SAN JOSE, Calif.—Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted NetChoice’s request to halt all of California’s latest online censorship and surveillance law, SB 976, from going into effect while our case, NetChoice v. Bonta (2024), heads to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
On December 31, the court blocked most of SB 976, but it unfortunately left in place a controversial provision allowing bureaucrats to violate critical speech protections for online feeds outlined in the Supreme Court’s 2024 NetChoice v. Moody ruling. NetChoice then asked the District Court to temporarily halt all of SB 976 while we appeal its decision not to block this portion of it. The court agreed yesterday to block the law in full until February 1, 2025.
NetChoice promptly filed an appeal to the Ninth Circuit, and briefing will happen later this month.
“While we are disappointed that the District Court did not grant our entire preliminary injunction, we are glad it agreed to issue this temporary stay while we appeal,” said Paul Taske, NetChoice Associate Director of Litigation. “We look forward to seeing California in the Ninth Circuit to yet again stop the state from creating an online censorship regime.”
You can find the District Court’s January 2 ruling here, the court’s December 31 ruling here.
Read our request for a preliminary injunction here and a web page detailing case resources for NetChoice v. Bonta (2024) here.
Please contact press@netchoice.org with inquiries.