Scott Greenfield writes:
The LA Times calls it “unprecedented,” which may be true in the sense that it’s never happened before. But the notion that corporations aren’t above the law isn’t entirely novel, and even the behemoths, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (“FIT”), must comply with a California state court order in a criminal proceeding. Imagine that.
In an unprecedented move, the California Supreme Court has allowed the defense in a gang-related murder trial in San Francisco to obtain private postings from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
In a brief order Wednesday, the court let stand a San Francisco judge’s ruling that the social media companies must turn over the private postings being sought by defendants in a murder trial.
According to Jim Tyre, this “brief order” was the California equivalent of a cert denial, referred to as “postcard denials” because they were sent out on a post card in the olden days that said something on the order of, “nah.” But in this instance, the refusal to bend to the will of the FIT was apparently shocking. Don’t they own California?
Read more on Simple Justice.