A federal appeals court on October 20 temporarily blocked an order that would have required Media Matters, a group sued by Elon Musk's X, to provide the names and addresses of its donors. The court ruled that the requested information likely isn’t relevant to the lawsuit.
X sued Media Matters in 2023 over statements the organization made about the social media platform, prompting the company to request a court order for Media Matters to hand over donor details and communications. Initially, U.S. District Judge Reed C. O'Connor instructed Media Matters to find the information and create a list of documents they intended to withhold under privilege. When Media Matters refused, the judge ordered the group to disclose the information.
However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Media Matters doesn’t need to provide the information at this time. The court found that compelling the disclosure could violate donors' First Amendment rights, and indicated that Media Matters is likely to win its appeal.
The three-judge panel stated that X Corp. doesn’t need to know the identities and residential addresses of all Media Matters donors to build its case. The judges also expressed concern that releasing this information could lead to harassment or intimidation of Media Matters and its supporters. The panel highlighted that Musk has stated X would take action against both Media Matters and its financial backers.
The appellate court paused the lower court’s order while Media Matters continues its appeal against Judge O’Connor’s separate decision, which rejected the group’s request to dismiss the case. That appeal is still under review.
The judges also questioned why Media Matters chose to ignore the district court’s ruling. They noted that Media Matters could have conducted a search for the documents and logged which ones it considered privileged, instead of refusing outright. The panel, however, refrained from making any broad rulings on First Amendment issues in their decision on the stay order.
Neither Media Matters nor a representative for X responded to requests for comment.
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