constitutional rights, the judge ruled. Even if the violence did happen, Moorer ruled, there wasn’t any evidence that the Riley or the others had a plan to hurt players.
Charles Bonner, an attorney for one-time players and their parents, said he plans an appeal. “The court, essentially, allowed the children to be unprotected,” said Bonner.
A spokeswoman for the Mobile County Public School System, Rena Phillips, said it is “unfortunate that this incident occurred. But we’re pleased that the judge found it was not the fault of these employees.”
Evidence showed that the coach once told his players to “knock it off” when he saw them in spring 2017 assaulting another team member, resulting in a broken collarbone. Riley also reprimanded players who had assaulted two other players, the judge noted.
The suit argued that Riley allowed a “custom of hazing” that amounted to excessive corporal punishment, but the judge said the coaches’ actions didn’t violate a legal standard.
Massachusetts
Judge suspended for inappropriate touching resigns
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts judge suspended after the state’s highest court found that he groped a court employee during a conference in 2019 and then lied about his conduct has resigned.
Associate Probate and Family Court Judge Paul M. Sushchyk tendered his resignation in a one-sentence letter to Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday.
The Supreme Judicial Court in a ruling last week that upheld a decision by the Commission on Judicial Conduct suspended Sushchyk “for a reasonable time to permit the executive and legislative branches to consider, if they wish, whether he should retain his judicial office.”
The SJC said Sushchyk’s “intentional wrongdoing — both the unwanted touching of the complainant and the lying that followed — violated the canons of judicial conduct.”
A message seeking comment was sent to Sushchyk’s attorney.
The alleged inappropriate contact occurred at a three-day judicial conference in April 2019, the SJC said. Sushchyk walked behind the seated woman at a restaurant and put his hand on her buttock for several seconds, the SJC said.
Sushchyk in his written explanation to the Commission on Judicial Conduct said he reached out to steady himself and accidentally touched the woman.
Sushchyk was nominated by Baker in January 2018.
Washington
Naturopathic doctor sentenced for selling misbranded drugs
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A former Port Angeles naturopathic physician was sentenced to eight months in prison and one year supervised release after being found guilty of selling products he claimed could prevent numerous serious diseases, including COVID-19.
Richard Marschall, 69, was convicted in 2021, after a four-day trial, of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce, his third conviction, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. The jury found that his marketing was false or misleading and because his products were not listed with the FDA.
At the sentencing hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle said, “It is extremely dangerous during the COVID epidemic for people to be engaged in conduct that would lead other people to defer and wait to receive medical care.”
Marschall was convicted previously and sentenced in federal court for distributing misbranded drugs, both in 2011 and again in 2017.
“Mr. Marschall has a history of lying to patients about their health and his proposed treatments. His lies in this case are particularly troubling because he employed them when advising others about a deadly pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.
“As people became fearful and searched for answers, Marschall touted an unproven treatment as a miracle cure for the deadly disease.”
