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Welcome News: DC Circuit Revives The Constitutional Challenge Of FOSTA

Welcome News: DC Circuit Revives The Constitutional Challenge Of FOSTA

4 years ago
Anonymous $yQ5BfQaAxy

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200125/14073943797/welcome-news-dc-circuit-revives-constitutional-challenge-fosta.shtml

We've written several times before about the constitutional challenge to FOSTA in the case Woodhull Freedom Foundation, et al. v. U.S. That challenge hit a roadblock when the district court dismissed that lawsuit for lack of standing by the plaintiffs. Per the district court, the plaintiffs had not been hurt by the statute, nor were they likely to be hurt by it, and thus they had no right to challenge it in the courts. The plaintiffs appealed, and we supported the appeal with an amicus brief.

Back in September I attended the oral argument in the appeal and came away cautiously optimistic that the DC Circuit would see the matter differently. While the way the DOJ read the statute would mean that the plaintiffs had nothing to fear, what the court honed in on was that it was not the only plausible way to read the statute. And with these other plausible reads the plaintiffs would indeed have something to worry about.