Kohls v. Bonta

Summary

In response to the passage of California AB.2655 and AB.2839, Christopher Kohls, the creator of a deceptive AI-generated video that involved Vice President Harris and was promoted by Elon Musk on X, filed a complaint challenging the constitutionality of the two laws. The laws restrict the sharing of deceptive content and deepfakes related to elections. The complaint, filed in the US Eastern District Court of California, seeks to enjoin the enforcement of the laws and declare them "unconstitutional in violation of both the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and Article I, § 2 of the California Constitution."

Updates

September 18, 2024. Plaintiff Christopher Kohls filed a motion for preliminary injunction. The Hamilton Lincoln Law Insitute filed a memorandum in support of the motion.

September 27, 2024. Protect Democracy filed an amicus brief urging the court not to "short-circuit the ongoing development of common-sense and constitutionally-permissible regulations of deepfakes that have the potential to upend elections."

October 2, 2024. The District Court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of AB 2839 on the grounds that "AB 2839 does not pass constitutional scrutiny because the law does not use the least restrictive means available for advancing the State’s interest here." The decision added, "As Plaintiffs persuasively argue, counter speech is a less restrictive alternative to prohibiting videos such as those posted by Plaintiff, no matter how offensive or inappropriate someone may find them."