Google, Inc. v. Hood

96 F. Supp. 3d 584, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49310, 2015 WL 1546160
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Mississippi
DecidedMarch 27, 2015
DocketCivil Action No. 3:14cv981-HTW-LRA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 96 F. Supp. 3d 584 (Google, Inc. v. Hood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Google, Inc. v. Hood, 96 F. Supp. 3d 584, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49310, 2015 WL 1546160 (S.D. Miss. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER

HENRY T. WINGATE, District Judge.

Plaintiff Google, Inc. submits this juridical preemptive strike against Jim Hood, the Attorney General of the State of Mississippi, asking this court to hold that it, Google, Inc., is shielded by the applicable law from the Attorney General’s alleged demands and accompanying real threats to prosecute Google, Inc., both civilly and criminally for allowing third-party creators of obnoxious, tasteless and criminal content to publish such on the search engine of Google, Inc., without censure or proper restriction, for public consumption.

The Attorney General, aggrieved by this lawsuit, has responded with several counterattacks involving subject matter jurisdiction, abstention, ripeness, and the reach of the applicable law.

As so often occurs, before this court addresses the merits of a filed lawsuit, whether the ultimate trier of fact will be a jury, or judge alone, the litigation progresses through the motion stage. This lawsuit is typical.

So, before this court are the following two diametrically opposed motions: (1) Google’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the Attorney General, filed under the authority of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(b)1 [docket no. 2]; and (2), the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss: for [589]*589lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1)2, for failure to state a claim and lack of ripeness under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6)3 [docket no. 31]. In the alternative, Attorney General Hood argues that this case should be dismissed under the Younger abstention doctrine, articulated in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971).

Both parties, having fully briefed their positions, appeared on February 13, 2015 to make their oral arguments. On March 2, 2015, this court, having reviewed and studied the parties’ arguments in addition to the briefs filed by the amicus curiae4, entered an abbreviated ruling granting Google’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. This present order contains an extended discussion of the court’s ruling on this motion. Commensurate with this ruling, this court denies the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss. This court’s reasoning is set out below.

A. Background

In its complaint, plaintiff Google describes itself as “an internet service provider that maintains and operates one of the world’s most popular Internet search engines, providing free, fast, and eonve-nient access to the trillions of individual web pages publicly-available on the Internet.” Complaint, p. 1. Additionally, Google operates YouTube, “a leading online forum for uploading, searching for, viewing and sharing videos.” Id. Its services, particularly its role as publisher of material originating from third parties, are at the epicenter of this litigation.

Google complains here that for eighteen (18) months, defendant Attorney General Jim Hood has “threatened to prosecute, sue, or investigate Google unless it agrees to block from its search engine, YouTube video-sharing site, and advertising systems, third-party content (i.e., websites, videos, or ads not created by Google) that the Attorney General finds objectionable.” When Google refused to comply with his demands, the Attorney General served upon Google, on October 27, 2014, a 79-page subpoena under the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act (“MCPA”)5, Miss. Code § 75-24-1 et seq.

On December 19, 2014, Google brought a federal action in the Southern District of Mississippi seeking declaratory and injunc-tive relief against Attorney General Hood, in his official capacity. In its complaint, Google claims that the Attorney General’s subpoena and threatened litigation violate Google’s protected rights as provided by: the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (“CDA”)6; the First7, Fourth8, and Four[590]*590teenth9 Amendments to the United States Constitution; the Copyright Act10, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) 11, and by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDCA”)12.

The relief sought by Google in its complaint is, thus, predictable. Google asks this court to declare the following: that Section 280 of the CDA and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution prohibit the Attorney General from bringing civil or criminal charges against Google for content created by third parties; that any accusation the Attorney General makes against Google under the MCPA for copyright infringe[591]*591ment, or importation of prescription drugs is preempted by the Copyright'Act, including the DMCA, and/or the FDCA; and, that any enforcement of the current version of the subpoena at issue would be impermissible under Section 230 of the CDA, the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, the Copyright Act, including the DMCA, and by the FDCA.

[590]*590All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall- make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
On and after January 1, 1978, all legal or equitable rights that are equivalent to any of the exclusive rights within the general scope of copyright as specified by section 106 in works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible medium of expression and come within the subject matter of copyright as specified by sections 102 and 103, whether created before or after that date and whether published or unpublished, are governed exclusively by this title. Thereafter, no person is entitled to any such right or equivalent right in any such work under the common law or statutes of any State.

[591]*591In its complaint, Google also seeks an injunction, to ban the Attorney General, along with his agents and affiliates, from enforcing the subpoena at issue and instituting civil or criminal proceedings against Google for making accessible third-party content to Internet users. For its efforts here, Google requests an award of reasonable costs and attorney’s fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988, and any other relief this court deems proper.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
96 F. Supp. 3d 584, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49310, 2015 WL 1546160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/google-inc-v-hood-mssd-2015.