JANE DOE NO. 1 v. BACKPAGE.COM, LLC

No. 15-1724.

817 F.3d 12 (2016)

JANE DOE NO. 1 et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. BACKPAGE.COM, LLC et al., Defendants, Appellees.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

March 14, 2016.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

John T. Montgomery , with whom Ching-Lee Fukuda , Aaron M. Katz , Christine Ezzell Singer , Jessica L. Soto , Rebecca C. Ellis , and Ropes & Gray LLP were on brief, for appellants.

Maura Healey , Attorney General of Massachusetts, and Genevieve C. Nadeau , Deputy Chief, Civil Rights Division, on brief for Commonwealth of Massachusetts, amicus curiae.

Dennis J. Herrera , City Attorney, Victoria Wong , Mollie Lee , Elizabeth Pederson , and Mark D. Lipton , Deputy City Attorneys, on brief for City and County of San Francisco, amici curiae.

Cathy Hampton , City Attorney, on brief for City of Atlanta, amicus curiae.

Michael N. Feuer , City Attorney, James P. Clark , Mary Clare Molidor , Anh Truong , Sahar Nayeri , and Office of the Los Angeles City Attorney, on brief for City of Los Angeles, California, amicus curiae.

Tracy Reeve , City Attorney, and Harry Auerbach , Chief Deputy City Attorney, on brief for City of Portland (Oregon), amicus curiae.

Donna L. Edmundson , City Attorney, on brief for City of Houston, amicus curiae.

Shelley R. Smith , City Solicitor, on brief for Michael A. Nutter, Mayor of Philadelphia, amicus curiae.

Jeffrey Dana , City Solicitor, on brief for City of Providence and Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, amicus curiae.

Stacey J. Rappaport and Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP on brief for Covenant House, Demand Abolition, ECPAT-USA, Human Rights Project for Girls, My Life, My Choice of Justice Resource Institute, National Crime Victim Law Institute, Sanctuary for Families, and Shared Hope International, amici curiae.

Jenna A. Hudson , Kami E. Quinn , Gilbert LLP, and Andrea Powell , Executive Director, on brief for FAIR Girls, amicus curiae.

Michael Rogoff , Robert Barnes , Oscar Ramallo , and Kaye Scholer LLP, on brief for National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, amicus curiae.

Jeffrey J. Pyle , with whom Robert A. Bertsche , Prince Lobel Tye LLP, James C. Grant , Ambika K. Doran , and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP were on brief, for appellees.

Before BARRON, Circuit Judge, SOUTER, Associate Justice, and SELYA, Circuit Judge.


This is a hard case—hard not in the sense that the legal issues defy resolution, but hard in the sense that the law requires that we, like the court below, deny relief to plaintiffs whose circumstances evoke out-rage. The result we must reach is rooted in positive law. Congress addressed the right to publish the speech...

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