Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc.

ORDER RE INTERNET AND SOCIAL MEDIA SEARCHES OF JURORS

Trial judges have such'respect for juries — reverential respect would not be too strong to say — that it must pain them to contemplate that, in addition to the sacrifice jurors make for our country, they must suffer trial lawyers and jury consultants scouring over their' Facebook and other profiles to dissect their politics, religion, relationships, preferences, friends, photographs, and other personal information.

In this high-profile copyright action, both sides requested that' the Court require the venire to complete a two-page jury questionnaire. One side then wanted a full extra day to’ digest the answers, and the other side wanted two full extra days, all before beginning voir dire. Wondering about the delay allocated to reviewing two pages, the judge eventually realized that counsel wanted the names and residences from the questionnaire so that, during the delay, their teams could scrub Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln, and other Internet sites to extract personal data on the venire. Upon inquiry, counsel admitted this. The questionnaire idea cratered, and the discussion moved to whether Internet investigation by counsel…