Statement On Facebook’s Motion To Dismiss In Atkinson v. Facebook.

On November 12, 2019, I filed a lawsuit against Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg on a variety of theories including the violation of my First Amendment rights under a theory of a constructive public trust. See Atkinson v. Facebook, Inc., et. al., 3:19-cv-01785-VLB.

Today, Facebook filed a motion to dismiss my lawsuit – a move that my lawyer, Norm Pattis, and I had expected and are prepared to oppose. In simpler language, Facebook is asking the Court to tell me to “get lost,” and you can read why here.

This lawsuit has attracted a fair amount of attention from the media, a chorus of legal opinions from lawyers (many of whom I have the utmost respect for) rendering me a big underdog, a perfect storm of opinions from the public, and the expected torrent of hate email, ridicule, and threats including vows to ensure that I am never able to practice law after I graduate law school.

I expected and accepted that reality when I made the decision to bring this lawsuit. I look forward to finally offering an explanation for filing my lawsuit and explaining the legal theory underlying my claims in my forthcoming opposition to Facebook’s motion to dismiss. If I were naive and simplistic, I might hope that my forthcoming papers would quiet some of my critics; however, I am not so I strongly doubt the probability of that fantasy becoming reality.

So for now, I am going to get a good night’s sleep, get up in the morning, and go to work and class like I have always done.