United States v. Glassdoor, Inc., No. 17-16221 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of Glassdoor's motion to quash a grand jury subpoena duces tecum requiring disclosure of identifying information of eight users who posted anonymous reviews about another company on its Internet website. A federal grand jury sought the identifying information from Glassdoor as part of its investigation into whether a government contractor was committing wire fraud and misuse of government funds. Glassdoor argued that complying with the subpoena would violate its users' First Amendment rights to associational privacy and anonymous speech. The panel held that the good faith test the Supreme Court established in Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665 (1972), was controlling in this case. The court held that there was no evidence that the grand jury's investigation of fraud, waste, and abuse by a third party in performing a government contract was being conducted in bad faith.
Court Description: Subpoena / First Amendment Rights The panel affirmed the district court’s denial of Glassdoor, Inc.’s motion to quash a grand jury subpoena duces tecum that would require Glassdoor to disclose the identifying information of eight users who posted anonymous reviews about another company on its Internet website; and sustained the contempt order entered to enforce it. Glassdoor argued that complying with the subpoena would violate its users’ First Amendment rights to associational privacy and anonymous speech. The panel held that to determine whether the subpoena violated the First Amendment, the proper test on the record of this case was the good-faith test the Supreme Court established in Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665 (1972). The panel rejected Glassdoor’s contention that the district court should have applied the compelling-interest test laid out in Bursey v. United States, 466 F.2d 1059 (9th Cir. 1972). The panel held that because Glassdoor had neither alleged nor established bad faith on the part of the government in its investigation, under Branzburg, enforcement of the subpoena duces tecum to identify potential witnesses in aid of its inquiries did not violate the First Amendment rights of Glassdoor’s uses. The panel
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