TRAMPLING ON THE ‘CONSTITUTION’? -  Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld sued the U.S. Small Business Administration and its administrator, Isabella Casillas Guzman, on Wednesday in District of Columbia District Court on behalf of Stairwell Productions, the producer of the national tour of Broadway play “What the Constitution Means to Me.” The suit is part of a string of cases pursuing APA claims in connection with the agency’s denial of emergency federal financial assistance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 1:22-cv-00863, Stairwell Productions, LLC v. Small Business Administration et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

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LEAVING HONG KONG - U.K. Supreme Court president Lord Robert Reed and his colleague Lord Patrick Hodge have resigned from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (HKCFA) over the threat to civil freedoms posed by the national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong, Law.com International’s Hannah Walker reports. The judges, the last two British judges serving on Hong Kong’s highest court, described their positions as having become “increasingly finely balanced”. The judges of the U.K. Supreme Court, and its predecessor the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, have sat on the HKCFA since 1997, fulfilling obligations undertaken by the U.K. government towards Hong Kong following its handover agreement to China. In a statement posted on the Supreme Court website, Reed said: “I have concluded, in agreement with the government, that the judges of the Supreme Court cannot continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression, to which the Justices of the Supreme Court are deeply committed.”

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