Yahoo! Inc. v. La Ligue Contre Le Racisme Et L'antisemitisme

433 F.3d 1199, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 668, 2006 WL 60670

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

A majority of the en banc court (Judge W.A. Fletcher, joined by Chief Judge Schroeder and Judges Hawkins, Fisher, Gould, Paez, Clifton, and Bea) concludes that the district court had personal jurisdiction over the defendants. Of that majority, three judges (Chief Judge Schroeder, and Judges W.A. Fletcher and Gould) conclude that the action should be dismissed for lack of ripeness. Five judges (Judge Fisher, joined by Judges Hawkins, Paez, Clifton, and Bea) conclude that the case is ripe for adjudication. The three remaining judges (Judges Ferguson, O’Scannlain, and Tashima) conclude that the action should be dismissed because the district court lacked personal jurisdiction over the defendants.

A majority of the en banc court having voted therefor, the judgment of the district court is REVERSED and the case REMANDED with directions to dismiss the action without prejudice.

W. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge, with whom SCHROEDER, Chief Circuit Judge, and GOULD, Circuit Judge, join as to the entire opinion, and with whom HAWKINS, FISHER, PAEZ, CLIFTON and BEA, Circuit Judges, join as to Parts I and II:

Yahoo!, an American Internet service provider, brought suit in federal district court in diversity against La Ligue Contre Le Racisme et L’Antisemitisme (“LI-CRA”) and L’Union des Etudiants Juifs de France (“UEJF”) seeking a declaratory judgment that two interim orders by a French court are unrecognizable and unenforceable. The district court held that the exercise of personal jurisdiction over LI-CRA and UEJF was proper, that the dispute was ripe, that abstention was unnecessary, and that the French orders are not enforceable in the United States because such enforcement would violate the First Amendment. The district court did not reach the question whether the orders are recognizable. LICRA and UEJF appeal only the personal jurisdiction, ripeness, and abstention holdings. A majority of the en banc panel holds, as explained in Part II of this opinion, that the district court properly exercised personal jurisdiction over LICRA and UEJF. A plurality of the panel concludes, as explained in Part III of this opinion, that the case is not ripe under the criteria of Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 149, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967). We do not reach the abstention question.

I. Background

Yahoo! is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in California. Through its United States-based website yahoo.com, Yahoo! makes available a variety of Internet services, including a search engine, e-mail, web page hosting, instant messaging, auctions, and chat rooms. While some of these services rely on content created by Yahoo!, others are forums and platforms for user-generated content.

Yahoo! users can, for example, design their own web pages, share opinions on social and political message boards, play fantasy baseball games, and post items to be auctioned for sale. Yahoo! does not monitor such user-created content before it is posted on the web through Yahoo! sites.

Yahool’s United States website is written in English. It targets users in the United States and relies on servers located in California. Yahoo!’s foreign subsidiaries, such as Yahoo! France, Yahoo! U.K., and Yahoo! India, have comparable websites for their respective countries. The Internet addresses of these foreign-based websites contain their two-letter country designations, such as fr.yahoo.com, uk.yahoo.com, and in.yahoo.com. Yahool’s foreign subsidiaries’ sites provide content in the local language, target local citizens, and adopt policies that comply with local law and customs. In actual practice, however, national boundaries are highly permeable. For example, any user in the United States can type www.fr.yahoo.com into his or her web browser and thereby reach Yahoo! France’s website. Conversely, any user in 'France can type www.yahoo.com into his or her browser, or click the link to Yahoo.com on the Yahoo! France home page, and thereby reach yahoo.com.

Sometime in early April 2000, LICRA’s chairman sent by mail and fax a cease and desist letter, dated April 5, 2000, to Yahoo!’s headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The letter, written in English, stated in part:

[W]e are particularly choked [sic] to see that your Company keeps on presenting every day hundreds of nazi symbols or objects for sale on the Web.

This practice is illegal according to French legislation and it is incumbent upon you to stop it, at least on the French Territory.

Unless you cease presenting nazi objects for sale within 8 days, we shall size [sic] the competent jurisdiction to force your company to abide by the law.

On April 10, five (rather than eight) days after the date on the letter, LICRA filed suit against Yahoo! and Yahoo! France in the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris. On April 20, UEJF joined LICRA’s suit in the French court. LICRA and UEJF used United States Marshals to serve process on Yahoo! in California.

After a hearing on May 15, 2000, the French court issued an “interim” order on May 22 requiring Yahoo! to “take all necessary measures to dissuade and render impossible any access [from French territory] via Yahoo.com to the Nazi artifact auction service and to any other site or service that may be construed as constituting an apology for Nazism or a contesting of Nazi crimes” (emphasis added).¹ Among other things, the French court required Yahoo! to take particular specified actions “[b]y way of interim precautionary measures.” Yahoo! was required “to cease all hosting and availability in the territory of [France] from the Tahoo.com’ site ... of messages, images and text relating to Nazi objects, relics, insignia, emblems and flags, or which evoke Nazism,” and of “Web pages displaying text, extracts, or quotes from ‘Mein Kampf and the ‘[Protocols of the Elders of Zion]’ ” at two specified Internet addresses. Yahoo! was further required to remove from “all browser directories accessible in the territory of the French Republic” the “index heading entitled ‘negationists’ ” and any link “bringing together, equating, or presenting directly or indirectly as equivalent” sites about the Holocaust and sites by Holocaust deniers.

The May 22 interim order required Yahoo! France (as distinct from Yahoo!) to remove the “negationists” index heading and the link to negationist sites, described above, from fr.yahoo.com. The order further required Yahoo! France to post a warning on fr.yahoo.com stating to any user of that website that, in the event the user accessed prohibited material through a search on Yahoo.com, he or she must “desist from viewing the site concerned[,] subject to imposition of the penalties provided in French legislation or the bringing of legal action against him.”

The order stated that both Yahoo! and Yahoo! France were subject to a penalty of 100,000 Euros per day of delay or per confirmed violation, and stated that the “possibility of liquidation of the penalties thus pronounced” was “reservefd].” The order also awarded 1 Franc in “provisional damages,” payable by Yahoo! and Yahoo! France to UEJF, and awarded an additional 1 Franc against Yahoo! and Yahoo! France for expenses under Article 700 of the New Code of Civil Procedure. The French court also awarded 10,000 Francs against Yahoo! for expenses under Article 700, payable to LICRA, and 10,000 Francs each against Yahoo! and Yahoo! France under Article 700 (a total of 20,000 Francs), payable to UEJF.

Yahoo! objected to the May 22 order. It contended, among other things, that “there was no technical solution which would enable it to comply fully with the terms of the court order.” (Emphasis added.) In response, the French court obtained a written report from three experts. The report concluded that under current conditions approximately 70% of Yahoo! users operating from computer sites in France could be identified. The report specifically noted that Yahoo! already used such identification of French users to display advertising banners in French. The 70% number applied irrespective of whether a Yahoo! user sought access to an auction site, or to a site denying the existence of the Holocaust or constituting an apology for Nazism.

With respect to auction sites, the report concluded that it would be possible to identify additional users. Two out of the three experts concluded that approximately an additional 20% of users seeking access to auction sites offering Nazi-related items for sale could be identified through an honor system in which the user would be asked to state his or her nationality. In all, the two experts estimated that almost 90% of such auction site users in France could be identified: “The combination of the two procedures, namely geographical identification of the IP address and declaration of nationality, would be likely to achieve a filtering success rate approaching 90%.” The third expert expressed doubts about the number of additional users of the auction site who would respond truthfully under the honor system. He did not, however, specify an alternative number of users — say, 15% or 10% — who would respond truthfully.

With respect to sites denying the existence of the Holocaust or constituting an apology for Nazism, the report was not able to “propose suitable and effective technical solutions” because no “grievance” against those sites had been made with “sufficient precision.” In consequence, as to these non-auction sites, the report did not estimate how many Yahoo! users above the base 70% number could be identified by an honor system.

In a second interim order, issued on November 20, 2000, the French court reaffirmed its May 22 order and directed Yahoo! to comply within three months, “subject to a penalty of 100,000 Francs per day of delay effective from the first day following expiry of the 3 month period.” (The May 22 order had specified a penalty of 100,000 Euros rather than 100,000 Francs.) The court “reserve[d] the possible liquidation of the penalty” against Yahoo!. The French court’s November 20 order required Yahoo! France (as distinct from Yahoo!) to display “a warning to surfers even before they have made use of the link to Yahoo.com, to be brought into effect within 2 months following notification of the present order.” However, the French court found “that YAHOO FRANCE has complied in large measure with the spirit and letter of the order of 22nd May 2000[.]” (Emphasis added.)

The November 20 order required Yahoo! to pay 10,000 Francs for a report, to be prepared in the future by one of the experts previously appointed by the court, to determine whether Yahoo! was in compliance with the court’s orders. It also awarded a total of 20,000 Francs against Yahoo! for expenses under Article 700, payable to LICRA and UEJF, and an unspecified amount of costs against Yahoo!, payable to LICRA and UEJF. The court specifically stated that it was not awarding any expenses or costs against Yahoo! France (which it had found to have complied “in large measure” with its order). LICRA and UEJF used United States Marshals to serve both orders on Yahoo! in Santa Clara, California.

Yahoo! did not pursue appeals of either interim order.

The French court has not imposed any penalty on Yahoo! for violations of the May 22 or November 20 orders. Nor has either LICRA or UEJF returned to the French court to seek the imposition of a penalty. Both organizations affirmatively represent to us that they have no intention of doing so if Yahoo! maintains its current level of compliance. Yet neither organization is willing to ask the French court to vacate its orders. As LICRA and UEJF’s counsel made clear at oral argument, “My clients will not give up the right to go to France and enforce the French judgment against Yahoo! in France if they revert to their old ways and violate French law.”

The record reveals that the French “public prosecutor” participated in the proceedings against Yahoo! and Yahoo! France in the French court, but it does not reveal whether he has the authority to seek a penalty against Yahoo! under the interim orders, either on his own or pursuant to a request by LICRA and/or UEJF. The public prosecutor was not made a party to the suit in the district court, and has made no appearance in the district court or on appeal to this court. If LICRA, UEJF, or the public prosecutor were to seek the imposition of a penalty by the French court pursuant to the interim orders, that court would have to determine the extent of Yahool’s violation, if any, of the orders, as well as the amount of any penalty, before an award of a penalty could be entered.

On December 21, 2000, Yahoo! filed suit against LICRA and UEJF in federal district court, seeking a declaratory judgment that the interim orders of the French court are not recognizable or enforceable in the United States. Subject matter jurisdiction is based solely on diversity of citizenship. 28 U.S.C. § 1332(a)(2). In a thoughtful opinion, the district court concluded that it had personal jurisdiction over LICRA and UEJF. Yahoo! Inc. v. La Ligue Contre Le Racisme Et L’Antisemitisme, 145 F.Supp.2d 1168, 1180 (N.D.Cal.2001). Several months later, in another thoughtful opinion, the district court concluded that the suit was ripe, that abstention was not warranted, and that “the First Amendment precludes enforcement within the United States.” Yahoo!, Inc. v. La Ligue Contre Le Racisme et L’Antisemitisme, 169 F.Supp.2d 1181, 1194 (N.D.Cal.2001).

In early 2001, after both interim orders had been entered by the French court, and after Yahoo! had filed suit in federal district court, Yahoo! adopted a new policy prohibiting use of auctions or classified advertisements on Yahoo.com “to offer or trade in items that are associated with or could be used to promote or glorify groups that are known principally for hateful and violent positions directed at others based on race or similar factors.” Yahoo! has represented, in this court and elsewhere, that its new policy has not been adopted in response to the French court’s orders, but rather for independent reasons. Yahoo’s new policy eliminates much of the conduct prohibited by the French orders. However, after conducting its own Internet research on yahoo.com, the district court found that even after this policy change, Yahoo! “appearfs]” not to have fully complied with the orders with respect to its auction site. 169 F.Supp.2d at 1185. For example, the district court found that Yahoo! continued to allow the sale of items such as a copy of Mein Kampf and stamps and coins from the Nazi period on which the swastika is depicted. Id. The district court also found that access was available through yahoo.com to various sites in response to searches such as “Holocaust/5 did not happen.” Id.

LICRA and UEJF timely appealed the district court’s rulings on personal jurisdiction, ripeness, and abstention.

II. Personal Jurisdiction

The only bases for personal jurisdiction over LICRA and UEJF in the district court are the actions they have taken in connection with their French suit against Yahoo!. Those actions are sending a cease and desist letter to Yahoo! at its headquarters in Santa Clara, California; ■ serving process on Yahoo! in Santa Clara to commence the French suit; obtaining two interim orders from the French court; and serving the two orders on Yahoo! in Santa Clara.

Where, as here, there is no applicable federal statute governing personal jurisdiction, the district court applies the law of the state in which the district court sits. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(k)(l)(A); Panavision Int’l, L.P. v. Toeppen, 141 F.3d 1316, 1320 (9th Cir.1998). Because California’s long-arm jurisdictional statute is coextensive with federal due process requirements, the jurisdictional analyses under state law and federal due process are the same. Id. at 1320 (citing Cal.Civ.Proc. Code § 410.10).

In International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945), the Supreme Court held that a court may exercise personal jurisdiction over a defendant consistent with due process only if he or she has “certain minimum contacts” with the relevant forum “such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend ‘traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.’ ” Id. at 316, 66 S.Ct. 154 (quoting Milliken v. Meyer, 311 U.S. 457, 463, 61 S.Ct. 339, 85 L.Ed. 278 (1940)). Unless a defendant’s contacts with a forum are so substantial, continuous, and systematic that the defendant can be deemed to be “present” in that forum for all purposes, a forum may exercise only “specific” jurisdiction — that is, jurisdiction based on the relationship between the defendant’s forum contacts and the plaintiffs claim. The parties agree that only specific jurisdiction is at issue in this case.

In this circuit, we analyze specific jurisdiction according to a three-prong test:

(1) The non-resident defendant must purposefully direct his activities or consummate some transaction with the forum or resident thereof; or perform some act by which he purposefully avails himself of the privilege of conducting activities in the forum, thereby invoking the benefits and protections of its laws;

(2) the claim must be one which arises out of or relates to the defendant’s forum-related activities; and

(3) the exercise of jurisdiction must comport with fair play and substantial justice, i.e. it must be reasonable.

Schwarzenegger v. Fred Martin Motor Co., 374 F.3d 797, 802 (9th Cir.2004) (quoting Lake v. Lake, 817 F.2d 1416, 1421 (9th Cir.1987)). The first prong is determinative in this case. We have sometimes referred to it, in shorthand fashion, as the “purposeful availment” prong. Schwarzenegger, 374 F.3d at 802. Despite its label, this prong includes both purposeful availment and purposeful direction. It may be satisfied by purposeful availment of the privilege of doing business in the forum; by purposeful direction of activities at the forum; or by some combination thereof.

■ We have typically treated “purposeful availment” somewhat differently in tort and contract cases. In tort cases, we typically inquire whether a defendant “purposefully direct[s] his activities” at the forum state, applying an “effects” test that focuses on the forum in which the defendant’s actions were felt, whether or not the actions themselves occurred within the forum. See Schwarzenegger, 374 F.3d at 803 (citing Calder v. Jones, 465 U.S. 783, 789-90, 104 S.Ct. 1482, 79 L.Ed.2d 804 (1984)). By contrast, in contract cases, we typically inquire whether a defendant “purposefully avails itself of the privilege of conducting activities” or “eonsummate[s][a] transaction” in the forum, focusing on activities such as delivering goods or executing a contract. See Schwarzenegger, 374 F.3d at 802. However, this case is neither a tort nor a contract case. Rather, it is a case in which Yahoo! argues, based on the First Amendment, that the French court’s interim orders are unenforceable by an American court.

LICRA and UEJF contend that we must base our analysis on the so-called “effects” test of Calder v. Jones, 465 U.S. 783, 104 S.Ct. 1482, 79 L.Ed.2d 804 (1984), which is normally employed in purposeful direction cases. See, e.g., CE Distrib., LLC v. New Sensor Corp., 380 F.3d 1107, 1111 (9th Cir.2004); Schwarzenegger, 374 F.3d at 803; Dole Food Co. v. Watts, 303 F.3d 1104, 1111 (9th Cir.2002). In Calder, a California-based entertainer sued the National Enquirer and various individual defendants for an allegedly defamatory article published in the Enquirer. The article had been written and edited in Florida, and the defendants had few contacts with California. The Court nonetheless upheld the exercise of personal jurisdiction in California because the defendants knew that the article would have an effect in that state. In the words of the Court, the defendants had not engaged in “mere untargeted negligence”; rather, their “intentional, and allegedly tortious, actions were expressly aimed at California.” 465 U.S. at 789, 104 S.Ct. 1482.

In this circuit, we construe Calder to impose three requirements: “the defendant allegedly [must] have (1) committed an intentional act, (2) expressly aimed at the forum state, (3) causing harm that the defendant knows is likely to be suffered in the forum state.” Schwarzenegger, 374 F.3d at 803 (quoting Dole Food, 303 F.3d at 1111). In some of our cases, we have employed a slightly different formulation of the third requirement, specifying that the act must have “caused harm, the brunt of which is suffered and which the defendant knows is likely to be suffered in the forum state.” Bancroft & Masters, Inc. v. Augusta Nat’l Inc., 223 F.3d 1082, 1087 (9th Cir.2000) (emphasis added). The “brunt” of the harm formulation originated in the principal opinion in Core-Vent Corp. v. Nobel Indus. AB, 11 F.3d 1482 (9th Cir.1993). That opinion required that the “brunt” of the harm be suffered in the forum state; based on that requirement, it concluded that there was no purposeful availment by the defendant. Id. at 1486. A dissenting judge would have found purposeful availment. Relying on the Supreme Court’s opinion in Keeton v. Hustler Magazine, 465 U.S. 770, 104 S.Ct. 1473, 79 L.Ed.2d 790 (1984), he specifically disavowed the “brunt” of the harm formulation. Core-Vent, 11 F.3d at 1492 (Wallace, C.J., dissenting) (“[T]he Supreme Court has already rejected the proposition that the brunt of the harm must be suffered in the forum.”). Without discussing the disputed “brunt” of the harm formulation, a concurring judge agreed with the dissenter that purposeful availment could be found. Id. at 1491 (Fernandez, J., concurring) (“I agree with Chief Judge Wallace that purposeful availment can be found in this case.”). Later opinions picked up the “brunt” of the harm formulation of the principal opinion in Core-Vent without noting that at least one, and possibly two, of the judges on the panel disagreed with it. See, e.g., Bancroft & Masters, 223 F.3d at 1087; Panavision, 141 F.3d at 1321; Caruth v. Int’l Psychoanalytical Ass’n, 59 F.3d 126, 128 (9th Cir.1995).

We take this opportunity to clarify our law and to state that the “brunt” of the harm need not be suffered in the forum state. If a jurisdictionally sufficient amount of harm is suffered in the forum state, it does not matter that even more harm might have been suffered in another state. In so stating we are following Keeton, decided the same day as Colder, in which the Court sustained the exercise of personal jurisdiction in New Hampshire even though “[i]t is undoubtedly true that the bulk of the harm done to petitioner occurred outside New Hampshire.” 465 U.S. at 780, 104 S.Ct. 1473.

LICRA and UEJF contend that the Colder effects test is not satisfied because, in their view, Colder requires that the actions expressly aimed at and causing harm in California be tortious or otherwise wrongful. LICRA and UEJF contend that they have done no more than vindicate their rights under French law, and that their behavior has therefore not been wrongful. They conclude that their behavior therefore does not confer personal jurisdiction in California. We agree with LICRA and UEJF that the Colder effects test is appropriately applied to the interim orders of the French court. But we disagree with them about the meaning and application of Colder.

In any personal jurisdiction case we must evaluate all of a defendant’s contacts with the forum state, whether or not those contacts involve wrongful activity by the defendant. See, e.g., Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, 504 U.S. 298, 308, 112 S.Ct. 1904, 119 L.Ed.2d 91 (1992) (upholding jurisdiction to enforce state tax on out-of-state corporation that sent catalogs and goods to forum); Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 479, 105 S.Ct. 2174, 85 L.Ed.2d 528 (1985) (upholding personal jurisdiction based on a course of dealing related to a franchise agreement). Many cases in which the Colder effects test is used will indeed involve wrongful conduct by the defendant. See, e.g., Colder, 465 U.S. at 790, 104 S.Ct. 1482, (allegedly defamatory publication purposefully directed at California); Bancroft & Masters, 223 F.3d at 1088 (wrongful interference with California corporation’s use of domain name); Sinatra v. Nat’l Enquirer, Inc., 854 F.2d 1191, 1192 (9th Cir.1988) (unauthorized use of celebrity’s name and likeness to promote Swiss clinic); Lake, 817 F.2d at 1422-23 (provision of legal services to secure allegedly improper custody order). But we do not read Calder necessarily to require in purposeful direction cases that all (or even any) jurisdictionally relevant effects have been caused by wrongful acts. We do not see how we could do so, for if an allegedly wrongful act were the basis for jurisdiction, a holding on the merits that the act was not wrongful would deprive the court of jurisdiction.

We therefore analyze all of LICRA and UEJF’s contacts with California relating to its dispute with Yahoo!, irrespective of whether they involve wrongful actions by LICRA and UEJF. There are three such contacts. The first two contacts, taken by themselves, do not provide a sufficient basis for jurisdiction. However, the third contact, considered in conjunction with the first two, does provide such a basis.

The first contact is the cease and desist letter that LICRA sent to Yahoo!, demanding that Yahoo! alter its behavior in California to conform to what LICRA contended were the commands of French law. A cease and desist letter is not in and of itself sufficient to establish personal jurisdiction over the sender of the letter. Red Wing Shoe Co. v. Hockerson-Halberstadt, Inc., 148 F.3d 1355, 1361 (Fed.Cir. 1998) (“A patentee should not subject itself to personal jurisdiction in a forum solely by informing a party who happens to be located there of suspected infringement.”). There are strong policy reasons to encourage cease and desist letters. They are normally used to warn an alleged rights infringer that its conduct, if continued, will be challenged in a legal proceeding, and to facilitate resolution of a dispute without resort to litigation. If the price of sending a cease and desist letter is that the sender thereby subjects itself to jurisdiction in the forum of the alleged rights infringer, the rights holder will be strongly encouraged to file suit in its home forum without attempting first to resolve the dispute informally by means of a letter. See Red Wing Shoe, 148 F.3d at 1360-1361; Cascade Corp. v. Hiab-Foco AB, 619 F.2d 36, 38 (9th Cir.1980); Douglas Furniture Co. of Cal, Inc. v. Wood Dimensions, Inc., 963 F.Supp. 899, 903 (C.D.Cal.1997) (“If any attempt by an intellectual property holder to put an alleged wrongdoer on notice forced the property holder to submit to the jurisdiction of the alleged wrongdoer’s forum, an intellectual property owner would be forced to file an action in his own jurisdiction in order to avoid the threat of being haled before a court in another, possibly distant state.”).

This is not to say that a cease and desist letter can never be the basis for personal jurisdiction. For example, in Bancroft & Masters, we upheld jurisdiction based on two letters sent by Augusta National Inc. (“ANI”), based in Georgia, contending that Bancroft & Masters, Inc. (“B & M”) was improperly using its domain name. One letter was sent to Network Solutions, Inc. (“NSI”) in Virginia. NSI was then the sole registrar of domain names. The other, a cease and desist letter, was sent to B & M at its corporate offices in California. B & M sued ANI in federal district court in California seeking a declaratory judgment that it had the right to the disputed domain name. On the assumption that B & M’s factual allegation was true, we held that the letters were intended to trigger NSI’s dispute resolution procedures, to interfere wrongfully with B & M’s use of its domain name, and to misappropriate that name for ANI’s own use. 223 F.3d at 1087. We therefore upheld jurisdiction under Calder based on the letters.

LICRA’s letter was not used to facilitate settlement. Although it stated that LICRA would file suit in eight days if Yahoo! had not complied with LICRA’s demands, LICRA filed suit five days after the date of the letter. Nonetheless, LICRA’s letter to Yahoo! was more like a normal cease and desist letter than the letters at issue in Bancroft & Masters, for it was not abusive, tortious or otherwise wrongful. Rather, it simply alerted Yahoo! to its view of French law and stated its intent to file suit in France to enforce that law against Yahoo!.

Under these circumstances, we do not believe that LICRA’s letter is a contact that would, if considered alone, justify the exercise of personal jurisdiction.

LICRA and UEJF’s second contact (or, more precisely, set of contacts) with California was service of process on Yahoo! in California. LICRA first effected service of process to commence the French suit. LICRA and UEJF later effected service of the French court’s two interim orders. We do not regard the service of documents in connection with a suit brought in a foreign court as contacts that by themselves justify the exercise of personal jurisdiction over a foreign litigant in a United States court. If we were to hold that such service were a sufficient basis for jurisdiction, we would be providing a forum-choice tool by which any United States resident sued in a foreign country and served in the United States could bring suit in the United States, regardless of any other basis for jurisdiction. We are unaware of any case so holding, and Yahoo! has cited none.

Third, and most important, LICRA and UEJF have obtained two interim orders from the French court directing Yahoo! to take actions in California, on threat of a substantial penalty. We agree with LICRA and UEJF that the French court’s orders are appropriately analyzed under the Calder effects test.

The first two requirements are that LICRA and UEJF “have ‘(1) committed an intentional act, [which was] (2) expressly aimed at the forum state[.]’ ” Schwarzenegger, 374 F.3d at 805 (quoting Dole Food, 303 F.3d at 1111). It is obvious that both requirements are satisfied. LICRA intentionally filed suit in the French court. Indeed, it had previously signaled its intent to file suit in its April 5 letter to Yahoo!. UEJF intentionally joined LICRA’s suit ten days later. Further, LICRA and UEJF’s suit was expressly aimed at California. The suit sought, and the French court granted, orders directing Yahoo! to perform significant acts in California. It is of course true that the effect desired by the French court would be felt in France, but that does not change the fact that significant acts were to be performed in California. The servers that support yahoo.com are located in California, and compliance with the French court’s orders necessarily would require Yahoo! to make some changes to those servers. Further, to the extent that any financial penalty might be imposed pursuant to the French court’s orders, the impact of that penalty would be felt by Yahoo! at its corporate headquarters in California. See Dole Food, 303 F.3d at 1113-14.

The third requirement is that LICRA and UEJF’s acts “ ‘eaus[e] harm that the defendant knows is likely to be suffered in the forum state.’ ” Id. This requirement is somewhat problematic, for Yahoo! has not shown or even alleged any specific way in which it has altered its behavior in response to the French court’s interim orders. Yahoo! changed its policy with respect to Yahoo.com after the French court’s orders were entered, but Yahoo! has consistently maintained that the change was unrelated to the orders. Therefore, even if we were persuaded that YahooPs change of policy harmed it in some way, Yahoo! itself has represented that such harm was not caused by any action of LICRA or UEJF. Nor is it clear that, absent the interim orders, Yahoo! would change its policy in the future. Indeed, Yahoo! represented to us during oral argument that there is nothing that it would like to do, but is now refraining from doing, because of the interim orders.

Yahoo!, however, points to the possibility that a substantial penalty will be assessed under the French court’s November 20 interim order. It points in particular to the provision in that order specifying that the potential amount of the penalty increases by 100,000 Francs for every day that Yahoo! is in violation of the court’s orders. Yahoo! represents to us that even now, after its change of policy, it is acting in plain violation of the orders. It contends that a declaratory judgment determining the enforceability by an American court of the French court’s orders will allow it to determine an appropriate course of conduct with respect to the activities in which it continues to engage. The district court found that, notwithstanding its new policy,

the Yahoo.com auction site still offers certain items for sale (such as stamps, coins, and a copy of Mein Kam/pf) which appear to violate the French Order. While Yahoo! has removed the Protocol of the Elders of Zion from its auction site, it has not prevented access to numerous other sites which reasonably “may be construed as constituting an apology for Nazism or a contesting of Nazi crimes.”

169 F.Supp.2d at 1185 (emphasis added).

In both this court and the district court, LICRA and UEJF have represented that, in their view, Yahoo! is in what they call “substantial compliance” with the French court’s orders. They have further represented that they will not seek enforcement of the penalty provision if Yahoo! continues its present level of compliance with the orders. However, LICRA and UEJF have stopped short of making a binding contractual commitment that they will not enforce the orders, and they have taken no action to have the orders withdrawn. As their counsel made clear at oral argument, LICRA and UEJF want to be able to return to the French court for enforcement if Yahoo! returns to its “old ways.” For its part, while Yahoo! does not independently wish to take steps to comply more fully with the French court’s orders, it states that it fears that it may be subject to a substantial (and increasing) fine if it does not. Yahoo! maintains that in these circumstances it has a legally cognizable interest in knowing whether the French court’s orders are enforceable in this country.

In a specific jurisdiction inquiry, we consider the extent of the defendant’s contacts with the forum and the degree to which the plaintiffs suit is related to those contacts. A strong showing on one axis will permit a lesser showing on the other.

A single forum state contact can support jurisdiction if “the cause of action ... arise[s] out of that particular purposeful contact of the defendant with the forum state.” See Lake, 817 F.2d at 1421. The case before us is the classic polar case for specific jurisdiction described in International Shoe, in which there are very few contacts but in which those few contacts are directly related to the suit. See 326 U.S. at 318, 66 S.Ct. 154 (“[S]ome single or occasional acts of the corporate agent in a state ... because of their nature and quality and the circumstances of their commission, may be deemed sufficient to render the corporation liable to suit.”). All of the contacts with the forum state in this case are either the interim orders themselves or contacts directly related to those orders.

LICRA and UEJF have not sought enforcement of the French court’s orders in this country, and they have stated that they will not seek enforcement or penalties so long as Yahoo! continues its current course of conduct. However, LICRA and UEJF have not sought to vacate the French court’s orders, and it is at least possible that they might later seek enforcement based on a continuation of Yahoo!’s current conduct. Or more likely, they might seek enforcement if Yahoo! changes it conduct in the future. But even if LICRA and UEJF seek enforcement at some time in the future, and even if the French court finds a violation that warrants the imposition of a penalty, enforcement of that penalty is extremely unlikely in the United States. Enforcement is unlikely not because of the First Amendment, but rather because of the general principle of comity under which American courts do not enforce monetary fines or penalties awarded by foreign courts.

Finally, Yahoo! contends that it has a legally protected interest, based on the First Amendment, in continuing its current policy with respect to Nazi memorabilia and Holocaust-related anti-semitic materials. Until that contention is endorsed by the judgment of an American court, it is only a contention. But even if the French court’s orders are not enforced against Yahoo!, the very existence of those orders may be thought to cast a shadow on the legality of Yahool’s current policy.

It is a close question whether LICRA and UEJF are subject to personal jurisdiction in California in this suit. But considering the direct relationship between LICRA and UEJF’s contacts with the forum and the substance of the suit brought by Yahoo!, as well as the impact and potential impact of the French court’s orders on Yahoo!, we hold that there is personal jurisdiction.

III. Ripeness

Because we conclude that the exercise of personal jurisdiction over LICRA and UEJF is proper, we turn to the question of ripeness. Ripeness doctrine is “ ‘drawn both from Article III limitations on judicial power and from prudential reasons for refusing to exercise jurisdiction.’ ” Nat'l Park Hospitality Ass’n v. DOI, 538 U.S. 803, 808, 123 S.Ct. 2026, 155 L.Ed.2d 1017 (2003) (quoting Reno v. Catholic Social Servs., Inc., 509 U.S. 43, 57 n. 18, 113 S.Ct. 2485, 125 L.Ed.2d 38 (1993)). Even where jurisdiction is present in the Article III sense, courts are obliged to dismiss a case when considerations- of prudential ripeness are not satisfied. Socialist Labor Party v. Gilligan, 406 U.S. 583, 588, 92 S.Ct. 1716, 32 L.Ed.2d 317 (1972) (“Problems of prematurity and abstractness may well present ‘insuperable obstacles’ to the exercise of the Court’s jurisdiction, even though that jurisdiction is technically present.”) (citing Rescue Army v. Municipal Court, 331 U.S. 549, 574, 67 S.Ct. 1409, 91 L.Ed. 1666 (1947)).

The existence of Article III subject matter jurisdiction is, like personal jurisdiction, a close question, but we agree with the district court that the effect of the French court’s orders on Yahoo! is sufficient to create a case or controversy within the meaning of Article III. See 169 F.Supp.2d at 1187-91. However, we disagree with the district court’s conclusion that there is prudential ripeness. In its current form, this case presents the sort of “[pjroblems of prematurity and abstractness” that counsel against reaching the First Amendment question that Yahoo! insists is presented by this case. See Socialist Labor Party, 406 U.S. at 588, 92 S.Ct. 1716.

In determining whether a case satisfies prudential requirements for ripeness, we consider two factors: “the fitness of the issues for judicial decision,” and “the hardship to the parties of withholding court consideration.” Abbott Labs. v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 149, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967); Pac. Gas & Elec. Co. v. State Energy Res. Conservation & Dev. Comm’n, 461 U.S. 190, 201, 103 S.Ct. 1713, 75 L.Ed.2d 752 (1983) (quoting Abbott Labs.). We address these two factors in turn.

A. Fitness of the Issue for Judicial Decision

1. The Substantive Legal Question at Issue

Whether a dispute is sufficiently ripe to be fit for judicial decision depends not only on the state of the factual record. It depends also on the substantive legal question to be decided. If the legal question is straightforward, relatively little factual development may be necessary. As we wrote in San Diego County Gun Rights Comm. v. Reno, 98 F.3d 1121, 1132 (9th Cir.1996), “[Pjure legal questions that require little factual development are more likely to be ripe.” By contrast, if the legal question depends on numerous factors for its resolution, extensive factual development may be necessary.

A noted example is Adler v. Bd. of Educ., 342 U.S. 485, 72 S.Ct. 380, 96 L.Ed. 517 (1952), in which Justice Frankfurter disagreed with the other justices about the precise legal question presented, and, as a consequence, disagreed about ripeness. Because the legal question, as Justice Frankfurter understood it, required fine-grained and subtle judgments based on extensive factual development, he concluded that the suit was not ripe. Id. at 506-07, 72 S.Ct. 380 (Frankfurter, J., dissenting). In the view of the other justices, however, the legal question was different. In their view, this different legal question was relatively simple, requiring little factual development. For them (and for this different legal question), the suit was ripe. Id. at 492-93, 72 S.Ct. 380 (maj.op.); 342 U.S. at 508-09, 72 S.Ct. 380 (Douglas, J., dissenting). See Fritz W. Scharpf, Judicial Review and the Political Question: A Functional Analysis, 75 Yale L.J. 517, 532 (1966). See also United Public Workers v. Mitchell, 330 U.S. 75, 90-91, 67 S.Ct. 556, 91 L.Ed. 754 (1947) (dismissing suit as unripe); id. at 109, 67 S.Ct. 556 (Black, J., dissenting); id. at 116-17, 67 S.Ct. 556 (Douglas, J., dissenting).

It is thus important to a ripeness analysis that we specify the precise legal question to be answered. Depending on the legal question, the case may be ripe or unripe. If we ask the wrong legal question, we risk getting the wrong answer to the ripeness question. The legal question presented by this case is whether the two interim orders of the French court are enforceable in this country. These orders, by their explicit terms, require only that Yahoo! restrict 'access by Internet users located in France. The orders say nothing whatsoever about restricting access by Internet users in the United States. We are asked to decide whether enforcement of these interim orders would be “repugnant” to California public policy.

There is currently no federal statute governing recognition of foreign judgments in the federal courts. See American Law Institute, Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments: Analysis and Proposed Federal Statute (April 11, 2005) (proposed final draft). The federal full faith and credit statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1738, governs only judgments rendered by courts of states within the United States. In diversity cases, enforceability of judgments of courts of other countries is generally governed by the law of the state in which enforcement is sought. Bank of Montreal v. Rough, 612 F.2d 467, 469-70 (9th Cir.1980); see also Southwest Livestock & Trucking Co. v. Ramon, 169 F.3d 317, 320 (5th Cir.1999); Choi v. Rim, 50 F.3d 244, 248 (3d Cir.1995); S.A. Andes v. Versant Corp., 878 F.2d 147, 150 (4th Cir. 1989); Ingersoll Milling Mach. Co. v. Granger, 833 F.2d 680, 686 (7th Cir.1987); Branca v. Security Benefit Life Ins. Co., 773 F.2d 1158, 1161 (11th Cir.1985). This is a diversity suit, brought by Yahoo! in federal district court in California.

In a typical enforcement case, the party in whose favor the foreign judgment was granted comes to an American court affirmatively seeking enforcement. The standard rule in such a case is that the federal court sitting in diversity applies the law of the state in which it sits. However, this is not the typical case, for the successful plaintiffs in the French court do not seek enforcement. Rather, Yahoo!, the unsuccessful defendant in France, seeks a declaratory judgment that the French court’s interim orders are unenforceable anywhere in this country.

Insofar as the issue is whether the French court’s orders are enforceable in California, it is clear that California law governs. However, it is less clear whose law governs when enforceability in other states is at issue. This is a potentially difficult choice-of-law question, but we do not need to answer it in order to decide ripeness. First, the central issue is enforceability in California. Therefore, if the suit is unripe under California law, we should not decide the case, irrespective of whether it might be ripe under the law of some other state. To do otherwise would be to allow the tail to wag the dog.- Second, in any event, the law of virtually all other states appears to be similar, or even identical, to California law. We may thus safely proceed with our ripeness analysis based on the California law of enforceability.

California, along with many other states, has adopted the Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act (“Uniform Act” or “Act”). Cal.Civ.Proc.Code §§ 1713-1713.8. The relevant standard for enforceability under the Act is whether “the cause of action or defense on which the judgment is based is repugnant to the public policy of this state.” Id. § 1713.4(b)(3) (emphasis added). .However, the Act is not directly applicable to this case, for it does not authorize enforcement of injunctions. See id. § 1713.1(2) (“ ‘Foreign judgment’ means any judgment of a foreign state granting or denying recovery of a sum of money, other than ... a fine or other penalty]]]”) But neither does the Uniform Act prevent enforcement of injunctions, for its savings clause specifies that the Act does not foreclose enforcement of foreign judgments “in situations not covered by- [the Act].” Id. § 1713.7.

Because the Uniform Act does not cover injunctions, we look to general principles of comity followed by the California courts. We may appropriately consult the Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States (“Third Restatement” or “Restatement”), given that California courts frequently cite the Restatement, as well as earlier Restatements, as sources of law. See, e.g., Renoir v. Redstar Corp., 123 Cal.App.4th 1145, 1150, 20 Cal.Rptr.3d 603 (2004) (Third Restatement); American Home Assurance Co. v. Sociét é Commerciale Toutélectric, 104 Cal.App.4th 406, 424, 128 Cal.Rptr.2d 430 (2003) (same); Smith v. Hopland Band of Porno Indians, 95 Cal.App.4th 1, 10, 115 Cal.Rptr.2d 455 (2002) (same); Pecaflor Construction, Inc. v. Landes, 198 Cal.App.3d 342, 349, 243 Cal.Rptr. 605 (1988) (Second Restatement). The general principle of enforceability under the Third Restatement is the same as under California’s Uniform Act. That is, an American court will not enforce a judgment if “the cause of action on which the judgment was based, or the judgment itself, is repugnant to the public policy of the United States or of the State where recognition is sought[.]” Restatement § 482(2)(d) (emphasis added); see also Restatement (Second) of the Conflict of Laws § 117 cmt. c (1971) (“[Enforcement will usually be accorded [a] judgment [of a foreign court] except in situations where the original claim is repugnant to fundamental notions of what is decent and just in the State where enforcement is sought.”) (emphasis added).

There is very little case law in California dealing with enforceability of foreign country injunctions under general principles of comity, but that law is consistent with the repugnancy standard of the Restatement. We have found only one case in which a California court has ruled on the enforceability of an injunction granted in another country. In In re Stephanie M., 7 Cal.4th 295, 27 Cal.Rptr.2d 595, 867 P.2d 706 (1994), a Mexican court had entered a guardianship decree purporting to authorize the named guardian to take immediate custody of a child and to return her to Mexico. The California Supreme Court recognized that an injunction could be enforced by the California courts as a matter of comity, but it declined to order enforcement in this particular case because the Mexican decree conflicted with California public policy. Id. at 314, 27 Cal.Rptr.2d 595, 867 P.2d 706.

California courts have also relied on public policy in the analogous context of injunctions entered by other American courts. In Smith v. Superior Court, 41 Cal.App.4th 1014, 49 Cal.Rptr.2d 20 (1996), plaintiff Smith had been badly injured, and her husband and two children killed, when their General Motors (“GM”) vehicle burst into flames after a collision. Smith brought a product liability suit in California against GM. Elwell had been an engineer for GM for many years and had extensive knowledge about the design of GM vehicles. An earlier wrongful termination suit between Elwell and GM in Michigan had been dismissed after the parties stipulated to a permanent injunction forbidding Elwell from testifying in any suit about GM vehicles. Smith sought to call Elwell as an expert witness in her California suit. The California Court of Appeal declined to enforce the Michigan injunction on the ground that it “blatantly and irreconcilably conflicts with our fundamental public policy against the suppression of evidence.” Id. at 1025, 49 Cal. Rptr.2d 20; see also Baker v. General Motors Corp., 522 U.S. 222, 118 S.Ct. 657, 139 L.Ed.2d 580 (1998) (Missouri state court not required by 28 U.S.C. § 1738 to enforce the same Michigan injunction against Elwell when such enforcement would violate Missouri public policy).

The repugnancy standard is also generally followed in states other than California. See, e.g., Hilkmann v. Hilkmann, 579 Pa. 563, 575, 858 A.2d 58 (2004) (observing that the Restatement’s repugnancy standard has been incorporated into Pennsylvania common law); Alberta Sec. Comm’n v. Ryckman, 200 Ariz. 540, 549, 30 P.3d 121 (2001) (stating that foreign judgments are not enforceable under Arizona common law if they are repugnant to public policy); Panama Processes, SA v. Cities Serv. Co., 796 P.2d 276, 283 (Okla. 1990) (declaring that a judgment must not be enforced if repugnant to public policy); Greschler v. Greschler, 51 N.Y.2d 368, 377, 434 N.Y.S.2d 194, 414 N.E.2d 694 (1980) (“[T]he public policy exception to the doctrine of comity is usually invoked ... when the original claim is repugnant to fundamental notions of what is decent and just in the State where enforcement is sought.”) (internal quotation omitted). Further, federal courts sometimes cite general principles of comity without reference to particular state laws. See, e.g., Jaffe v. Accredited Sur. & Cas. Co., 294 F.3d 584, 593 (4th Cir.2002) (declaring that a judgment will not be enforced if repugnant to public policy); In re Schimmelpenninck, 183 F.3d 347, 365 (5th Cir.1999) (to be enforceable, “foreign laws need not be identical to ... the laws of the United States; they merely must not be repugnant to our laws and policies”); Turner Entertainment Co. v. Degeto Film GmbH, 25 F.3d 1512, 1519 (11th Cir.1994) (“General comity concerns include ... whether the foreign judgment is prejudicial, in the sense of violating American public policy because it is repugnant to fundamental principles of what is decent and just.”); see also Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113, 16 S.Ct. 139, 40 L.Ed. 95 (1895) (discussing principles of comity governing enforcement of foreign judgments).

Under the repugnancy standard, American courts sometimes enforce judgments that conflict with American public policy or are based on foreign law that differs substantially from American state or federal law. See, e.g., In re Hashim, 213 F.3d 1169, 1172 (9th Cir.2000) (reversing bankruptcy court’s refusal to enforce English court’s award of $10 million in costs against debtors whose assets had been frozen by Saddam Hussein); Milhoux v. Linder, 902 P.2d 856, 861-62 (Colo.Ct.App. 1995) (affirming recognition of Belgian judgment as a matter of comity, even though it was based on a 30-year Belgian statute of limitations). Inconsistency with American law is not necessarily enough to prevent recognition and enforcement of a foreign judgment in the United States. The foreign judgment must be, in addition, repugnant to public policy.

2. Fitness of the Question for Judicial Decision

With the suit in its current state, it is difficult to know whether enforcement of the French court’s interim orders would be repugnant to California public policy. The first difficulty is evident. As indicated by the label “interim,” the French court contemplated that it might enter later orders. We cannot know whether it might modify these “interim” orders before any attempt is made to enforce them in the United States.

■A second, more important, difficulty is that we do not know whether the French court would hold that Yahoo! is now violating its two interim orders. After the French court entered the orders, Yahoo! voluntarily changed its policy to comply with them, at least to some extent: There is some reason to believe that the French court will not insist on full and literal compliance with its interim orders, and that Yahoofs changed policy may amount to sufficient compliance.

In its interim second order, entered on November 20, the French court found that Yahoo! France had “complied in large measure with the spirit and letter” of its May 22 order. (Emphasis added.) Based on that level of compliance, the French court was satisfied. It declined to enter any further orders against Yahoo! France. It also declined to award any expenses or costs against Yahoo! France, even though in that same order it awarded expenses and costs against Yahoo!. We thus know from this second order that compliance “in large measure” by Yahoo! is very likely to be satisfactory to the French court, just as compliance “in large measure” by Yahoo! France was satisfactory.

LICRA and UEJF insist that Yahoo! has now, in their words, “substantially complied” with the French court’s orders. We take this to be a statement that, in their view, Yahoo! has complied “in large measure” with the orders. For its part, however, Yahoo! insists that it continues to be in serious violation of the orders. The district court did not hold that Yahoo! is in violation, substantial or otherwise, of the French court’s orders. It wrote only that Yahoo! does not “appear” to be in full compliance with the French court’s order with respect to its auction site, and that various anti-semitie sites continue to be accessible through yahoo.com. 169 F.Supp.2d at 1185. There is only one court that can authoritatively tell us whether Yahoo! has now complied “in large measure” with the French court’s interim orders. That is, of course, the French court.

To the extent that we are uncertain about whether Yahoo! has complied “in large measure” with the French court’s orders, the responsibility for that uncertainty can be laid at Yahoo!’s door. In its November 20 interim order, the French court ordered the appointment of one of the experts who had previously reported on the technical feasibility of restricting access by French users to Yahoo.com. Under the November 20 order, Yahoo! was required to pay the expert, who would be charged “to undertake an assignment to prepare a consultancy report on the conditions of fulfillment of the terms of the aforementioned order.” Yahoo! has placed nothing in the record to tell us whether Yahoo! has paid the expert; whether the expert has prepared a report for the French court; and, if a report has been prepared, what it says. There is also nothing in the record to indicate what other steps, if any, Yahoo! has taken to obtain an indication from the French court whether it believes that Yahoo! is in compliance, “in large measure” or otherwise, with the terms of its interim orders. All we know for certain is that Yahoo! abandoned its appeal of the May 22 interim order and declined to appeal the November 20 interim order, and that on December 21, a month and a day after entry of the second interim order, it came home to file suit in the Northern District of California.

A third difficulty is related to the second. Because we do not know whether Yahoo! has complied “in large measure” with the French court’s orders, we cannot know what effect, if any, compliance with the French court’s orders would have on Yahoo!’s protected speech-related activities. We emphasize that the French court’s orders require, by their terms, only a limitation on access to anti-semitic materials by users located in France. The orders do not by their terms limit access by users outside France in any way. Yahoo! contended in the French court that it was technically too difficult to distinguish between users inside and outside France. As described above, the French court commissioned a report by three experts to determine if Yahool’s contention were true. The experts disagreed with Yahoo!, concluding that Yahoo! is readily able to distinguish between most users inside and outside France.

With respect to users seeking access to forbidden auction sites, two out of the three experts concluded that Yahoo! could identify almost 90% of its users located in France. The third expert did not dispute that 70% of such auction site users could be identified, but expressed doubt about how many additional such users could be identified. With respect to users seeking access to sites of Holocaust' deniers and Nazi apologists, the experts declined to propose any solution by which a greater number than 70% of users located in France could be identified.

In its briefing to this court, Yahoo! contends that restricting access by French Internet users in a manner sufficient to satisfy the French court would in some unspecified fashion require Yahoo! simultaneously to restrict access by Internet users in the United States. This may or may not be true. It is almost certainly not true if Yahoo! is now complying “in large measure” with the French court’s orders, for in that event the French court will almost certainly hold that no further compliance is necessary. Even if the measures Yahoo! has already taken restrict access by American Internet users to antisemitie materials, this has no bearing on Yahoo!’s First Amendment argument. By its own admission, Yahoo! has taken these measures entirely of its own volition, for reasons entirely independent of the French court’s orders.

However, it is possible, as Yahoo! contends, that it has not complied “in large measure” with the French court orders, and that the French court would require further compliance. It is also possible, as Yahoo! contends, that further compliance might have the necessary consequence of requiring Yahoo! to restrict access by American Internet users. But Yahoo! has been vague in telling us in what ways, and for what reasons, it believes further compliance might have that consequence. One possible reason for Yahool’s vagueness might be that its contention is ill-founded, and that a detailed explanation would reveal that fact. We are not now in a position to judge this. Another, more important, reason — not merely a possible reason — for its vagueness is that Yahoo! has no way of knowing what further compliance might be required by the French court. Until it knows what further compliance (if any) the French court will require, Yahoo! simply cannot know what effect (if any) further compliance might have on access by American users.

The possible — but at this point highly speculative — impact of further compliance with the French court’s orders on access by American users would be highly relevant to the question whether enforcement of the orders would be repugnant to California public policy. But we cannot get to that question without knowing whether the French court would find that Yahoo! has already complied “in large measure,” for only on a finding of current noncompliance would the issue of further compliance, and possible impact on American users, arise.

Without a finding that further compliance with the French court’s orders would necessarily result in restrictions on access by users in the United States, the only question in this case is whether California public policy and the First Amendment require unrestricted access by Internet users in France. In other words, the only question would involve a determination whether the First Amendment has extraterritorial application. The extent of First Amendment protection of speech accessible solely by those outside the United States is a difficult and, to some degree, unresolved issue. Compare, e.g., Desai v. Hersh, 719 F.Supp. 670, 676 (N.D.Ill.1989) (“[F]or purposes of suits brought in the United States courts, first amendment protections do not apply to all extraterritorial publications by persons under the protections of the Constitution.”), and Laker Airways Ltd. v. Pan American Airways, Inc., 604 F.Supp. 280, 287 (D.D.C.1984) (“It is less clear, however, whether even American citizens are protected specifically by the First Amendment with respect to their activities abroad[.]”), with Bullfrog Films, Inc. v. Wick, 646 F.Supp. 492, 502 (C.D.Cal.1986) (“[TJhere can be no question that, in the absence of some overriding governmental interest such as national security, the First Amendment protects communications with foreign audiences to the same extent as communications within our borders.”), aff'd, 847 F.2d 502 (9th Cir.1988).

We are thus uncertain about whether, or in what form, a First Amendment question might be presented to us.. If the French court were to hold that Yahool’s voluntary change of policy has already brought it into compliance with its interim orders “in large measure,” no First Amendment question would be presented at all. Further, if the French court were to require additional compliance with respect to users in France, but that additional compliance would not require any restriction on access by users in the United States, Yahoo! would only be asserting a right to extraterritorial application of the First Amendment. Finally, if the French court were to require additional compliance with respect to users in France, and that additional compliance would have the necessary consequence of restricting access by users in the United States, Yahoo! would have both a domestic and an extraterritorial First Amendment argument. The legal analysis of these different questions is different, and the answers are likely to be different as well.

B. Hardship to the Parties

We next consider “the hardship to the parties of withholding court consideration.” Abbott Labs., 387 U.S. at 149, 87 S.Ct. 1507. As discussed above, we believe that Yahoo! has suffered sufficient harm to justify (though not by a wide margin) the exercise of personal jurisdiction over LICRA and UEJF. The threshold requirement for hardship for purposes of personal jurisdiction, however, is not necessarily the same as the threshold for purposes of prudential ripeness. Particularly where, as here, there are substantial uncertainties bearing on the legal analysis to be performed, there is a high threshold requirement for hardship.

Yahoo! contends that it will suffer real hardship if we do not decide its suit at this time. Yahoo! makes essentially two arguments. First, it argues that the potential monetary penalty under the French court’s orders is mounting every day, and that the enforcement of a penalty against it here could be extremely onerous. Second, it argues that the French court’s orders substantially limit speech that is protected by the First Amendment. We take these arguments in turn.

1. Enforceability of the Monetary Penalty

Yahoo! contends that the threat of a monetary penalty hangs like the sword of Damocles. However, it is exceedingly unlikely that the sword will ever fall. We may say with some confidence that, for reasons entirely independent of the First Amendment, the French court’s orders are not likely to result in the enforcement of a monetary penalty in the United States. The French court’s orders threaten monetary sanctions against Yahoo!, which that court explicitly labels “penalties.” In order to obtain an award of a penalty from the French court, LICRA and UEJF would have to return to the French court, to explain to the French court why they believe Yahoo! has violated its interim orders, and to persuade the French court that YahooFs violation merits the imposition of a penalty. In the nearly five years since the entry of the French court’s second interim order and YahooFs change of policy, LICRA and UEJF have taken none of these steps. Further, LICRA and UEJF have represented that they have no intention of seeking a monetary penalty by the French court so long as Yahoo! does not revert to its “old ways.”

More important, even if the French court were to impose a monetary penalty against Yahoo!, it is exceedingly unlikely that any court in California — or indeed elsewhere in the United States — would enforce it. California’s Uniform Act does not authorize enforcement of “fines or other penalties.” Cal.Civ.Proc.Code § 1713.1(2). The Act includes a savings clause, see Cal. Civ.Proc.Code § 1713.7, but the fine is equally unenforceable under California common law doctrine.

California courts follow the generally-observed rule that, “ ‘[ujnless required to do so by treaty, no state [ie., country] enforces the penal judgments of other states [ie., countries].’ ” In re Manuel P., 215 Cal.App.3d 48, 81, 263 Cal.Rptr. 447 (1989) (Wiener, J., dissenting) (quoting Restatement § 483 cmt. 3); see also In re Marriage of Gray, 204 Cal.App.3d 1239, 1253, 251 Cal.Rptr. 846 (1988). This is consistent with the Restatement’s declaration that “[cjourts in the United States are not required ... to enforce judgments [from foreign countries] for the collection of ... finest ] or other penalties.” Restatement § 483; see also 30 Am.Jur.2d Execution and Enforcement of Judgments § 846 (2004) (“Courts in the United States will not recognize or enforce a penal judgment rendered in another nation.”). A number of states have adopted an identical version of California’s Uniform Act, see Enforcing Foreign Judgments in the United States and United States Judgments Abroad 28-32 (Ronald A. Brand ed., 1992), and the common law rule against the enforcement of penal judgments is venerable and widely-recognized. See Huntington v. Attrill, 146 U.S. 657, 673-74, 13 S.Ct. 224, 36 L.Ed. 1123 (1892); see also 18 James Wm. Moore et ah, Moore’s Federal Practice § 130.05 (2002).

Penal judgments are those intended “ ‘to punish an offense against the public justice of the [foreign] state[.]’ ” Chavarria v. Superior Court, 40 Cal.App.3d 1073, 1077, 115 CaLRptr. 549 (1974) (quoting Huntington, 146 U.S. at 673-74,13 S.Ct. 224). The test to determine a judgment’s nature

is not by what name the statute [on which the judgment is based] is called by the legislature or the courts of the State in which it was passed, but whether it appears to the tribunal which is called upon to enforce it to be, in its essential character and effect, a punishment of an offense against the public, or a grant of a civil right to a private person.

Huntington, 146 U.S. at 682, 13 S.Ct. 224.

There are a number of indications that the French judgments are penal in nature. First, the word used by the French court (“astreinte”) is consistently translated as “penalty” in the record in this case. For example, the May 22 order provides that Yahoo! and Yahoo! France are “subject to a penalty of 100,000 Euros per day of delay and per confirmed violation[.]” The November 20 order provides that Yahoo! is “subject to a penalty of 100,000 Francs per day of delay[J”

Second, the French court held that Yahoo! was violating Section R645-1 of the French Penal Code, which declares it a “crime” to exhibit or display Nazi emblems, and which prescribes a set of “criminal penalties,” including fines. Fr. C. Pén. § R645-1, translation available at http://www.lex2k.org/ yahoo/art645.pdf. The monetary penalties against Yahoo! do not lose their character as “penalties” simply because they were obtained in a civil action. See Wisconsin v. Pelican Ins. Co., 127 U.S. 265, 299, 8 S.Ct. 1370, 32 L.Ed. 239 (1888). Nor do they lose their character because private litigants initiated the action. A civil remedy is penal, as the term is understood in private international law, if it awards a penalty “to a member of the public, suing in the interest of the whole community to redress a public wrong.” Weiss v. Glemp, 792 F.Supp. 215, 227 (S.D.N.Y.1992); see also Loucks v. Standard Oil Co., 224 N.Y. 99, 101, 120 N.E. 198 (1918) (Cardozo, J.). In short, the label “civil” does not strip a remedy of its penal nature. Thus, for example, an American court is not required to enforce an order of contempt or an award of punitive damages in a civil action. Cf. Frank v. Reese, 594 S.W.2d 119, 121 (Tex.Civ.App. 1979) (“Other jurisdictions are reluctant to give full faith and credit to an order for contempt due to its punitive nature[.]”); Republic of Philippines v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 821 F.Supp. 292, 295 (D.N.J.1993) (refusing to enforce Philippine law providing for punitive damages); see also Third Restatement § 483 cmt. b (“Some states consider judgments penal for purposes of non-recognition if multiple, punitive, or exemplary damages are awarded, even when no governmental agency is a party.”).

Third, the penalties the French court imposed on Yahoo! are primarily designed to deter Yahoo! from creating, in the words of the November 20 order, “a threat to internal public order.” The penalties are payable to the government and not designed to compensate the French student groups for losses suffered. See Farmers & Merchants Trust Co. v. Madeira, 261 Cal.App.2d 503, 510, 68 Cal.Rptr. 184 (1968) (suggesting that a judgment is penal if it is designed to punish a defendant “for an offense committed against the public justice” of the jurisdiction). Judgments designed to deter conduct that constitutes a threat to the public order are typically penal in nature. Cf. Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez, 372 U.S. 144, 168, 83 S.Ct. 554, 9 L.Ed.2d 644 (1963).

The French court awarded nominal damages of one Franc to LICRA and UEJF in its first (but not its second) order. Balanced against the far more substantial penalties payable to the government (up to 100,000 Francs per day under the second order), this award of one Franc cannot render the orders primarily remedial rather than punitive in nature. See Ducharme v. Hunnewell, 411 Mass. 711, 714, 585 N.E.2d 321 (1992) (determining that whether a judgment requires enforcement “depends on whether its purpose is remedial in nature, affording a private remedy to an injured person, or penal in nature, punishing an offense against the public justice”). Even the “restitution” the court ordered — the printing of its judgment in publications of UEJF’s and LICRA’s choosing — benefits the general public and does not specifically compensate the two student groups for a particular injury.

2. First Amendment

Yahoo! argues that any restriction on speech and speech-related activities resulting from the French court’s orders is a substantial harm under the First Amendment. We are acutely aware that this case implicates the First Amendment, and we are particularly sensitive to the harm that may result from chilling effects on protected speech or expressive conduct. In this case, however, the harm to First Amendment interests — if such harm exists at all. — may be nowhere near as great as Yahoo! would have us believe. Yahoo! has taken pains to tell us that its adoption of a new hate speech policy after the entry of the French court’s interim orders was motivated by considerations independent of those orders. Further, Yahoo! refuses to point to anything that it is now not doing but would do if permitted by the orders. In other words, Yahoo! itself has told us that there is no First Amendment violation with respect either to its previous (but now abandoned) speech-related activities, or to its future (but not currently engaged in) speech-related activities. Any restraint on such activities is entirely voluntary and self-imposed.

The only potential First Amendment violation comes from the restriction imposed by the interim orders — if indeed they impose any restrictions. — on the speech-related activities in which Yahoo! is now engaged, and which might be restricted if further compliance with the French court’s orders is required. For example, Yahoo! continues to allow auctions of copies of Mein Kampf and it maintains that the French court’s orders prohibit it from doing so. The French court might find that Yahoo! has not yet complied “in large measure” with its orders, and that Yahoo! is prohibited by its orders from allowing auctions of copies of Mein Kampf.

Even if the French court took this step, Yahoo!’s claim to First Amendment protection would be limited. We emphasize that the French court’s interim orders do not by their terms require Yahoo! to restrict access by Internet users in the United States. They only require it to restrict access by users located in France. That is, with respect to the Mein Kampf example, the French court’s orders — even if further compliance is required — would by their terms only prohibit Yahoo! from allowing auctions of copies of Mein Kampf to users in France.

The core of Yahool’s hardship argument may thus be that it has a First Amendment interest in allowing access by users in France. Yet under French criminal law, Internet service providers are forbidden to permit French users to have access to the materials specified in the French court’s orders. French users, for their part, are criminally forbidden to obtain such access. In other words, as to the French users, Yahoo! is necessarily arguing that it has a First Amendment right to violate French criminal law and to facilitate the violation of French criminal law by others. As we indicated above, the extent — indeed the very existence — of such an extraterritorial right under the First Amendment is uncertain.

3. Summary

In sum, it is extremely unlikely that any penalty, if assessed, could ever be enforced against Yahoo! in the United States. Further, First Amendment harm may not exist at all, given the possibility that Yahoo! has now “in large measure” complied with the French court’s orders through its voluntary actions, unrelated to the orders. Alternatively, if Yahoo! has not “in large measure” complied with the orders, its violation lies in the fact that it has insufficiently restricted access to anti-semitic materials by Internet users located in France. There is some possibility that in further restricting access to these French users, Yahoo! might have to restrict access by American users. But this possibility is, at this point, highly speculative. This level of harm is not sufficient to overcome the factual uncertainty bearing on the legal question presented and thereby to render this suit ripe.

C. The Dissent Addressed to Ripeness

The dissent addressed to the question of ripeness makes two principal contentions. First, it contends that the French court’s interim orders are unconstitutional on their face, and that further factual development is therefore not needed. Second, it contends that if any further factual development is necessary, we should remand to the district court for that purpose. We take these contentions in turn.

1. Unconstitutionality of the French Court’s Orders

The dissent repeatedly states that the French court’s interim orders are facially unconstitutional. It writes, “The French orders on their face ... violate the First Amendment and are plainly contrary to one of America’s, and by extension California’s, most cherished public policies.” (Dissent at 1239.) It later refers to the French court’s orders as “foreign court orders that so obviously violate the First Amendment.” {Id. at 1239-40.) It writes further, “[T]he absence of a discernible line between the permitted and the unpermitted ... makes the orders facially unconstitutional.” {Id. at 1244)

The dissent is able to conclude that the French court’s interim orders are facially unconstitutional only by ignoring what they say. The dissent appears to assume that the orders, on their face, require Yahoo! to block access by United States users. It writes, “[T]he question we face in this federal lawsuit is whether our own country’s fundamental constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech protects Yahoo! (and, derivatively, at least its users in the United States) against some or all of the restraints the French defendants have deliberately imposed upon it within the United States." (Id. at 1234-1235) (emphasis in original). Further, ‘Yahoo! confront[s] the dilemma of whether or not to stand by its United States constitutional rights or constrain its speech and that of its user[.]” (Id. at 1238.) “Legions of cases permit First Amendment challenges to governmental actions or decrees that on their face are vague, overbroad and threaten to chill protected speech. Indeed, the sweeping injunction here presents just such a paradigmatic case.” (Id. at 1238.) Still further, “Under the principles articulated today, a foreign party can use a foreign court decree to censor free speech here in the United States[.]” (Id. at 1240.)

If it were true that the French court’s orders by their terms require Yahoo! to block access by users in the United States, this would be a different and much easier case. In that event, we would be inclined to agree with the dissent. See, e.g., Sari Louis Feraud Int’l v. Viewfinder Inc., No. 04 Civ. 9760, 2005 WL 2420525, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22242 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 2005) (holding unenforceable as contrary to the First Amendment a French damage judgment based on photographs posted on the Internet freely accessible to American viewers). But this is not the case. The French court’s orders, by their terms, require only that Yahoo! restrict access by users in France. The boundary line between what is permitted and not permitted is somewhat uncertain for users in France. But there is no uncertainty about whether the orders apply to access by users in the United States. They do not. They say nothing whatsoever about restricting access by users in the United States.

The dissent’s conclusion that the French court’s orders are unconstitutional may be based in part on an assumption that a necessary consequence of compliance with the French court’s orders will be restricted access by users in the United States. But if this is the basis for the dissent’s conclusion, it could hardly say that the orders are unconstitutional “on their face.” Whether restricted access by users in the United States is a necessary consequence of the French court’s orders is a factual question that we cannot answer on the current record.

If the only consequence of compliance with the French court’s orders is to restrict access by Internet users in France, YahooPs only argument is that the First Amendment has extraterritorial effect. The dissent fails to acknowledge that this is inescapably a central part of YahooPs argument, let alone acknowledge that it may be YahooPs only argument.

2. Remand to the District Court

As a fallback position, the dissent contends that we should remand to the district court for a determination whether a necessary consequence of compliance with the French court’s orders would be restriction on access by users in the United States. This fallback contention is, of course, in tension with the dissent’s conclusion that the French court’s orders are unconstitutional on their face.

If a necessary consequence of compliance with the French court’s orders were a restriction on access by American users, this would be a different and much easier case. The dissent argues that we should remand to the district court to determine whether this is a necessary consequence. But we cannot obtain this determination merely by remanding to the district court. Before the district court can engage in useful factfinding, it must know whether (or to what extent) Yahoo! has already sufficiently complied with the French court’s interim orders. There are two alternative scenarios.

First, if the French court were to conclude, as LICRA and UEJF contend, that Yahoo! has already complied “in large measure” with the French court’s orders, Yahoo! simply has no First Amendment argument. Yahoo! has explicitly stated that its change of policy after the entry of the second interim order was undertaken for reasons entirely independent of the French court’s orders. Under this scenario, the question of compliance would disappear, and the district court would have no factfinding role.

Second, if the French court were to determine, contrary to LICRA and UEJF’s contention, that Yahoo! has not complied “in large measure,” the question of the necessary consequences for American users would then arise. If and when the French court determines what further compliance is necessary, there might be some appropriate factfinding role for the district court on that question. But even under this scenario, we first need to get a determination from the French court as to what further compliance is necessary, for the district court’s factfinding role is dependent on there having be'en such a prior determination by the French court.

Under either scenario, the essential initial step is to find out from the French court whether Yahoo! has complied “in large measure” with its orders, and, if not, what further compliance is required. Until we know that, the district court cannot perform any useful factfinding on the question of whether a necessary consequence of compliance with the French court’s orders will be to restrict access by Internet users in the United States.

Conclusion

First Amendment issues arising out of international Internet use are new, important and difficult. We should not rush to decide such issues based on an inadequate, incomplete or unclear record. We should proceed carefully, with awareness of the limitations of our judicial competence, in this undeveloped area of the law. Precisely because of the novelty, importance and difficulty of the First Amendment issues Yahoo! seeks to litigate, we’ should scrupulously observe the prudential limitations on the exercise of our power.

Yahoo! wants a decision providing broad First Amendment protection for speech and speech-related activities on the Internet that might violate the laws or offend the sensibilities of other countries. As currently framed, however, YahooFs suit comes perilously close to a request for a forbidden advisory opinion. There was a live dispute when Yahoo! first filed suit in federal district court, but Yahoo! soon thereafter voluntarily changed its policy to comply, at least in part, with the commands of the French court’s interim orders. This change in policy may or may not have mooted YahooFs federal suit, but it has at least come close. Unless and until Yahoo! changes its policy again, and thereby more clearly violates the French court’s orders, it is unclear how much is now actually in dispute.

It is possible that because of YahooFs voluntary change of policy it has now complied “in large measure” with the French court’s orders. It is also possible that Yahoo! has not yet complied “in large measure.” If further compliance is required, Yahoo! will have to impose further restrictions on access by French users. The necessary consequence of such further restrictions on French users may or may not be that Yahoo! will have to impose restrictions on access by American users. Until we know whether further restrictions on access by French, and possibly American, users are required, we cannot decide whether or to what degree the First Amendment might be violated by enforcement of the French court’s orders, and whether such enforcement would be repugnant to California public policy. We do not know whether further restrictions are required, and what they might be, because Yahoo! has chosen not to ask the French court. Instead, it has chosen to come home to ask for a declaratory judgment that the French court’s orders — whatever they may or may not require, and whatever First Amendment questions they may or may not present — are unenforceable in the United States.

An eight-judge majority of the en banc panel holds, as explained in Part II of this opinion, that the district court properly exercised specific personal jurisdiction over defendants LICRA and UEJF under the criteria of Colder. A three-judge plurality of the panel concludes, as explained in Part III of this opinion, that the suit is unripe for decision under the criteria of Abbott Laboratories. When the votes of the three judges who conclude that the suit is unripe are combined with the votes of the three dissenting judges who. conclude that there is no personal jurisdiction over LICRA and UEJF, there are six votes to dismiss Yahool’s suit.

We therefore REVERSE and REMAND to-the district court with instructions to dismiss without prejudice.

1

. The French court's orders are written in French. We quote from the English translation provided in the record. Counsel for LICRA and UEJF contended at oral argument that the words "all necessary measures" (underlined and italicized above) are a mistranslation of the French text. The original French for the entire phrase (italicized above) is "prendre toutes les mesures de nature á dissuader et á rendre impossible.” Counsel contended that the words "toutes les mesures de nature á” are more accurately translated as "all reasonable (or available) measures.”