Case 3:16-cv-06535-VC Document 54 Filed 02/22/17 Page 1 of 3

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

IMDB.COM, INC.,

Case No. 16-cv-06535-VC

Plaintiff,
ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR
PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

v.
XAVIER BECERRA,

Re: Dkt. No. 16

Defendant.

To obtain a preliminary injunction preventing enforcement of AB 1687 while this lawsuit
is pending, IMDb must show that it will likely succeed in the lawsuit, that it will likely suffer
irreparable harm absent a preliminary injunction, that the hardship imposed on the government
by a preliminary injunction will be less than the hardship imposed on IMDb by the absence of
one, and that a preliminary injunction would serve the public interest. Winter v. Nat. Res. Def.
Council, Inc., 555 U.S. 7, 20 (2008).
With respect to the first part of the preliminary injunction test, it's difficult to imagine how
AB 1687 could not violate the First Amendment. The statute prevents IMDb from publishing
factual information (information about the ages of people in the entertainment industry) on its
website for public consumption. This is a restriction of non-commercial speech on the basis of
content. See Valle Del Sol Inc. v. Whiting, 709 F.3d 808, 818-19 (9th Cir. 2013). Therefore, the
burden is on the government to show that the restriction is "actually necessary" to serve a
compelling government interest.1 Brown v. Entm't Merchants Ass'n, 564 U.S. 786, 799 (2011).
1

The government has not argued that birthdates or other age-related facts implicate some privacy
interest that protects them from public disclosure, and it's doubtful such an argument would
prevail in any event.

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The government is highly unlikely to meet this burden, and certainly nothing it has submitted in
opposition to the preliminary injunction motion suggests it will be able to do so.
To be sure, the government has identified a compelling goal – preventing age
discrimination in Hollywood. But the government has not shown how AB 1687 is "necessary" to
advance that goal. In fact, it's not clear how preventing one mere website from publishing age
information could meaningfully combat discrimination at all. And even if restricting publication
on this one website could confer some marginal antidiscrimination benefit, there are likely more
direct, more effective, and less speech-restrictive ways of achieving the same end. For example,
although the government asserts generically that age discrimination continues in Hollywood
despite the long-time presence of antidiscrimination laws, the government fails to explain why
more vigorous enforcement of those laws would not be at least as effective at combatting age
discrimination as removing birthdates from a single website. Because the government has
presented nothing to suggest that AB 1687 would actually combat age discrimination (much less
that it's necessary to combat age discrimination), there is an exceedingly strong likelihood that
IMDb will prevail in this lawsuit.2
IMDb satisfies the remaining parts of the preliminary injunction test just as easily.
Because AB 1687 restricts IMDb's speech rights, by definition IMDb is suffering irreparable
harm. See Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 373 (1976). Because the government has not shown
that AB 1687 is likely to prevent age discrimination, the hardship on IMDb from the absence of
an injunction would be much greater than the hardship on the government from the presence of
one. And for similar reasons, the public interest favors an injunction.
Accordingly, the government is enjoined from enforcing AB 1687 while this lawsuit is
pending. The upcoming case management conference is continued to March 21.

2

The government casts AB 1687 as ordinary economic regulation falling outside First
Amendment scrutiny. But IMDb Pro's commercial relationship with its subscribers has no
connection to IMDb's public site, which relies on data obtained from third parties or from the
public record. The government would perhaps be on stronger ground if AB 1687 were limited to
preventing IMDb from misappropriating the data furnished by subscribers to its industry-facing
site.
2

 Case 3:16-cv-06535-VC Document 54 Filed 02/22/17 Page 3 of 3

IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: February 22, 2017
______________________________________
VINCE CHHABRIA
United States District Judge

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