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Stuart Force, et al. v. Facebook, Inc.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, No. 18-397 · judgment July 31, 2019


Certiorari denied · May 18, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 9% cert probability (95% interval 6%–14%)

Before the decision, about 2.2× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel with five or more prior petitions here, a Second Circuit decision below, and a circuit split argued in the petition, and down for a business respondent.

Question presented

Section 230(c)(1) of Title 47 states that no provider of interactive computer service (such as a website) “shall be treated as the publisher of any information provided by another information content provider [such as a user who posts something on the website].” The questions presented are:

  1. Is section 230(c)(1) a limitation on the definition of a publisher under certain other prohibitions, or a broad grant of immunity to covered publishers, and

  2. Is “publisher” in section 230(c)(1) limited to the exercise of traditional editorial functions, such as deciding to accept or reject a submission? The same questions are presented in Dyroff v. The Ultimate Software Group, No. 19-___. The petition in Dyroff is being filed simultaneously with the petition in the instant case.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Eric Schnapper
Univ. of Washington School of Law

For respondent
Craig S Primis
Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Linked docket
19A499

Proceedings

  1. May 18 2020
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Apr 22 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/15/2020.
  3. Apr 20 2020
    Reply of petitioners Stuart Force, et al. filed. (Distributed)
  4. Apr 06 2020
    Motion to delay distribution of the petition for a writ certiorari until April 22, 2020, granted.
  5. Apr 03 2020
    Motion of petitioner to delay distribution of the petition for a writ of certiorari under Rule 15.5 from April 8, 2020 to April 22, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
  6. Mar 24 2020
    Brief of respondent Facebook, Inc. in opposition filed.
  7. Jan 24 2020
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from February 10, 2020 to March 26, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
  8. Jan 24 2020
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including March 26, 2020.
  9. Jan 02 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 10, 2020)
  10. Nov 14 2019
    Application (19A499) granted by Justice Ginsburg extending the time to file until January 13, 2020.
  11. Nov 06 2019
    Application (19A499) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from November 27, 2019 to January 11, 2020, submitted to Justice Ginsburg.