Don’t Mess With Netflix: Lone Star State DA Loses Another ‘Cuties’ Battle With Streamer Over Child Porn Allegations

Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin failed a year ago in his attempt to sue Netflix over child pornography in federal court Babiesand now an appeals court has delivered the first verdict Rock school Actor another defeat and the streamer another victory.

“We do not take lightly allegations of bad faith or intimidation by the prosecution,” Judge Don R. Willett of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote today about the prosecution’s case in Woodville, Texas. “interferes with our jurisdiction in a way that affects ongoing state litigation,” he added in a 28-page order issued by him and two other judges in favor of Netflix (read the …). Babies Court of Appeal decision here).

“But the injunction is interlocutory, our review is deferential, and existing Supreme Court precedent has adapted the principles of equality and federalism to permit district court intervention. For these reasons, the judgment below must be AFFIRMED.”

Long story short: Babin was initially interested in the Sundance-winning coming-of-age drama Babies back in September 2020 with a grand jury indictment and has shown no signs of slowing down since then. At the time ex-Young and restless Actor (real) Babin closed the streamer for “Knowingly advertises images that depict the indecent display of the genitalia or private parts of a clothed or partially clothed child who was under 18 years of age at the time the images were taken, appealing to a careful interest in sex rather than a serious, literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”

To be clear: it was directed by Maïmouna Doucouré Babies is about an 11-year-old Senegalese-French girl caught in the conflict between the morals and ambitions of her traditional Muslim family and those of her dance group friends. Launched with a bold ad campaign that Netflix itself discontinued and replaced, Babies launched on the streamer on September 9, 2020.

Not long after the grand jury indictment and subsequent controversy came to light, Netflix was accused of actively manipulating its own search algorithm to make the film harder to find on its platform — an allegation that the streamer lightly denied or even denied.

Nevertheless, in March 2022, Netflix filed for a preliminary injunction to prevent “Babin from abusing his office and violating Netflix, Inc.’s constitutional rights” after the case went back and forth in and out of various jurisdictions for months. More than eight months later, on December 14, US District Judge Michael Truncale granted Netflix’s temporary will.

Babin then asked the appeals court to step into the courtroom.

Things didn’t go as he had hoped, to say the least.

“The court found that Babin prosecuted Netflix in bad faith — a finding of fact that followed discovery and a seven-hour trial in which Babin testified,” Judge Willett noted in today’s appeals court decision.

“Babin argues on appeal that the district court’s conclusion in this regard was not only wrong, but clearly wrong—an argument that, as we know, must also prevail over significant deference to the district court’s credibility findings,” the court added added Assistant Attorney General Willett. . “Having carefully examined the record and the arguments of the parties at this preliminary stage of the proceedings, we do not adhere to the ‘final and firm conviction that a mistake has been made.’ Rather, sufficient evidence supports the court’s findings.”

“Netflix has demonstrated at this stage that it was prosecuted in bad faith, a violation that we have already determined to be ‘irreparable,'” Judge Willett said. “Our precedent similarly holds that injunctions protecting First Amendment rights are ‘always in the public interest.’ By doing so, Netflix demonstrated that it was entitled to an injunction.”

Cute.