What Should Happen When a Schoolteacher Posts Hateful Memes to TikTok?–MacRae v. Mattos
Kari MacRae is a grandmother to four grandkids and a Republican candidate for Massachusetts state senate. During the relevant time period, she was a public school teacher. She maintained a TikTok account at the alias “NanaMacof4.” (Nana is a synonym…
Justice Thomas Hates on Section 230. Again.–Doe v. Snap
I previously described this case: A high school teacher allegedly used Snapchat to groom a sophomore student for a sexual relationship. (Atypically, the teacher was female and the victim was male, but the genders are irrelevant to this incident). The…
Mississippi’s Age-Authentication Law Declared Unconstitutional–NetChoice v. Fitch
[Note 1: I’m thinking my full analysis of Moody v. NetChoice won’t be ready until next week. I have a lot to say!] [Note 2: This morning, Supreme Court granted cert in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton over Texas’ law…
Statement on the Supreme Court’s Ruling in Moody v. NetChoice
A couple of years ago, Florida and Texas passed “social media censorship” laws. The laws were not subtle–the bill titles literally told the world that the legislatures were censoring social media. From a drafting standpoint, the laws were a mess….
Indiana’s Anti-Online Porn Law “Is Not Close” to Constitutional–Free Speech Coalition v. Rokita
[Note: tomorrow we’ll get the Supreme Court decisions in NetChoice v. Florida and Texas. I’ll be blogging those decisions as fast as I can, so check back here to see if the Internet survived its latest visit to the Supreme…
Heightened Constitutional Scrutiny is Not Required for Content-Based Trademark Registration Laws That Are Viewpoint-Neutral—Vidal v. Elster (Guest Blog Post)
By Lisa Ramsey, Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law The Supreme Court held in Elster that Section 2(c) is consistent with the First Amendment, but the Justices disagree on how to evaluate the constitutionality of trademark…
Plaintiffs Lack Standing to Sue Over Government Jawboning When Their Evidence is Based on Vibes–Murthy v. Missouri
In a well-functioning society, governments and the private sector will engage in an ongoing dialogue about public welfare issues. Much of this conversation is healthy and productive, as both the government and the private sector have different expertise and different…
Coursera Wins a TOS Formation Battle, But With Heavy Losses–Ghazizadeh v. Coursera
This is a VPPA case 🙄. Coursera invoked the arbitration clause in its TOS. It gets the arbitration it wanted, but via a messy opinion that does not represent a clean approval of its TOS management practices. Check out how…
This Case Keeps Wrecking Internet Law–Enigma v. Malwarebytes
You probably know this case well, but I’ll recap it anyway. Malwarebytes makes anti-threat software. Enigma makes competitive offerings. Malwarebytes classified Enigma’s SpyHunter4 and RegHunter2 programs as malicious, a threat, and a potentially unwanted program (PUP). This screenshot shows Malwarebytes’…
‘Scruff’ App Qualifies for Section 230 Immunity–J.R. v. Mancino
“Scruff is a web application that provides a matchmaking platform for men.” I believe competes (at least in part) with Grindr. The plaintiff (the victim’s parent, proceeding pro se) alleges that Scruff app users exchanged CSAM and discussed plans to…