AGs Back Hood Bid To Overturn Preliminary Injunction in Google Suit

Forty state attorneys general lent their support to Mississippi AG Jim Hood Monday, filing a joint amicus brief backing his bid to overturn the U.S. District Court in Jackson’s ruling granting Google a preliminary injunction against his enforcement of a subpoena of the company’s search practices. Hood, a Democrat, filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in late March, after U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate ordered the preliminary injunction because there was a “substantial likelihood” that Google would prevail in its lawsuit against Hood on claims he violated Google’s First Amendment rights (see 1504010029). The AGs -- led by Kentucky's Jack Conway, a Democrat; Arizona's Mark Brnovich, a Republican; and Louisiana's Buddy Caldwell, a Republican -- said that they aren’t taking a position on Hood’s investigation but believe Google’s suit was premature. Wingate’s preliminary injunction “would provide a roadmap for any potential wrongdoer subject to a legitimate state law enforcement investigation to attempt to thwart such an inquiry,” the AGs said. “Such an outcome would undermine Attorneys General’s powers, granted to them by state constitutions and state statutes, to protect the general citizenry from violations of state law. It would also flood the federal courts with what amount to state-law discovery disputes.”