Arnold & Porter Wins Appeal Affirming $2M Planned Parenthood Victory

Arnold & Porter obtained a resounding victory for Planned Parenthood when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed virtually the entirety of a jury verdict that awarded Planned Parenthood more than $2 million in damages in 2019.

In December 2019, Arnold & Porter secured a trial win for Planned Parenthood on all claims in a case against activists that embarked on a years-long campaign to destroy Planned Parenthood by illegally infiltrating Planned Parenthood conferences and clinics, surreptitiously recording Planned Parenthood personnel, and releasing highly-edited videos of the illegal recordings. After a six-week jury trial on Planned Parenthood’s claims for violations of RICO, fraud, trespass, and illegal recording, the Arnold & Porter team established the defendants’ liability on all claims, and the jury awarded Planned Parenthood compensatory and punitive damages totaling more than $2 million.

The defendants appealed, claiming that the $2 million award was improper on a number of bases, including that the award violated the defendants’ First Amendment rights. Nearly all of the defendants’ arguments were soundly rejected by the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the awards for all compensatory and punitive damages.

The Arnold & Porter team included partners Rhonda Trotter, Jeremy Kamras, Diana Sterk, and William Perdue, who argued the case in the Ninth Circuit. The team also included senior counsel Sharon Mayo and Steven Mayer, counsel Oscar Ramallo, senior associate Matthew Diton, associate Avishai Don, and attorney and advisor Meghan Martin.