I thought I'd pass along a long excerpt from this amicus brief, which my students Samantha Frazier, Katelyn Taira, and Jacob Haas and I wrote on behalf of the First Amendment Coalition and myself; for more on the decision below, which indeed rejected pseudonymity, see here.
[* * *]
Summary of Argument
John Doe is trying to punish Jane Doe … for accusing him of sexual assault. JA40. If he succeeds, she will likely be driven into bankruptcy based on her speech—speech that she claims is true and therefore constitutionally protected.
He is of course entitled to do this, so long as he is able to prevail on his libel claim. But he is not entitled to do this under the cloak of secrecy. Like other libel plaintiffs, and like most other civil plaintiffs and defendants, as well as criminal defendants, he must litigate this case in his own name.
"Pseudonymous litigation undermines the public's right of access to judicial proceedings. The public has an interest in knowing the names of the litigants, … and disclosing the parties' identities furthers openness of judicial proceedings …." Doe v. Public Citizen, 749 F.3d 246, 263 (4th Cir. 2014) (citations omitted). Public access, including the norm of litigating under parties' own names, "allows the citizenry to monitor the functioning of our courts, thereby [e]nsuring quality, honesty and respect for our legal system." Does 1-3 v. Mills, 39 F.4th 20, 25 (1st Cir. 2022) (citation omitted). Nowhere is this public right to monitor the...
NEW YORK, April 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Levi & Korsinsky, LLP alerts investors in ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ: IBRX) of a pending securities class action naming a senior executive as an ind...