La. School Board Seeks to Vacate CTO-17 in Social Media MDL
Plaintiff Livingston Parish School Board moved for an order vacating conditional transfer order-17 (CTO-17) in Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Product Liability Litigation, said its Thursday motion (docket 3047) before the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The school…
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board seeks to remand the case to U.S. District Court for Middle Louisiana on grounds that federal jurisdiction is lacking, it said. It alternatively requests that the JPML stay further action on CTO-17 until the Middle District of Louisiana rules on its motion to remand, it said. The board sued Meta, Instagram, ByteDance, Charter and Cox in a negligence suit, alleging social media companies are causing a rising mental health crisis among U.S. youth. The LPSB receives over 75% of its revenue from the state, it said, saying the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has said source of funding “carries the most weight” in factor-based tests determining whether an entity such as a school board is part of the state. This month, Charter Communications and Cox Communications filed a notice of opposition to CTO-17 (see 2309070013, saying ISP defendants haven't been named as defendants in any of the cases previously consolidated into the MDL, “each of which targets the creators of social media platforms and similar software products, along with their affiliates.” The ISPs don’t oppose transfer of the Livingston Parish action in general, but Charter and Cox plan to file a motion to vacate CTO-17 “to the extent it pertains to the claims against them, which should be separated and remanded to the transferor court,” the notice said.