Medical Licensing Board sides with Attorney General Todd Rokita, finds abortion doctor liable for violating three counts of privacy laws
The Office of Attorney General Todd Rokita released the following statement regarding the Medical Licensing Board's decision:
"Like we have said for a year, this case was about patient privacy and the trust between the doctor and patient that was broken. What if it was your child or your parent or your sibling who was going through a sensitive medical crisis, and the doctor, who you thought was on your side, ran to the press for political reasons? It’s not right, and the facts we presented today made that clear. We appreciate the Medical Licensing Board’s extraordinary time and consideration. My team did a great job getting the Truth out. Caitlin Bernard was found liable for violating state and federal patient privacy law on three separate counts."
Attorney General Todd Rokita doubles down on TikTok
Cooper & Kirk attorneys tell court: It’s hardly political posturing
to show how the Chinese government steals Americans’ identities,
even their facial features
Attorneys at Cooper & Kirk recently joined Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita in his ongoing fight to hold TikTok accountable for collecting personal data from app users — information that is then accessible to the Chinese Communist Party. Today, the Office of the Indiana Attorney General filed an amended lawsuit against TikTok.
“The district court’s criticisms of the initial complaint were misguided and unfounded,” said David Thompson of Cooper & Kirk, the state’s lead outside counsel. “Is it considered 'irrelevant posturing' to express concern that Americans may be unknowingly posing for CCP facial recognition files?”
Even journalists at left-leaning CNN have now accepted the credibility of testimony “that the Chinese Communist Party accessed the data of TikTok users on a broad scale, and for political purposes.” Recent sworn testimony from a former employee of ByteDance, TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company, reveals the depths of their deception.
Such testimony provides just one example of TikTok’s insidious practices — despite the company sparing no expense to deny it to Congress, the media and American consumers.
"TikTok has engaged in a massive PR campaign in which their statements and omissions paint a false, deceptive and misleading picture for Indiana consumers that there is minimal risk of the Chinese government accessing and exploiting their data," Thompson added.
In December 2022, Attorney General Rokita led the way by filing two separate lawsuits against TikTok — both related to false claims made by the company about its video-sharing app. This week, Attorney General Rokita amended the state’s data-privacy complaint against TikTok to reflect the recent revelations that TikTok users’ data is subject to Chinese law and may be intercepted by the Chinese government.
Previously, TikTok removed the state’s case to federal court, but on May 23 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana agreed with Attorney General Rokita’s office that the case should proceed in state court. The district court criticized the complaint as "posturing" — an opinion not shared by the patriots fighting against TikTok.
“Not only do TikTok’s false, deceptive and misleading practices blatantly violate Indiana law — but they also endanger individual Hoosiers,” Attorney General Rokita said. “Too many U.S. policymakers put their heads in the sand while the Chinese Communist Party steals data and uses it to advance its own strategic agenda."
The amended complaint is attached.
Amended TikTok Lawsuit.pdf
Attorney General Todd Rokita leads fight against FTC’s actions on cancer screening company merger
Attorney General Todd Rokita is leading 12 states seeking to free companies from unconstitutional federal constraints that hinder such crucial work as the development of life-saving cancer screens.
Attorney General Rokita’s action comes in response to a decision by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block a vertical merger of two companies working to develop a product that can screen for more than 50 types of cancer in asymptomatic patients.
“We’re standing up for Hoosiers’ health, the public interest and the legitimate rule of law,” Attorney General Rokita said. “An agency committed to a simplistic ‘big is bad’ approach that wields executive enforcement power is dangerous to free enterprise — and in this case dangerous to Hoosiers who could benefit from these life-saving cancer screenings.”
The FTC, citing antitrust concerns, lost its case in front of an FTC administrative law judge in 2022. The agency persisted in its agenda to block the merger and took its case to the friendliest tribunal possible — the FTC Board of Commissioners — which overturned the administrative law judge’s decision and ordered divestiture of the two companies.
On behalf of Indiana and the 11 other states, Attorney General Rokita submitted an amicus brief in support of petitioners Illumina Inc. and Grail Inc. — who are asking the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to review the FTC Board of Commissioners decision blocking the merger of cancer screening test developer Grail and its former parent company, Illumina.
To read more about the underlying legal issues in this case, see the brief — which is attached.
Filed Amicus Brief, Illumina v. FTC, No. 23-60167.pdf
Lawsuit against Avid Telecom represents Rokita administration's fifth major case against robocallers
Attorney General Todd Rokita has filed a lawsuit against an Arizona-based company allegedly responsible for facilitating billions of robocalls.
As part of a coalition of 48 states and the District of Columbia, Attorney General Rokita sued Michael D. Lansky LLC — which does business under the name Avid Telecom. The lawsuit also names owner Michael Lansky and a vice president, Stacey S. Reeves.
“Hoosiers are sick and tired of these annoying robocalls that not only interrupt their lives but also violate state and federal laws,” Attorney General Rokita said. “Rest assured that we will keep going after these illegal robocallers with the same dogged aggressiveness that we’ve shown since Day One.”
The complaint alleges that Avid Telecom sent or transmitted more than 7.5 billion calls to telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry — violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and other federal and state telemarketing and consumer laws.
Avid Telecom is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider that sells data, phone numbers, dialing software, and/or expertise to help its customers make mass robocalls.
The company allegedly sent or transmitted scam calls representing Social Security Administration scams, Medicare scams, auto warranty scams, Amazon scams, DirecTV scams, credit card interest rate reduction scams, and employment scams. You may listen to examples of some of these scam calls here and here.
The USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group, which notifies providers about known and suspected illegal robocalls sent across their networks, sent at least 329 notifications to Avid Telecom that it was transmitting these calls, but Avid Telecom continued to do so.
Attorney General Rokita has already sued one of Avid Telecom’s customers in Texas federal court. Avid Telecom helped that customer send more than 4 billion robocalls between May 2019 and March 2021.
This legal action arises from the nationwide Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force of 51 bipartisan attorneys general. Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina lead the task force — which is investigating and taking legal action against those responsible for routing significant volumes of illegal robocall traffic into and across the United States.
The Federal Trade Commission and the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General provided investigative assistance in this matter.
If you wish to report illegal robocallers or any other scams, log onto indianaconsumer.com to file a complaint.
A copy of the complaint is attached.
Attorney General Todd Rokita leads 18-state lawsuit challenging unlawful open-borders policies
‘Circumvention of Lawful Pathways’ rule is a sham and smoke screen
Attorney General Todd Rokita is leading an 18-state lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s proposed new “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule — a policy debacle that continues the federal government’s recent reckless and unlawful coddling of illegal immigrants.
“In a truly Orwellian twist, the federal government has depicted this latest measure as a tool for reducing illegal immigration,” Attorney General Rokita said. “As a matter of fact, this new rule would make it even easier to illegally immigrate into the United States — and everyday Hoosiers right here in Indiana would pay the price. I’m grateful to the other states that have joined our lawsuit to stop this egregious violation of existing U.S. law.”
Federal bureaucrats rolled out the proposed new rule due to the expiration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Title 42 public health order, which gave authorities greater ability to bar illegal immigrants from crossing the border during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new rule, however, essentially tries to define the problem away by re-characterizing border crossings as “lawful pathways” that previously would have been illegal.
“We're now seeing more than 10,000 illegal border crossings occurring within some 24-hour periods,” Attorney General Rokita said. “These are the highest numbers ever, and a large portion of these people are hardened criminals and cartel members. We cannot long endure this kind of invasion.”
Attorney General Rokita also thanked his own team for their hard work organizing the multistate coalition and filing the lawsuit — including Betsy DeNardi, Director of Complex Litigation, and Corrine Youngs, Policy Director and Legislative Counsel.
The lawsuit is attached.
Lawful Pathways Filed Complaint.pdf
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