Vishal Shah v. Politico LLC

• Court: District Court, N.D. California
• Decided: November 21, 2025
• Docket: 5:25-cv-05213
• Status: Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 6 7 VISHAL SHAH, Case No. 25-cv-05213-NW

8 Plaintiff, ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S 9 v. MOTION TO SET ASIDE NONDISPOSITIVE PRETRIAL ORDER 10 POLITICO LLC, Re: ECF No. 50 Defendant. 11

12 13 Before the Court is Defendant Politico LLC’s motion for relief from an order issued by 14 Judge Cousins denying Politico’s motion to stay discovery. ECF No. 50; L.R. 72-2. 15 When reviewing a party’s objections to a magistrate judge’s nondispositive order, the 16 district judge must “modify or set aside any part of the order that is clearly erroneous or is contrary 17 to law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(a). A district court should only overturn a magistrate judge’s ruling “if 18 it is left with the ‘definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.’” E.E.O.C. v. 19 Peters’ Bakery, 301 F.R.D. 482, 484 (N.D. Cal. 2014) (quoting Burdick v. C.I.R., 979 F.2d 1369, 20 1370 (9th Cir. 1992)). 21 Judge Cousins’ order was not clearly erroneous or contrary to law. The Court has 22 reviewed the transcript of the hearing in which Judge Cousins made his ruling, see ECF No. 50-2, 23 and finds his reasoning both persuasive and fair. Additionally, the Court has taken a “preliminary 24 peek” at the merits of the motion to dismiss and presently believes that at least some of the claims 25 \\ 26 \\ 27 \\ ] will survive beyond the motion to dismiss stage. The Court will develop its reasoning and issue 2 || an order on that motion. 3 Accordingly, Politico’s motion is DENIED. 4 IT IS SO ORDERED. 5 Dated: November 21, 2025 6 . Noél Wise 7 United States District Judge 8 9 10 1] as 12

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