1 Plaintiff’s Motion to Shorten Time and to

Source document: 1 Plaintiff’s Motion to Shorten Time and to; document type: Motion (administrative motion to shorten time, Civil L.R. 6-3).

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Plaintiff’s Motion to Shorten Time and to

Serve a Supplemental Pleading
CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI
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ROGER I. TEICH
California State Bar No. 147076
290 Nevada Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Telephone:  (415) 948-0045
E-Mail Address:  rteich@juno.com

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.
MARY HOLLAND
Children’s Health Defense
1227 North Peachtree Parkway, Suite 202
Peachtree City, GA 30269
Telephone:  (917) 743-3868
E-Mail Address:  mary.holland@childrenshealthdefense.org

Attorneys for Plaintiff
CHILDREN’S HEALTH DEFENSE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION
CHILDREN’S HEALTH DEFENSE,

Plaintiff,

v.

FACEBOOK, INC., et al.,

Defendants.
Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI

PLAINTIFF’S MOTION TO SHORTEN
TIME TO HEAR ITS MOTION FOR
LEAVE TO SUPPLEMENT THE SECOND
AMENDED COMPLAINT; ROGER TEICH
DECLARATION; [PROPOSED] ORDER

Civil L.R. 6-3

Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI   Document 75   Filed 03/08/21   Page 1 of 5

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Plaintiff’s Motion to Shorten Time and to

Serve a Supplemental Pleading
CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI
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NOTICE OF MOTION TO SHORTEN TIME
AND TO SERVE A SUPPLEMENTAL PLEADING

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT Plaintiff Children’s Health Defense’s (“CHD”) hereby moves
for an Order pursuant to Civil L.R. 6-3(d) to shorten time to hear CHD’s motion, filed herewith, for
leave to supplement its Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”).

STATEMENT OF REQUESTED RELIEF
Subsequent to the filing of CHD’s Second Amended Complaint and to the filing of CHD’s
opposition to Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss, Defendants Facebook and Zuckerberg have engaged in
significant further acts of retaliation and censorship against CHD and in significant further acts of joint
participation with the federal government to suppress CHD’s constitutionally protected speech. Because
these new facts are material to this case, CHD has respectfully requested by separate motion, pursuant to
Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(d), permission to supplement the pleadings. Pursuant to Civil L.R. 6-3(d), CHD
hereby moves to shorten time so that this Rule 15(d) motion may be heard along with Defendants’
Motions to Dismiss at the hearing already scheduled on March 23, 2021, at 11:00 a.m., in Courtroom 1
of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The Court may in its discretion set an
expedited briefing schedule by which Defendants’ oppositions to the Rule 15(d) motion are due by
March 17, 2021, and Plaintiff’s replies by March 19, 2021.

MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES
FACTUAL STATEMENT
On December 21, 2020, Defendants filed their Motions to Dismiss Plaintiff CHD’s Second
Amended Complaint. (Dkts. ##68-69.) On February 5, 2021, CHD filed its Oppositions thereto. (Dkts.
##70-71.) These Motions to Dismiss, and CHD’s Opposition thereto, will be heard by this Court on
March 23, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. in Courtroom 1 of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
California. (Dkt. #72.)
As this Court is aware, CHD’s allegations include claims that Defendants have violated CHD’s
free speech rights under the First Amendment; retaliated against CHD for bringing this action;
Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI   Document 75   Filed 03/08/21   Page 2 of 5

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Plaintiff’s Motion to Shorten Time and to

Serve a Supplemental Pleading
CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI
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repeatedly made false assertions that CHD posted false information on its Facebook page, while
directing users to CHD’s direct competitors; and colluded with the federal government in the above.  In
recent weeks and days, Defendants Facebook and Zuckerberg have furthered—indeed escalated—all of
this conduct.  Specifically, as alleged in CHD’s supplemental pleading (Shreffler Dec. Ex. 1, filed
concurrently):
 On February 10, 2021, five days after CHD filed its Opposition to Defendants’ Motions to
Dismiss, Facebook terminated the Instagram account of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., CHD’s
founder and chairman, which at that time had over 800,000 followers. (Id., Ex. 2)1
 On or about February 11, 2021, Facebook issued a widely-circulated press statement
purporting to explain its cancelation of Mr. Kennedy’s Instagram account by falsely stating
that Mr. Kennedy has “repeatedly shared debunked claims about the coronavirus or
vaccines” on Facebook platforms (Id.)
 On or about February 19, Defendant Facebook admitted that, just as CHD has claimed
throughout these proceedings, it is working hand-in-hand with the federal government to
censor constitutionally protected vaccine-related speech.  In particular:
 On or about February 19, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed that “the company has reached
out to the White House to offer ‘any assistance we can provide’” to the federal government’s
effort to block what it describes as the “spread” of vaccine “misinformation” online.  Nandita
Bose, Exclusive: White House working with Facebook and Twitter to tackle anti-vaxxers,
REUTERS (Feb. 20, 2021), https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-white-house-
exclusive-idINKBN2AK0HP.
 At the same time, the White House acknowledged its “direct engagement” with social media
companies including Facebook in “clamping down” on speech concerning vaccines that the
government seeks to suppress.  Id.
 These revelations marked the first acknowledgment by Big Tech companies such as
Facebook and by government sources that “[federal] officials are directly engaged with

1  Instagram is a Facebook product.
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Plaintiff’s Motion to Shorten Time and to

Serve a Supplemental Pleading
CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI
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Silicon Valley in censoring social media users.”  Jesse O’Neil, White House working with
social media giants to silence anti-vaxxers, NEW YORK POST (Feb. 19, 2021) (emphasis
added).
 As part of this joint, concerted action, the White House is “specifically pushing” Facebook,
Twitter, and Google to suppress and/or prevent from reaching wide audiences “chatter that
deviates from officially distributed COVID-19 information.”  Id.
 This joint, concerted scheme to censor constitutionally protected speech on medical issues of
supreme public concern is confirmed by new reporting that the President’s chief of staff, Ron
Klain, had previously said “the administration will try to work with Silicon Valley on the
issue.” Bose, supra.
 On March 5, 2021, CHD was informed that Facebook published a “warning label” on a third-
party user’s Facebook account which included the message:  Unfollow Children’s Health
Defense (Shreffler Dec. Ex. 3.)  The warning label also implies that CHD is promulgating
false and harmful information on its Facebook page, encourages users to visit the World
Health Organization’s COVID pages for accurate information, and allows users to stop
seeing posts from CHD by clicking on an accompanying icon.  Id.
 The same day, March 5, 2021, Defendants filed their Replies in support of their Motions to
Dismiss (Dkts. ##73-74), making no mention of any of the events and circumstances
described above.
By separate motion filed herewith, CHD has requested leave under Fed. R. Civ. P. 15(d) to
supplement its SAC in order to set forth these newly-occurred facts.  By this motion, CHD seeks to
shorten time so that its Rule 15(d) motion can be heard at the already-scheduled March 23 hearing.

ARGUMENT
Civil L.R. 6-3(a) permits this Court on motion and for good cause shown to shorten time.  Good
cause is present here.  Counsel has brought the matters raised herein to the Court’s attention promptly
and has sought Defendants’ stipulation to the expedited briefing and hearing schedule proposed herein.
The new facts alleged above are clearly pertinent to the subject matter of the March 23 hearing on
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Plaintiff’s Motion to Shorten Time and to

Serve a Supplemental Pleading
CHD v. Facebook et al.; Case No. 3:20-cv-05787-SI
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Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss, and thus judicial economy will be served by considering CHD’s Rule
15(d) motion at that time.

CONCLUSION

Accordingly, Plaintiff CHD respectfully requests that the Court grant its motion to shorten time
pursuant to Civil L.R. 6-3(d) so that CHD’s motion to supplement the pleadings pursuant to Fed. R. Civ.
P. Rule 15(d) may be heard with Defendants’ motions to dismiss on March 23, 2021.

Dated:  March 8, 2021

Respectfully submitted,

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.
Founder and Chairman, Children’s Health Defense

MARY S. HOLLAND
General Counsel, Children’s Health Defense

ROGER I. TEICH

Counsel for Plaintiff
Children’s Health Defense

Case 3:20-cv-05787-SI   Document 75   Filed 03/08/21   Page 5 of 5

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