5th Circuit Showing Strong Anti-Section 230 Bent, Says Professor

Future Section 230 cases before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals face "an extreme risk of judicial activism to overturn the existing 5th Circuit precedent and disrupt decades of Section 230 jurisprudence," Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman blogged Tuesday. Pointing to the dissent issued Monday in a 5th Circuit denial of an en banc rehearing motion involving a lawsuit against messaging app Snapchat (see 2312180055), Goldman said the seven dissenting judges' goal "seems to be to urge the Supreme Court to take this case." Written by Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, the dissent criticized the 5th Circuit's previous "atextual interpretation" of Section 230, "leaving in place sweeping immunity for social media companies that the text cannot possibly bear." "Declining to reconsider this atextual immunity was a mistake," Elrod wrote.