I’m going to have to drop offline to make slides for my evening class soon, but here are a few quick thoughts on the settling parties’ bombshell announcement that they’re renegotiating the settlement and need time to do it:
- It’s interesting that they haven’t withdrawn the motion for settlement approval, only asked for a delay in the hearing. (Leaving the door open to try again with the current settlement if negotiations fail?)
- Since last October, the settling parties have been saying that renegotiation would kill the settlement, since the original round was so contentious. Looks like the DoJ successfully called that bluff.
- I may be misreading the motion, but they seem to think that they couldn’t have new text ready by October 7, but may be able to have it by November 6. Or at least, they’ll commit to a schedule then.
- People have already made travel plans to come to New York and may not like the rescheduling. But the original purpose of the hearing—a debate over whether to approve the settlement as is—is now all but moot.
- I have a hard time seeing Judge Chin denying the motion. I could be wrong, but pretty much everyone is now telling him to wait. Trial judges don’t like to force an issue if there’s a chance it could go away by mutual agreement.
D is for Digitize is still on, for October 8–10. We won’t have the one-two with the fairness hearing, but we will offer a rare chance to be part of the conversation over what the revised settlement should look like. Come join us—there’s still space available!