Google Files Suit Against Mississippi Attorney General
Source: CONOR DOUGHERTY
Google has accused Jim Hood, the attorney general of Mississippi, of violating federal law in his investigation of the company. Credit Rogelio V. Solis
Google filed a lawsuit on Friday against Jim Hood, the attorney general of Mississippi, accusing him of violating federal law in his efforts to get the search giant to remove links to some content.
The suit, filed in Federal District Court in Southern Mississippi, requests that Mr. Hood be prevented from enforcing a subpoena demanding vast troves of records and other data from the company. It also accuses Mr. Hood of essentially acting as a pawn for industry groups, including the Motion Picture Association of America, Hollywood’s main lobbying group.
When Google did not remove links to sites that the attorney general found objectionable, the suit says, Mr. Hood issued an “enormously burdensome subpoena.” His efforts, the company argues, violate federal law in several ways.
The lawsuit asserts that Congress “broadly immunized computer service providers from state regulation.” Mississippi, the complaint says, did not have the legal standing to be investigating the company, noting that copyright infringement, for example, is within federal jurisdiction, not state.
The suit comes as Google and its opponents ― including Microsoft and the movie industry ― have significantly increased money and staff dedicated to attempts to influence state attorneys general, as tensions among the different players escalate and both sides turn to government authorities to try to increase leverage.
The movie industry, for example, working through the Motion Picture Association of America ― poured money into an effort it named Project Goliath, which included financial support for a nonprofit group that hired a former attorney general from Mississippi to lobby the current attorney general there, pushing him to open a formal investigation into Google.
Microsoft and other Google rivals helped finance a group called FairSearch, which hired its own former attorney general, this one from Rhode Island, also to lobby the Mississippi attorney general and other attorneys general, again pressing them to go after Google.
And Google, facing this assault, retained the former attorney general and governor from New Hampshire, Stephen Merrill, to try to counteract the anti-Google campaign.
All these moves have now turned into open warfare, after Mr. Hood issued a subpoena demanding a response from Google, and Google has now sued Mr. Hood to try to block that subpoena.
As this fight plays out, all sides have made large campaign donations to the attorneys general, mostly through their political groups.
Jan Schaefer, a spokeswoman for Mr. Hood, said Mr. Hood was still reviewing the lawsuit.
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