Deborah Laufer v. Arpan LLC

65 F.4th 615
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Deborah Laufer v. Arpan LLC. Read the opinion of the Court — 29 F.4th 1268
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided April 12, 2023·No. 20-14846·Published

Opinion

In the

United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

No. 20-14846

DEBORAH LAUFER, Plaintiff-Appellant,

versus ARPAN LLC, d.b.a. Americas Best Value Inn,

Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cv-00200-AW-GRJ

2 Order of the Court 20-14846

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, WILSON, JORDAN, ROSENBAUM, JILL PRYOR, NEWSOM, BRANCH, GRANT, LUCK, LAGOA, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. BY THE COURT:

A petition for rehearing having been filed and a member of this Court in active service having requested a poll on whether this case should be reheard by the Court sitting en banc, and a majority of the judges in active service on this Court having voted against granting rehearing en banc, it is ORDERED that this case will not be reheard en banc. Notwithstanding this order, the panel’s stay of the issuance of the mandate pending a decision by the Supreme Court in Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer, No. 22-429, remains in place.

20-14846 WILLIAM PRYOR, C.J., Respecting the Denial 1

WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, respecting the denial of rehearing en banc:

This appeal does not exist in a vacuum. Over the past few years, plaintiff Deborah Laufer has filed hundreds of actions across the country with materially identical facts and issues, several of which have reached our sister circuit courts. See, e.g., Laufer v. Acheson Hotels, LLC, 50 F.4th 259 (1st Cir. 2022); Laufer v. Naranda Hotels, LLC, 60 F.4th 156 (4th Cir. 2023); Laufer v. Mann Hosp., L.L.C., 996 F.3d 269 (5th Cir. 2021); Laufer v. Looper, 22 F.4th 871 (10th Cir. 2022). The standing analyses in these circuit court decisions have diverged widely. Catherine Cole, Note, A Standoff: Havens Realty v. Coleman Tester Standing and TransUnion v. Ramirez in the Circuit Courts, 45 HARV. J.L. & PUB. POL’Y 1033, 1035–42 (2022) (explaining the circuit split on this issue). But recently, the Supreme Court heralded an end to the split when it granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in one case. See Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer, -- S. Ct. -- (Mar. 27, 2023) (No. 22-429). Although I agree with my dissenting colleague that the panel likely erred in deciding that Laufer has standing to maintain this action, I see no point in rehearing this appeal en banc now that the Supreme Court has granted review of the same issue. Id.

The Supreme Court will surely address the issues identified by my dissenting colleague, including not only whether Laufer had standing based on an informational injury but also whether she had standing based on a stigmatic injury. The hotel corporation argued against both theories of injury in its petition to the Supreme Court,

2 WILLIAM PRYOR, C.J., Respecting the Denial 20-14846

Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, Acheson Hotels, -- S.Ct. -- (No. 22- 429), and Laufer argued in favor of both theories in her response, Brief in Opposition, Acheson Hotels, -- S.Ct. -- (No. 22-429); see also Grant Dissenting Op. at 6 n.3. To conclude that Laufer lacks standing —the broad question on which the Supreme Court granted review —the Supreme Court would have to consider both theories of injury. See Question Presented, Acheson Hotels, -- S.Ct. -- (No. 22- 429) (“Does a self-appointed Americans with Disabilities Act ‘tester’ have Article III standing . . . ?”). If the Supreme Court determines that Laufer could not bring a suit in federal court based on an informational injury, it will also have to consider whether she could do so based on a stigmatic injury, and vice versa.

After the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Acheson Hotels , the panel stayed the issuance of the mandate in this appeal. I would expect future panels of our Court to stay any appeal that presents the same issue, pending the decision of the Supreme Court in Acheson Hotels. District court judges presented with cases that turn on this threshold issue of justiciability are free to follow our lead and grant a stay too. In situations like this one, we inferiorcourt judges sometimes judge best by judging least.

20-14846 NEWSOM, J., Concurring 1

NEWSOM, Circuit Judge, concurring in the denial of rehearing en banc:

I offer the following as a brief (p)response to Judge Grant’s characteristically thoughtful opinion dissenting from the order denying rehearing en banc.

I

First, a point of raging agreement: Judge Grant and I share a pretty profound skepticism of what I’ve called Deborah Laufer’s “litigation program.” Laufer v. Arpan LLC, 29 F.4th 1268, 1290 (11th Cir. 2022) (Newsom, J., concurring). Laufer is indeed, as Judge Grant notes, a “serial plaintiff.” Grant Dissental at 1. And Laufer—a disability-rights advocate and self-proclaimed “tester”— is most definitely acting like a “roving attorney[] general.” Id. at 5. In fact, I’ll see Judge Grant’s report that Laufer “has brought hundreds of nearly identical suits across the country,” id. at 8, and raise her: As I explained in my panel-stage concurring opinion, Laufer and two other plaintiffs—all conspicuously represented by the same lawyers—have filed more than 1000 website-related ADA suits against hotels during the last few years. See Laufer, 29 F.4th at 1290, 1295 (Newsom, J., concurring). The whole thing stinks to high heaven, and Judge Grant and I agree that Laufer’s aggressive litigation tactics transgress constitutional limitations. The lone difference is that Judge Grant grounds her position in Article III, whereas I contend (for reasons I’ve explained at length and won’t rehash here) that Laufer’s proactive exercise of enforcement discretion —selecting her targets, willingly suffering the necessary injury,

2 NEWSOM, J., Concurring 20-14846

and then suing—“constitute[s] an impermissible exercise of ‘executive Power’ in violation of Article II.” See Laufer, 29 F.4th at 1284 (Newsom, J., concurring); see also id. at 1288–97 (unpacking that conclusion).

II

Now, very briefly, what I take to be the nub of our Article III disagreement: It’s absolutely true, as Judge Grant says, that a “stigmatic” injury “accords a basis for standing only to ‘those persons who are personally denied equal treatment’ by the challenged discriminatory conduct.” Grant Dissental at 3 (quoting Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 755 (1984) (quoting Heckler v. Matthews, 465 U.S. 728, 740 (1984))). Accordingly, as Judge Grant correctly observes , Laufer’s standing to sue will ultimately turn on whether she personally “experienced . . . discrimination” when she interacted with the Value Inn’s website, which didn’t advertise the hotel’s rooms’ accessibility-related features in the way that she contends the ADA’s implementing regulations require—or whether, instead, she merely “witnessed” discrimination being perpetrated against others. Id. at 1. Judge Grant insists that Laufer couldn’t have personally experienced any discrimination or suffered any stigmatic harm because, as all here agree, she never intended to stay at the Value Inn. Id. at 3–4, 8.

I understand Judge Grant to be making either (or both) of two slightly different objections. First, although the Value Inn’s website might discriminate against other disabled internet users— namely, bona fide would-be tourists looking to book rooms—

USCA11 Case: 20-14846 Document: 65-1 Date Filed: 04/12/2023 Page: 7 of 18

20-14846 NEWSOM, J., Concurring 3

Laufer herself couldn’t have personally experienced that discrimination because she had no intention to travel. And second, whatever it was that Laufer experienced, it wasn’t “discrimination” because real discrimination occurs on the ground, not at a computer terminal.

To those eminently intuitive points, I’ll offer brief responses:

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Deborah Laufer v. Arpan LLC, 65 F.4th 615 (11th Cir. 2023).

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