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Facebook, Inc. v. Perrin Aikens Davis, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 17-17486 · judgment April 9, 2020

Certiorari denied · March 22, 2021

Pre-decision estimate: 15% cert probability (95% interval 11%–19%)

Before the decision, about 3.5× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel who has won certiorari before, a Ninth Circuit decision below, and a circuit split argued in the petition.

Question presented

The Wiretap Act prohibits the “intentional[] intercept[ion]” of an “electronic communication,” but precludes liability for a “party to [a] communication” or when a party consents to the interception. 18 U.S.C. § 2511(1), (2)(d). Internet webpages are frequently composed of content—images and text—sent from multiple providers according to instructions communicated by a user’s web browser to obtain that content. The question presented is: Whether an internet content provider violates the Wiretap Act where a computer user’s web browser instructs the provider to display content on the webpage the user visits.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Jeffrey L. Fisher
Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic

For respondent
Matthew W.H. Wessler
Gupta Wessler LLP

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage

Proceedings

Mar 22 2021
Petition DENIED.
Mar 03 2021
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/19/2021.
Mar 03 2021
Reply of petitioner Facebook, Inc. filed. (Distributed)
Feb 11 2021
Brief of respondents Perrin Aikens Davis, et al. in opposition filed.
Dec 28 2020
Brief amici curiae of Internet Association, et al. filed.
Dec 03 2020
Motion to extend the time to file a response from December 28, 2020 to February 11, 2021, submitted to The Clerk.
Dec 03 2020
Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including February 11, 2021.
Nov 20 2020
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 28, 2020)