The Supreme Court on Friday tossed Facebook’s appeal in a securities lawsuit against the social media giant, indicating the court shouldn’t have taken up the case.
The unsigned, one-sentence opinion contained no explanation and said the case was “dismissed as improvidently granted.”
It means Facebook will have to face a class action lawsuit over accusations it misled investors about the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, which stemmed from the company using data from tens of millions of unwitting Facebook users to support the 2016 presidential campaigns of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Donald Trump.
The lawsuit concerns a securities filing Facebook issued in 2016 acknowledging that improper third-party use of its data could harm the business. The filing framed that risk as hypothetical, and the shareholders argue it improperly led them to believe that no such incident had occurred.
After an intermediate appeals court allowed the case to move forward, the Supreme Court agreed in June to hear the case and held oral arguments earlier this month.
At the arguments, the justices appeared split on whether to back Facebook’s appeal as they peppered both sides with hypotheticals that stretched from meteor strikes to Molotov cocktails.
The Hill has reached out to Facebook for comment.
Friday’s decision marked the Supreme Court’s first opinion day of its annual term, which began last month. It came earlier than the two most recent terms, when the first opinions were handed down in December or January.
The Supreme Court rarely dismisses a case as improvidently granted. The court did so last term in a high-profile case involving emergency abortions in Idaho as well as a case the previous term regarding attorney-client privilege.
Updated at 10:36 a.m. EST