Appeals Court Rules Texas DA’s ‘Cuties’ Child Porn Charges Against Netflix to Be ‘Bad-Faith Prosecution’

In an excoriating opinion issued Monday, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against a Texas district attorney’s attempt to prosecute Netflix on child pornography charges over the company’s 2020 film “Cuties.”

Tyler County D.A. Lucas Babin subjected Netflix “to a bad-faith prosecution,” the court said in its unanimous 3-0 opinion. This constituted “an injury we have already deemed ‘irreparable.’”

The court also cited First Amendment concerns, saying in part that “the state has no legitimate interest in a bad-faith prosecution. Our precedent similarly establishes that injunctions protecting First Amendment rights ‘are always in the public interest.’ Netflix has therefore shown that it is entitled to preliminary injunctive relief.”