Update: On June 25, 2024, the court published the opinion in Luo v. Volokh. See more here.
In California, anyone can seek a court order to prevent harassment as long as the conduct does not include speech or activities protected by the First Amendment. However, this hasn’t stopped people from attempting to use the courts to silence their critics.
In one case, Xingfeng Luo, a woman who brought a libel case against an ex in 2020, sought a restraining order against UCLA professor Eugene Volokh after he had written about her case in the well-known legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy. Volokh asked the Court to dismiss the petition for a restraining order because his writings about Luo’s case were constitutionally protected speech.
The Second District Court of Appeal sided with Volokh, finding that his writings were protected by the First Amendment and not harassment. However the Court also ordered that its opinion would not be published.
On June 18, 2024, FAC sent this letter to California’s Second District Court of Appeals asking it to publish its opinion in Luo v. Volokh so it can be relied upon as precedent when similar cases come before the courts in the future and prevent misapplication of California’s anti-harassment law.