tech dirt by Mike Masnick 10/24/2025
Elon’s Demands For Media Matters’ Donor Details Hits A Surprising Hurdle: Fifth Circuit Says ‘Not So Fast’
from the didn't-see-that-coming deptElon Musk’s SLAPP suit against Media Matters has hit a roadblock, as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals—not exactly known for its progressive rulings—has granted a stay on Judge Reed O’Connor’s order compelling the nonprofit to reveal its donor information.
These days, the Fifth Circuit is where good law goes to die, but apparently even they have some limits. We’ve been following the story of Elon Musk’s SLAPP suit against Media Matters over the advocacy group’s article detailing (accurately) how it found ads from big companies next to neo-Nazi content on the platform.
Judge Reed O’Connor (owner of a bunch of Tesla stock, which he doesn’t think conflicts him out of this case) has been consistently siding with Musk despite the absurdity of the case. The case should have been thrown out for any number of reasons, starting with jurisdiction and venue questions. The lawsuit was brought by a (then) Nevada company headquartered in California, against a DC-based group and a Maryland-based writer. Note the lack of Texas.
The case is so obviously a bogus attack on Media Matters’ free speech and an attempt to punish the company for that speech. Also, in a related matter, another federal judge has already called out Musk’s attack on Media Matters as obviously trying to suppress critical speech (free speech absolutist, my ass).
However, as Judge O’Connor seems willing to bend over backwards to help out Musk, that has included saying that Media Matters has to turn over its donor rolls and related documents as part of the discovery process. The judge (falsely) claimed that Media Matters waived any claim of privilege in those documents by failing to provide a privilege log.
Media Matters asked Judge O’Connor to stay the order while it could appeal, pointing out how damaging it is to the First Amendment to have a non-profit be forced to hand over all its donor info. Judge O’Connor, once again siding with Musk, denied the motion but said that Media Matters wouldn’t have to comply until the Fifth Circuit responded to the organization’s request for an emergency stay.
Over the weekend, the Fifth Circuit granted the stay, meaning that it doesn’t yet need to hand over the donor info. It’s a short per curiam ruling that is not entirely supportive of Media Matters but shows that, unlike Judge O’Connor, the panel of judges recognized there are larger issues beyond “who do we like, Elon Musk or Media Matters?”
More:
https://www.techdirt.com/2024/10/24/elons-demands-for-media-matters-donor-details-hits-a-surprising-hurdle-fifth-circuit-says-not-so-fast/
