Judge Partly Grants New Deadlines in NetChoice’s Challenge of Utah Social Media Law

U.S. District Judge David Barlow for Utah in Salt Lake City granted in part the parties’ stipulated motion for an amended briefing schedule in NetChoice’s Dec. 20 motion for a preliminary injunction to block Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) from enforcing the Social Media Regulation Act when it takes effect March 1 (see 2312230004), said the judge’s text-only docket order Tuesday (docket 2:23-cv-00911). Reyes’ deadline for filing an opposition to the injunction motion is Jan. 23, and NetChoice’s reply brief is due Feb. 6, said Barlow’s order. The parties were seeking deadlines of Jan. 31 and Feb. 12, respectively. Reyes’ response to the NetChoice complaint is due 21 days after Barlow rules on the motion for an injunction, as the parties requested, said the order. Due to the “issues being litigated," more extended deadlines "are unlikely to be workable" in light of the statute's fast-approaching March 1 effective date, said the order. NetChoice contends that the Utah statute is unconstitutional because it uses content-, viewpoint- and speaker-based definitions to restrict minors’ and adults’ ability to access and engage in protected speech. NetChoice also contends that the statute uses those definitions to restrict how certain websites organize, display and disseminate protected speech. NetChoice argues that the entire statute violates the First Amendment and the due process clause, and that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act preempts parts of it.