Google’s legal battle to keep Donald Trump banned from the company’s YouTube video-sharing platform was transferred from Florida to a federal court in California over objections by the former president.
The ruling Wednesday by US District Judge K. Michael Moore in Miami means Trump’s lawsuit seeking a return to the social-media platform will be moved to the Northern District of California, near the headquarters of Google owner Alphabet Inc. Moore agreed with YouTube that its terms of service allow the company to choose the forum for such lawsuits.
The transfer will make logistics in the free-speech case a “pain in the butt,” Trump’s lawyer John P. Coale said in a phone interview, adding that he believes the case “is ultimately going to be decided in the Supreme Court.”
Trump, who has stayed almost exclusively at his Mar-a-Lago resort in southern Florida since leaving office, isn’t likely to attend the hearings anyway, Coale said. “I’m sure if there’s a trial he’d probably want to go, but that’s pretty far off,” he said.
Trump sued YouTube, along with Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc., for deleting or freezing his accounts after his supporters rioted at the Capitol on Jan 6. Trump used the platforms to spread false claims that the 2020 presidential election he lost had been rigged.
The judge rejected Trump’s claim that the case should stay in Florida because it relates to a “localised controversy” in the state where he lives. Trump is seeking class-action status for the case, meaning plaintiffs could come from all over the country.
“The court finds that this case does not present a localised controversy that favors keeping this litigation in the Southern District of Florida,” the judge wrote. “To the contrary, this case involves issues that are national in scope.”
In the Twitter suit, Trump last week asked another judge to force the company to reinstate his account while that case proceeds. Twitter is also seeking transfer Trump’s suit against it to California.
The case is Trump v. YouTube LLC, 1:21-cv-22445, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (Miami). – Bloomberg
