Doe v. Cahill
Doe v. Cahill, 884 A.2d 451, is a significant case in the realm of anonymous internet speech and the First Amendment. While similar issues had been tackled involving criticism of a publicly traded company, the case marks the first time the Delaware Supreme Court addressed the issue of anonymous internet speech and defamation "in the context of a case involving political criticism of a public figure."
Background
In 2004, an anonymous internet user, referred to in the decision as Doe, posted comments under the alias "Proud Citizen" on a website called the "Smyrna/Clayton Issues Blog" regarding the performance of Patrick and Julia Cahill as City Councilman of Smyrna. The website was sponsored by the Delaware State News. The guidelines for use of the blog simply stated "his is your hometown forum for opinions about public issues."On September 18, 2004, Doe posted the following statement:
On September 19, 2004 Doe added:
It was these two internet postings that formed the basis for the legal action discussed below.
Legal timeline
The legal actions that led to the Delaware Supreme Court case proceeded as follows:- November 2, 2004: The Cahills file suit against Doe claiming defamation and invasion of privacy.
- The Cahills conduct a pre-service deposition of Independent Newspapers and obtained the IP addresses associated with Doe's postings.
- The Cahills learn that these IP addresses are owned by the Comcast Corporation and obtain a court order requiring Comcast to disclose Doe's identity.
- Comcast notifies Doe of the Cahills' request to disclose identity, as required by federal law.
- January 4, 2005: Doe files an "Emergency Motion for a Protective Order" to block Comcast from disclosing his identity to the Cahills.
- June 14, 2005: Superior Court trial judge denies Doe's motion for a protective order, using a "good faith" standard for "determining when a defamation plaintiff could compel the disclosure of the identity of an anonymous plaintiff."
- June 28, 2005: Doe appeals the decision by Superior Court and the case is accepted by the Delaware Supreme Court.
Adoption of standard
As this was the first trial of its kind, the court took upon itself the task of establishing an acceptable standard for deciding a discovery request to reveal the identity of an anonymous defendant alleged to have posted defamatory material on the internet by a public figure plaintiff. The court began by reviewing the possible spectrum of applicable standards over which the court must choose as the standard for this and similar cases. In ascending order the possible standards are "good faith basis to assert a claim,...pleading sufficient facts to survive a motion to dismiss, ...showing of prima facie evidence sufficient to withstand a motion for summary judgement."The Superior Court permitted discovery of Doe's identity under the good faith standard. This good faith standard was famously applied in In re Subpoena to AOL, where the court concluded that anonymous identities should be revealed only if:
- The court is satisfied with pleadings and evidence
- The party bringing suit or subpoena had legitimate, good faith basis for actions
- The identity information is central to the claim
The Supreme Court then turned to Ramunno v. Cawley as an example of the motion to dismiss standard being applied to a similar case. The court used Ramunno as an example of a motion to dismiss standard failing to screen "silly or trivial defamation suits."
Thus, the court concluded, that in order to provide sufficient protection of anonymous internet speech and the First Amendment, a summary judgement standard is necessary. The court chose to base its summary judgement standard off of the precedent set by Dendrite International, Inc. v. Doe No. 3. In Dendrite, the court held that a summary judgement standard "is the appropriate test by which to strike the balance between a defamation plaintiff’s right to protect his reputation and a defendant’s right to exercise free speech anonymously." The Dendrite test developed in this decision has four prongs as described in Doe v. Cahill :
to undertake efforts to notify the anonymous poster that he is the subject of a subpoena or application for an order of disclosure, and to withhold action to afford the anonymous defendant a reasonable opportunity to file and serve opposition to the application. In the internet context, the plaintiff’s efforts should include posting a message of notification of the discovery request to the anonymous defendant on the same message board as the original allegedly defamatory posting;
to set forth the exact statements purportedly made by the anonymous poster that the plaintiff alleges constitute defamatory speech; and
to satisfy the prima facie or “summary judgment standard.”
Finally, after the trial court concluded that the plaintiff has presented a prima facie cause of action, the Dendrite test requires the trial court to: balance the defendant’s First Amendment right of anonymous free speech against the strength of the prima facie case presented and the necessity for the disclosure of the anonymous defendant’s
identity in determining whether to allow the plaintiff to properly proceed.
In this case, the court holds that only the first and third prongs of the Dendrite test are relevant, and thus adopts a summary judgement standard based on these two prongs.