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February 08, 2008
Third Circuit Says Google Isn't State Actor--Jayne v. Google Founders
By Eric Goldman
Jayne v. Google Internet Search Engine Founders, No. 07-4083 (3rd Cir. Feb. 7, 2008)
You may recall Jayne v. Google Founders, one of several wacky pro se lawsuits filed against Google last summer. When I first saw the lawsuit, I laughed out loud because the complaint was handwritten in a rather unpolished script and filled with some pretty crazy allegations about the availability of Jayne's social security number--in scrambled format--via Google. The complaint didn't get very far, as the district court dismissed the complaint sua sponte.
Jayne appealed to the Third Circuit, which dismissed his complaint in a terse 267 word per curiam opinion. The key line: "Google and its founders are not state actors, and Jayne’s allegation concerning his coded social security number does not constitute a violation of the Constitution or federal law."
This isn't the first time that Google has been declared not to be a state actor. See the district court KinderStart opinion. But it's nice for Google to have a Third Circuit ruing validating it.
HT: Tom O'Toole
Posted by Eric at February 8, 2008 01:40 PM | Search Engines
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