The Securities and Exchange Commission

[thepennyking]

E. Van Cullens v. John Doe

John Doe is an anonymous poster to two Internet message boards who made two statements critical of a publicly-traded company currently run by Plaintiff Cullens. In an effort to prevent Doe from further posting his opinions about the company on the Internet, Cullens filed a libel suit against Doe in Illinois and asked a California court to force disclosure of Doe's identity. Doe has sought to quash and strike the subpoena, asking the court to grant Doe protection under California's Anti-SLAPP statute. This would force Cullens to establish a probability of success on each of his claims, and if he cannot, would award attorneys fees and costs to Doe.

At issue: Whether California court processes allow the mere allegation of defamation to trump First Amendment right to anonymous online speech.

EFF Role: Representing Doe in defense of California subpoena along with Charles Lee Mudd Jr., counsel for Illinois portion of action.

Court Documents
Motion of Quash PDF 4.6M
Motion to Strike PDF 1.5M
Declaration of Cindy Cohn in Support of Motion to Quash PDF 679k
Notice of Motion to Quash PDF 417k
Notice of Motion to Strike PDF 485k
Illinois Case Documents
Memorandum for Motion to Dismiss PDF 200K
Motion to Dismiss PDF 176K


http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Anonymity/Cullens_v_Doe/