140 F. Supp. 2d 1088 - Doe v. 2TheMart. Com Inc.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 5 district · 14 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) the subpoena seeking the information was issued in good faith and not for any improper purpose, (2) the information sought relates to a core claim or defense, (3) the identifying information is directly and materially relevant to that claim or defense, and (4) the information sufficient to establish or to disprove that claim or defense is unavailable from any other source.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Brockmeyer · McVicker v. King

2. “The right to speak anonymously was of fundamental importance to the establishment of our Constitution. Throughout the revolutionary and early federal period in American history, anonymous speech and the use of pseudonyms were powerful tools of political debate. The Federalist Papers (authored by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay) were written anonymously under the name “Publius.” The anti-federalists responded with anonymous articles of their own, authored by “Cato” and “Brutus,” among others. See generally [McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm’n, 514 U.S. 334, 341-342 , 115 S.Ct. 1511 , 131 L.Ed.2d 426 (1995)]. Anonymous speech is a great tradition that is woven into the fabric of this nation’s history. When speech touches on matters of public political life, such as debate over the qualifications of candidates, discussion of governmental or political affairs, discussion of political campaigns, and advocacy of controversial points of view, such speech has been described as the “core” or “essence” of the First Amendment. See McIntyre, 514 U.S. at 346-47 , 115 S.Ct. 1511 .”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 2011 Pa. Super. 3 - Pilchesky v. Gatelli · 661 F. Supp. 2d 1194 - Doe v. Reed

3. “Although this Court agrees with AOL that APTC must establish that there is a legitimate basis to believe that it may have bona fide claims against the John Does before compliance with the subpoena duces tecum is ordered, it agrees with APTC that AOL’s proposed test is unduly cumbersome. What is sufficient to plead a prima facie case varies from state to state and, sometimes, from court to court. This Court is unwilling to establish any precedent that would support an argument that judges of one state could be required to determine the sufficiency of pleadings from another state when ruling on matters such as the instant motion. Therefore, in lieu of the test proposed by AOL, this Court holds that, when a subpoena is challenged under a rule akin to Virginia Supreme Court Rule 4:9(c), a court should only order a non-party, Internet service provider to provide information concerning the identity of a subscriber (1) when the court is satisfied by the pleadings or evidence supplied to that court (2) that the party requesting the subpoena has a legitimate, good faith basis to contend that it may be the victim of conduct actionable in the jurisdiction where suit was filed and (3) the subpoenaed identity information is centrally needed to advance that claim. A review of the Indiana pleadings and the subject Internet postings satisfies this Court that all three prongs of the above-stated test have been satisfied as to the identities of the subscribers utilizing the four e-mail address”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Independent Newspapers, Inc. v. Brodie