Exhibit Q 

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

EASTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI 

BACKPAGE.COM, LLC, 

 Plaintiff, 

 v. 

JOSHUA D. HAWLEY, in his official 

capacity as Attorney General of the State of 

Missouri, 

 Defendant.

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 No. 4:17 CV 1951 

MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION 

Plaintiff Backpage.com, LLC “(Backpage”) moves pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 65 for a 

preliminary injunction, enjoining Missouri Attorney General Joshua D. Hawley from enforcing 

the Civil Investigative Demand served on Backpage and its CEO Carl Ferrer, and from further 

pursuing or threatening other action against Backpage. 

The motion is based on Backpage’s statutory immunity from state law claims based on its 

activities as an online publisher and distributor of third-party content, and on Backpage’s 

constitutional rights under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the United States 

Constitution. 

As further explained in the accompanying Memorandum, Attorney General Hawley has 

taken actions that, unless enjoined, will chill, inhibit, and prevent expressive activities protected 

by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Because the activities that Attorney 

General Hawley targets are expressly immunized by federal law from any state action, civil or 

criminal, Attorney General Hawley’s investigation and legal action cannot be legally justified 

and must be enjoined. 

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A 1996 federal law makes it “the policy of the United States” to “preserve the vibrant and 

competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive computer 

services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation.” 47 U.S.C. § 230(b)(2). This act—Section 

230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C. § 230 (“Section 230”; sometimes known 

as the Communications Decency Act because of the subchapter in which it appeared)—totally 

immunizes interactive computer services with respect to their publishing or distributing of 

content created by others, and with respect to their self-policing of their services, which Section 

230 permits and encourages. In hundreds of cases, courts have applied and enforced Section 

230, including multiple cases regarding Backpage, one of which was decided in this district. See 

M.A. v. Village Voice Media Holdings, LLC, 809 F.Supp.2d 1041 (E.D. Mo. 2011). Because 

section 230 absolutely immunizes Backpage’s conduct in carrying third-party content, and taking 

protective review and selection activities with respect to it, it cannot be liable under state law 

based on those activities. 

Attorney General Hawley, however, has publicly announced that he seeks to investigate 

and prosecute Backpage, under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, for those protected 

activities, and that his goal is to shut it down. He initiated such actions with a Civil Investigative 

Demand directed to Backpage, and a preemptive Petition to Enforce it, even before Backpage’s 

response was due. His actions clearly threaten the First Amendment rights of Backpage and its 

users, and therefore should be enjoined. Backpage.com v. Dart, 807 F.3d at 230, 235 (7th Cir. 

2015) (upholding injunction against sheriff’s effort to “shut down” and “crush” Backpage by 

threatening credit card companies as a prior restraint and “censorship . . . prohibited by the First 

Amendment”; “[A] public official who tries to shut down an avenue of expression of ideas and 

opinions through actual or threatened imposition of government power or sanction is violating 

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the First Amendment.” ). See also Major League Baseball v. Crist, 331 F.3d 1177 (11th Cir. 

2003) (“[I]nvestigations premised solely upon legal activity are the very type of ‘fishing 

expeditions’ that were the target of Justice Holmes’s assault in American Tobacco.”; “[I]t is clear 

that an investigation predicated solely upon legal activates does not pass muster under any 

standard.”) (emphasis in original).

For the reasons more fully stated in the Complaint and accompanying Memorandum, 

Backpage requests that the Court issue a preliminary injunction, enjoining Missouri Attorney 

General Hawley from enforcing the Civil Investigative Demand served on Backpage and its 

CEO Carl Ferrer, and from further pursuing or threatening other action against Backpage, and 

that it provide for such other and further relief as are just and proper in the circumstances. 

DATED: July 27, 2017. 

Respectfully submitted, 

/s/ Mark Sableman 

Mark Sableman, MO - 36276 

Jan Paul Miller, MO – 58112 

Michael L. Nepple, MO – 42082 

THOMPSON COBURN LLP 

One US Bank Plaza 

St. Louis, Missouri 63101 

314-552-6000 

FAX 314-552-7000 

msableman@thompsoncoburn.com 

jmiller@thompsoncoburn.com 

mnepple@thompsoncoburn.com 

Attorneys for Plaintiff Backpage.com, LLC 

 

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James C. Grant 

(Pro hac vice application submitted) 

Robert E. Miller 

(Pro hac vice application to be submitted) 

DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP 

1201 Third Avenue, Suite 2200 

Seattle, WA 98101 

(206) 622-3150 (tel.); (206) 757-7700 (fax) 

jimgrant@dwt.com 

robertmiller@dwt.com 

Robert L. Corn-Revere 

(Pro hac vice application granted) 

Ronald London 

(Pro hac vice application submitted) 

DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP 

Suite 800, 1919 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 

Washington, DC 20006-3401 

(202) 973-4225 (tel.); (202) 973-4499 (fax) 

bobcornrevere@dwt.com

ronnielondon@dwt.com 

 

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

 I hereby certify that on July 27, 2017, the foregoing was filed electronically with the 

Clerk of Court, and, additionally served in the following manner on Defendant Joshua Hawley 

and his representatives: 

Mary Delworth Morris 

Assistant Attorney General 

Old Post Office Building 

8154 Olive Street, suite 200 

St. Louis, MO 63188 

Mary.Morris@ago.mo.gov

BY HAND DELIVERY (on 7/28/17) and EMAIL 

Joshua D. Hawley 

Attorney General 

Supreme Court Building 

207 W. High St. 

P.O. Box 899 

Jefferson City, MO 65102 

Phones: (573) 751-3321 

Fax: (573) 751-0774 

attorney.general@ago.mo.gov

BY FAX and FEDERAL EXPRESS (7/28/17) and EMAIL 

/s/ Mark Sableman 

Mark Sableman, MO - 36276 

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