Eric Goldman spoke to USA Today about a lawsuit against the creator of a viral GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $100,000 by a California woman who shamed a barista online for asking her to wear a mask inside a Starbucks store in San Diego.
The case could be thrown out under California’s anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation law, according to Eric Goldman, associate dean for research and a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. The state law is designed to prevent lawsuits that discourage speech about issues of public significance.
“The publicity rights are limited by the First Amendment and I think that the First Amendment ought to apply here,” Goldman told USA TODAY. “I really think it will be an easy case. That there was no way to tell the barista’s story without talking about what happened.”
