Netflix Goes To Feds To Stop ‘Cuties’ Child Porn Case In Texas

deadline.com:

Backed against the wall, Netflix wants a Texas District Attorney stopped from hitting the streamer with child pornography charges over the coming-of-age drama Cuties.“Netflix brings this Complaint to enjoin Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin from abusing his office and infringing Netflix, Inc.’s constitutional rights,” the Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos-run streamer said in a complaint for injunctive relief filed in federal court today (read it here)“This one prosecutor —out of all the prosecutors in America— has indicted Netflix not just once but five times,” the complaint adds.”Each indictment violates the United States Constitution and comes in retaliation against Netflix’s exercising its First Amendment rights to free speech and to petition the government for redress.”“Enough is enough.”Placed in the District Court docket by the Dallas offices of law firm Carter Arnett PLLC and San Antonio-based Prichard Young LLP in the hopes of cutting off a Thursday hearing on new and more damning charges, the 29-page document further cuts straight to the chase in the unusual circumstances:Netflix does not invoke this Court’s jurisdiction lightly.

Netflix recognizes that federal courts do not often entertain suits to enjoin state criminal actions, and acknowledges the extraordinary nature of this action and the remedies Netflix seeks.

This is, however, an extraordinary case, and Babin’s singular and bad-faith effort to pursue Netflix for exercising its free speech and petition rights under the First Amendment on trumped up charges that he cannot prove as a matter of law require extraordinary measures.