Yelp urges appeals court to end Texas lawsuit over crisis pregnancy center reviews

Yelp

04/12/2024 21:46

By Brendan Pierson
       Dec 4 (Reuters) - Yelp  YELP.N  on Wednesday urged a
federal appeals court to block a lawsuit by Republican Texas
Attorney General Ken Paxton accusing the company of posting
misleading notices on its online review site about crisis
pregnancy centers, which provide services to pregnant women with
the goal of preventing abortions.
    James Sigel, a lawyer for Yelp, told the three-judge panel
of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
that the case was an exception to the usual rule that federal
courts should not intervene in state court disputes because
Paxton had brought the case in bad faith. He called it "a
particularly egregious example of an attorney general
retaliating against a company."
    U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in Oakland, California,
rejected that argument in February, finding that Yelp had not
provided enough "concrete evidence" of Paxton's bad faith. Sigel
said that Thompson should have allowed discovery on that issue.
    Lanora Pettit, a lawyer for Paxton, told the panel it was
Yelp's burden to prove bad faith and that it could not do so "by
speculating as to the subjective motivations" behind the
lawsuit.
    Yelp sued Paxton in Oakland federal court in September 2023
after hearing Paxton intended to sue the company, which he did
the next day in Texas. Paxton said that notices Yelp posted on
the review pages for crisis pregnancy centers violated a Texas
law against unfair business practices and sought unspecified
money damages.
    A Texas state court judge dismissed Paxton's lawsuit not
long after Thompson's ruling, but Paxton is appealing.
    The 9th Circuit judges, all appointed by Republican
President-elect Donald Trump during his first term, appeared
skeptical of Yelp's argument on Wednesday.
    "If you win on this, we're going to have cases filed every
week in federal court saying, I do not like what that state
attorney general is doing to me," Circuit Judge Daniel Bress
said. He added that Texas' justice system appeared to be working
for Yelp, since it was "doing well there so far."
    Circuit Judge Mark Bennett asked Pettit whether a federal
court could ever intervene to stop a politically motivated
action by a state prosecutor. As an example, he asked whether
such intervention would be called for if there was strong
evidence that a state attorney general sued a company because
its CEO opposed gun rights. 
    Pettit said that it might, but that there was no strong
evidence that Paxton was singling out Yelp for political
reasons.  
    Crisis pregnancy centers offer pregnant women counseling,
but usually do not clearly advertise their anti-abortion stance.
    In August 2022, Yelp began posting a notice on crisis
pregnancy centers' pages stating: "This is a Crisis Pregnancy
Center. Crisis Pregnancy Centers typically provide limited
medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals
onsite."
    In February 2023, Paxton and other Republican state
attorneys general told Yelp the notice was misleading because it
was posted on pages of centers that did have licensed medical
professionals.
    The company, without conceding that the language was
misleading, changed the notices to state that crisis pregnancy
centers "do not offer abortions or referrals to abortion
providers." Paxton said at the time that the new language was
accurate.
    
    The case is Yelp v. Paxton, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, No. 24-581.
    For Yelp: James Sigel of Davis Wright Tremaine
    For Paxton: Lanora Pettit of the Office of the Texas
Attorney General
    
    Read more:
    US judge won't shield Yelp from Texas lawsuit over crisis
pregnancy center notices

 (Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York)
 ((Brendan.Pierson@thomsonreuters.com; 332-219-1345 (desk);
646-306-0235 (cell);))