The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today applauded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Netflix v. Babin unanimously affirming the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction barring any further Texas state prosecution of Netflix over the film Cuties.
The Court held that sufficient evidence supported the district court’s finding that the District Attorney prosecuted Netflix in bad faith, writing “While states certainly have a legitimate interest in the enforcement of their criminal laws, they have no such interest when the enforcement of those laws is carried out in bad faith. ‘With respect to the interests of the State,’ we have said, ‘it by definition does not have any legitimate interest in pursuing a bad faith prosecution brought to retaliate for or deter the exercise of constitutionally protected rights.’”
The Court further held that “The balance of equities . . . favors Netflix. It has an obvious interest in the continued exercise of its First Amendment rights, and the State has no legitimate interest in a bad-faith prosecution.”
In June of this year AAP joined a broad coalition of representatives of public policy organizations, movie studios, Texas Broadcasters, newspapers, reporters, publishers, authors, and photographers in filing an amicus brief in support of free speech in the Fifth Circuit on behalf of Plaintiff-Appellee Netflix.
The brief raised critical free speech issues implicated by this case, highlighting the importance of addressing bad-faith prosecutions and vindicating First Amendment rights in federal court in a timely fashion; and the unconstitutional chilling effects of such criminal prosecutions on all speakers.
AAP’s amicus brief can be found here: https://publishers.org/news/public-policy-organizations-movie-studios-texas-broadcasters-newspapers-reporters-publishers-authors-and-photographers-file-amicus-brief-in-netflix-case-in-support-of-free-speech/
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