Lindsay Lohan, You Ain’t no New Yorker! Says Pitbull, Files for Notice of Removal!

I told you all about the Lindsay Lohan v. Pitbull case where Lohan sued Pitbull under a New York Right of Publicity statute. Update: Pitbull is challenging Lohan’s claim that she is a residence of  New York. To do so, he also uses, as evidence, one of her prior lawsuits in which the same issue arose and the Judge in that case ruled against her finding she was a California resident.

What’s the significance of Pitbull’s fight? Lohan’s ‘Right of Publicity’ claim rests on a New York state law.  Lohan needs that local law to get Pitbull on the hook. Pitbull wants the case transferred to federal court.  If Pitbull takes his case into federal court, then the tension I discussed in the past  between state Right of Publicity law and the First Amendment comes into play. If Pitbull can successfully argue his First Amendment Right to  freedom of speech and expression in his song, then a federal judge can find that federal law preempts state law under the Supremacy clause of the US Constitution. This means federal law reigns supreme. Do I expect Lohan’s attorneys to fight this? Absolutely. Who will win? We shall see.

Read the story below:

“Lohan is currently suing Putbull for rapping about her. The lyric that set off a lawsuit went like this: “Hustlers move aside, so I’m tiptoein’, to keep flowin’ / I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan.”

Many folks have noted the absurdity that Lohan would test the First Amendment by claiming Pitbull’s words caused her “tremendous emotional distress” and were “destined to do irreparable harm” to her image as “a professional actor of good repute.”

The silver prize in silliness has to be that Lohan filed the lawsuit in Nassau County, New York, claiming to be a resident there in her mother’s home.

In an effort to get the case transferred from county court to a federal one, Pitbull’s lawyers have filed a notice of removal that talks about how Lohan made a sworn declaration that “falsely attested” to her residence.

As proof, it’s pointed out that Lohan has a California driver’s license, leases a home in Venice Beach, and that “given her frequent legal troubles, Ms. Lohan possesses irrevocable ties to California that are likely to keep her there . . .”

I like that last argument by Pitbull’s lawyers, “Ms. Lohan possesses irrevocable ties to California that are likely to keep her there.” Clearly they are speaking about her criminal sentencing and her being on probation for her convicted crimes. Clever argument.

THR, Esq. has the full story.

Photocredit: Lindsay Lohan Facebook Group page