A judge fined two attorneys for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell $3,000 apiece Monday for filing a motion riddled with AI-generated errors in a case that resulted in a jury finding Lindell liable for defamation over false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

Judge Nina Y. Wang, of the U.S. District Court in Denver, found attorneys Christopher I. Kachouroff and Jennifer T. DeMaster violated court rules when they filed a motion that featured numerous errors, including misquotes from caselaw and citations from nonexistent cases.

Kachouroff acknowledged using generative artificial intelligence to draft a motion during a pretrial hearing after the mistakes were found.

Kachouroff initially argued that the error-ridden motion was filed by mistake. However, the version that Kachouroff said was the correct one still contained “substantive errors,” including some that weren’t in the filed version of the motion, and it had timestamps that did not align with his claims, Wang found.

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She said “contradictory statements and the lack of corroborating evidence” failed to persuade her that the AI-assisted filing was an inadvertent error, versus sanction-worthy negligence.

The judge also found Kachouroff’s responses, in which he tried to shift responsibility and suggested that the court attempted to “blindside” him over the errors, “troubling and not well-taken.” As Wang sought to determine if the AI-assisted motion was filed out of simple human error or was sanction-worthy, she wrote that neither Kachouroff nor DeMaster provided the court with “any explanation as to how those citations appeared in any draft of the Opposition absent the use of generative artificial intelligence or gross carelessness by counsel.”

Wang wrote that “this Court derives no joy from sanctioning attorneys who appear before it.” She settled on the $3,000 fines as “the least severe sanction adequate to deter and punish defense counsel in this instance.”

Kachouroff and DeMaster did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.

Lindell is not liable for the fines. Last month, he and his media company, FrankSpeech, were ordered to pay $2.3 million to Eric Coomer, the former director of security for Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, after the jury returned its verdict. Lindell, one of the most prominent pushers of the conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, had called Coomer “treasonous” and accused him of committing crimes.

BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal appeals court won’t reconsider its decision in a redistricting case that went against two Native American tribes that challenged North Dakota’s legislative redistricting map, and the dispute could be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case has drawn national interest because of a 2-1 ruling issued in May by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that erased a path through the federal Voting Rights Act for people in seven states to sue under a key provision of the landmark federal civil rights law. The tribes argued that the 2021 map violated the act by diluting their voting strength and ability to elect their own candidates.

The panel said only the U.S. Department of Justice can bring such lawsuits. That followed a 2023 ruling out of Arkansas in the same circuit that also said private individuals can’t sue under Section 2 of the law.

Those rulings conflict with decades of rulings by appellate courts in other federal circuits that have affirmed the rights of private individuals to sue under Section 2, creating a split that the Supreme Court may be asked to resolve. However, several of the high court’s conservative justices recently have indicated interest in making it harder, if not impossible, to bring redistricting lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act.

After the May decision, the Spirit Lake Tribe and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians asked the appeals court for a rehearing before all 11 judges. Attorneys general of 19 states, numerous former U.S. Justice Department attorneys, several voting rights historians and others also asked for a rehearing.

But in a ruling Thursday, the full court denied the request, which was filed by the Native American Rights Fund and other groups representing the tribes. Three judges said they would have granted it, including Circuit Chief Judge Steven Colloton, who had dissented in the previous ruling.

The majority opinion in May said that for the tribes to sue under the Voting Rights Act, the law would have had to “unambiguously” give private persons or groups the right to do so.

Lenny Powell, a staff attorney for the fund, said in a statement that the refusal to reconsider “wrongly restricts voters disenfranchised by a gerrymandered redistricting map” from challenging that map.

Powell said Monday that the tribes are now considering their legal options.

Another group representing the tribes, the Campaign Legal Center, said the ruling is “contrary to both the intent of Congress in enacting the law and to decades of Supreme Court precedent affirming voters’ power to enforce the law in court.”

The office of North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The groups said they will continue to fight to ensure fair maps. The North Dakota and Arkansas rulings apply only in the states of the 8th Circuit: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. In the wake of the Arkansas decision, Minnesota and other states have moved to shore up voting rights with state-level protections to plug the growing gaps in the federal law.

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The North Dakota tribes filed their lawsuit in 2022. The three-judge panel heard appeal arguments last October after Republican Secretary of State Michael Howe appealed a lower court’s November 2023 decision in favor of the tribes.

In that ruling, U.S. District Judge Peter Welte ordered creation of a new district that encompassed both tribes’ reservations, which are about 60 miles (97 kilometers) apart. In 2024, voters elected members from both tribes, all Democrats, to the district’s Senate seat and two House seats.

Republicans hold supermajority control of North Dakota’s Legislature.

A night before Minnesota United FC’s highly-touted U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal in St. Paul against the Chicago Fire, the Loons hosted a match with significantly lesser stakes.

That was reflected in the lineup.

Featuring a bunch of faces from Minnesota United 2 — the franchise’s reserve squad — and first teamers who haven’t seen much in the way of minutes thus far this season, the Loons played Holstein Kiel of the German Bundesliga to a 0-0, scoreless draw at Allianz Field in an international friendly Monday night in St. Paul.

The contest — played in front of a healthy crowd — provided a chance for a number of the Loons’ lesser-known players on the second team to take center stage.

One player who took advantage of the opportunity was Minnesota United backup goalie Alec Smir.

Holstein Kiel, which is in its preseason at the moment and currently gearing up toward its campaign and gaining information to finalize its roster, touted possession for most of the evening and fired eight shots on target.

Smir stopped them all.

The Loons, who emptied their bench over the course of the match, tallied just one shot on target on an evening where the likes of Tani Oluwaseyi and Kelvin Yeboah had the night off. Minnesota United didn’t push much offensively, especially down the stretch.

But the Loons were solid defensively, keeping much of Holstein Kiel’s activity to the outside. But Smir delivered whenever reasonable chances were produced, such as when he stopped a header in the 82nd minute that maintained the tie.

Devin Padelford picked up a yellow card in the 29th minute.

And now, for Minnesota United, it’s onto the match that matters on Tuesday evening, as it sits just three wins away from claiming a trophy.

“We must confront a basic but often overlooked truth: supporting small businesses means investing in the commercial districts they rely on.”

A small business in The Bronx in 2023. (Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit.)

This primary election season offered a powerful takeaway: new approaches can disrupt even the most entrenched establishments. Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, though lacking big money and relying heavily on digital tools, managed to reshape the conversation by deploying strategic tactics to connect with New Yorkers.

For our city’s small businesses, this lesson offers powerful possibilities about what’s achievable when underdogs embrace a new playbook—one that they too can use to survive and thrive.

In New York City, microbusinesses—those with fewer than 20 employees—account for roughly 15 percent of the city’s 4.3 million private-sector workers, employing approximately 635,000 people. This figure doesn’t even include the estimated 65,000 app-based delivery workers who support many of these businesses, nor the growing number of gig workers and sole proprietors who emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In New York City, these businesses are concentrated in industries like food service, retail, personal care, and professional services and are decidedly not located in shopping centers. Instead, they are central to the vitality of our city’s retail streets and corridors. That is why we must confront a basic but often overlooked truth: supporting small businesses means investing in the commercial districts they rely on.

Retail is undergoing a period of profound transition. Hybrid work has reshaped daytime foot traffic in many commercial districts, leading to a decline in weekday worker spending. At the same time, consumer behavior is increasingly shaped by social media—more than 60 percent of all retail sales are now digitally influenced, according to the National Retail Federation. Gen Z and Millennial shoppers—the first fully digital-native consumers—are coming to expect seamless experiences that bridge online and offline environments. And if small businesses can’t keep up, they risk falling behind.

But this moment isn’t just about technology. The fundamentals of street-level retail still matter. For retail districts to thrive in this new day and age, they must be places where people want to be. Based on decades of experience working with commercial districts across the country, I believe our small business policies shoud be grounded in three enduring principles that help create streets that attract and retain consumers:

Access matters. Successful commercial corridors are easy, convenient, and comfortable to reach. That requires a multimodal approach to access: reliable public transit (trains, buses, ferries), safe biking infrastructure (one Toronto study found that replacing 12 parking spaces with a bike lane quadrupled retail sales on that block), walkable streets, and yes, in some cases, parking.

Public spaces drive foot traffic. Safe, clean and attractive public spaces and destination-worthy amenities help bring people to local businesses. District-level marketing campaigns are especially valuable for small businesses with limited capacity to promote themselves. Parks, plazas, and street improvements also make a difference. When I lived in Jackson Heights, a trip to the P.S. 69 playground with my son often ended with a stop at Lety’s Bakery on 37th Avenue. That kind of everyday synergy between public space and small business strengthens neighborhoods.

Access to capital is essential. Competing in today’s market requires investment—in digital tools, physical improvements, and storefront enhancements. But among small businesses, capital is scarce. According to JPMorgan Chase, U.S. small businesses have an average of just 27 days of cash reserves; for Black- and Hispanic-owned firms, that number drops below 21. And outdated signage regulations—largely untouched in the City of Yes for Economic Opportunity—often prevent businesses from promoting themselves effectively. We need to enable more flexible options like blade signs, sandwich boards, outdoor displays, and affordable options for outdoor dining.

Yet another looming challenge that we must grapple with is the generational transition already underway—what some call the “Silver Tsunami.” Nearly 73,000 businesses in New York City are owned by Baby Boomers who will retire or transition out in the next decade. Without support, these businesses risk closing rather than being passed on. With the right tools in place, we can facilitate handoffs to family members, employees, or emerging entrepreneurs.

To meet this moment, City Hall must align the often-siloed programs and policies that touch small businesses—across agencies like Small Business Services, Transportation, Sanitation, and Planning. This requires strong mayoral leadership with a clear, integrated vision for our city’s small businesses. 

New York is at a crossroads. We have the opportunity—and the obligation—to reimagine what small business support looks like in a 21st-century city. Now is the time to seize it. 

Larisa Ortiz is managing director of the public and non-profit solutions team at Streetsense, a former New York City planning commissioner, and the architect of the City’s Commercial District Needs Assessment (CDNA)—a framework developed with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) for the NYC Department of Small Business Services.

The post Opinion: Street-Smart Strategies for NYC’s Small Business Future appeared first on City Limits.