Free Speech

A federal district court rules that the case should go back to Minnesota state court, rather than being in federal court.

Eugene Volokh | 1.12.2026 9:13 AM

From the decision Friday in LTL LED, LLC v. Google LLC.

The Constitution gives federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits "between Citizens of different States," in order to diminish the risk that state courts will favor their own citizens. But the Constitution also lets Congress limit this so-called "diversity jurisdiction." Congress has indeed done so, by providing that the jurisdiction extends only to cases in which more than $75,000 is at stake. And Congress has set certain procedural rules, including as to the timing of when a suit filed in state court can be removed to federal court.

Last year, Google was sued in Minnesota state court by a local solar panel installation company that claimed Google's AI Overviews hallucinated false and defamatory statements about the company (see more here). The Complaint claims that none of the sites linked to by the report actually reported that Wolf River had ever faced a Minnesota AG lawsuit, or was otherwise sued for the alleged misconduct. According to the Complaint,

Google cited numerous sources in support of its false assertions; however, none of the referenced materials in fact contained the information Google claimed they did.

The Complaint also alleges specific lost........

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