The Electronic Frontier Foundation Files a Federal Lawsuit To Challenge the Constitutionality of SESTA

June 28, 2018:

Representing the Internet Archive, Human Rights Watch, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, massage therapist Eric Koszyk, and Alex Andrews, and endorsed by human rights groups including the ACLU, Amnesty International, and Prostasia Foundation for Child Abuse prevention, EFF challenges the criminalization of protected speech. 

On September 24, the suit is dismissed on the basis of lack of standing.

  • In this case, the courts did not feel that plaintiffs in the case met injury-in-fact requirements. Injury-in-fact is defined as either having suffered or imminently suffering injury—an invasion of a legally protected interest that is (a) concrete and particularized, and (b) actual or imminent. Said injury can be financial or not. Additionally, the plaintiff must prove causation, traceable to the conduct being sued, and redressability, in that a favorable decision by the courts will redress the injury.
  • Because the suit was dismissed on a basis of standing rather than the merits of the case, the circuit court did not rule on whether or not the law violated first amendment rights.