Berenson v. Biden, Jr.

Background

Alex Berenson sued Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Andrew Slavitt, Rob Flaherty, Vivek Murthy, Scott Gottlieb, and Albert Bourla. He alleged a First Amendment violation, a violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3), and tortious interference with contract. The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). Party discovery had already been stayed by agreement. Slavitt, Gottlieb, and Bourla separately moved to stay discovery involving nonparties.

Court’s Analysis

The court stayed the action in its entirety because the Supreme Court’s forthcoming decisions in Murthy v. Missouri and National Rifle Association v. Vullo were likely to affect the case. The court stated that it intended to hold oral argument on the motions to dismiss after those decisions and directed the parties to submit a joint letter with their available argument dates within one week after the Supreme Court ruled.

The court also applied the standard for staying discovery upon a showing of good cause. It considered the breadth of the requested discovery, possible prejudice, and the strength of the motion. The court found that staying third-party discovery was warranted because the defendants had moved to dismiss all claims on what the court called compelling grounds, nonparties should not bear the burden of producing discovery at that stage, and Berenson had not shown meaningful prejudice from a short delay.

Disposition

The court GRANTED the Private Defendants’ motion to stay discovery. It also stayed the case pending further order of the court. The court expressly declined to decide the merits of the case, and the opinion does not rule on the motions to dismiss.