Together with the Free Law Project and represented by Eugene Volokh and Megan Gray, FAC submitted an amicus brief on May 26, 2026 to challenge a proposed court order directing members of the public to delete and destroy copies of court records they lawfully obtained.
This issue arose from multi-district litigation in the Northern District of California over claims that social media platforms are defective because they are designed to maximize screen time, allegedly encouraging addictive behavior in adolescents and causing various emotional and physical harms.
According to a stipulation filed with the court on May 14, 2026, an exhibit to a summary judgment brief was incorrectly filed on the public docket because it was not properly redacted to remove certain information. With the stipulation, the parties submitted a proposed order to direct removal of the exhibit from the public docket and substitution of a properly redacted version.
The proposed order stated, “Any party, counsel, or member of the public who may have obtained copies of” the exhibit in question “during the time that it was publicly available, including through ECF Court alerts that automatically generate PDF copies filed in the case, shall immediately delete and destroy them.”
Even if the original exhibit should not have been filed on the public docket, the press and public have a First Amendment right to access, retain, and publish copies of court records that they lawfully obtain. Any order directing the press and public to delete or destroy such records would be an unconstitutional prior restraint on their speech.
After the amicus brief was submitted, the parties agreed to withdraw the proposed order, avoiding the First Amendment violation that would have resulted if the judge had signed it.