NetChoice, LLC v. Jonathan Skrmetti -Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Vacated
The Sixth Circuit vacated the district court’s denial of NetChoice’s request for a preliminary injunction against Tennessee’s Protecting Children from Social Media Act. The panel held that the district court abused its discretion by finding no irreparable harm; unrecoverable compliance costs and the likely loss of First Amendment freedoms satisfy the irreparable-injury requirement, so the lower court must reconsider the remaining injunction factors on remand.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether non-recoverable statutory or regulatory compliance costs, standing alone, constitute "irreparable harm" for purposes of obtaining a preliminary injunction.
Circuit Positions
Unrecoverable compliance costs almost always qualify as irreparable harm and must be weighed in the preliminary-injunction calculus.
Compliance costs do not, by themselves, constitute irreparable harm absent additional extraordinary circumstances.
Conflict Summary
The Sixth Circuit holds that any non-recoverable compliance costs automatically satisfy the irreparable-harm prong of the preliminary-injunction test, whereas the Second, Third, and Seventh Circuits have held that ordinary compliance costs normally do NOT amount to irreparable harm because such costs commonly accompany new regulations.