Nadia Naffe v. John Frey

Plaintiff Nadia Naffe appeals the district court’s dismissal of her 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim and six related state law causes of action. Her appeal requires us to resolve two issues. First, we must decide whether the factual allegations in Naffe’s complaint are sufficient to support her claim that Defendant John Patrick Frey — a Los An-geles County Deputy District Attorney— acted under color of state law for the purposes of § 1983 when he published derogatory statements about Naffe on his personal Internet blog and on Twitter. Second, we must determine if the district court erred when it required Naffe to establish by a preponderance of the evidence the amount in controversy for showing federal diversity jurisdiction.

First, we hold that Naffe has not supported adequately her claim that Frey acted under color of state law for the purposes of § 1983. Rather, the factual allegations — taken as true — compel the conclusion that Frey did not act under color of state law when he blogged and Tweeted about Naffe because he did so for purely personal reasons, and the communications were unrelated to his work as a county prosecutor. Second, we conclude that the district court…