No. 23-1223

Jennifer L. Cooper, et al. v. US Dominion, Inc., et al.

Lower Court: Tenth Circuit
Docketed: 2024-05-20
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Response Waived
Tags: article-iii-standing cease-and-desist civil-rights defamation due-process equal-protection free-speech precedential-opinion standing
Key Terms:
DueProcess FirstAmendment FifthAmendment Privacy JusticiabilityDoctri ClassAction
Latest Conference: 2024-09-30
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether recipients of a cease-and-desist letter have Article III standing

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTIONS PRESENTED Petitioners executed affidavits about election worker partisanship in the 2020 general election. Thereafter, they received cease-and-desist letters from counsel for Dominion, a voting systems company. The letters falsely accused petitioners of defamation, threatened litigation, and made demands. Dominion’s P.R. firm gave letter copies, with petitioners’ names and addresses, to the Washington Post. The letters produced confusion and distress in the petitioners and caused them to stop speaking about the election. Petitioners sued. The district court found injury-in-fact for one claim but dismissed the case. A divided Tenth Circuit panel affirmed the dismissal but reversed the finding of injury. The concurring judge expressed “less confidence than the majority” that petitioners lacked standing. The panel designated its opinion non-precedential and refused to publish it. Two questions are presented: 1. Whether the recipients of a cease-and-desist letter—which falsely accuses them of defamation, threatens imminent litigation, demands retractions, requires they preserve texts and emails, and insists they respond, and which is copied to a national newspaper as well as to the recipients—have an injury-in-fact for purposes of Article III standing. 2. Whether the petitioners’ equal protection rights under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause requires the Tenth Circuit to publish its opinion on injury-in-fact as binding precedent for all circuit litigants, not just the petitioners.

Docket Entries

2024-10-07
Petition DENIED.
2024-07-02
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/30/2024.
2024-06-11
Waiver of right of respondent US Dominion, Inc., et al. to respond filed.
2024-05-15
2024-04-08
Application (23A887) granted by Justice Gorsuch extending the time to file until May 15, 2024.
2024-04-02
Application (23A887) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from April 15, 2024 to June 14, 2024, submitted to Justice Gorsuch.

Attorneys

Jennifer L. Cooper, et al.
Robert Alexander McGuire IIIRobert McGuire Law Firm, Petitioner
US Dominion, Inc., et al.
David B. MeschkeBrownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, Respondent