The lawyer for the college student who has been tracking the location of pop star Taylor Swift’s private jet online told GMA on Wednesday that his client will not "buckle" under the legal pressure Swift’s people have put on him to stop.
Slater Legal PLLC attorney James Slater spoke to the ABC morning show to declare that his client, Jack Sweeney, is "not going to buckle" after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Swift’s legal team last December to stop tracking her private jet.
"This is just another string in an effort by a rich and powerful person to try to silence public criticism and free speech," Slater told the show.
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Sweeney, a student at the University of Central Florida, has been tracking the flight paths of Swift’s private jet for some time now, using publicly available data provided by the Federal Aviation Administration. He regularly posts information about Swift’s trips to several social media accounts.
Part of Sweeney’s aim has been to share the estimated cost and climate impact Swift’s traveling has had.
In the December cease-desist-letter, Swift’s lawyer Katie Morrone accused Sweeney of putting up information that provides "individuals intent on physically harming her, or with nefarious or violent intentions, a roadmap to carry out their plans."
"Indeed, there are many public cases of individuals who have come to Ms. Swift's residences, including those armed with weapons and ammunition, and attempted to harm her. This reality has forced our Client to live her life in a constant state of fear for her personal safety," the letter added.
Sweeney’s lawyer ripped Swift’s cease-and-desist letter in his own response.
Posted to X on Monday, Slater’s letter read, "Put simply, there is nothing unlawful about [Sweeney's] use of publicly accessible information to track private jets, including those used by public figures like Taylor Swift."
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"The @taylorswiftjets account is engaged in protected speech that does not violate any of Ms. Swift's legal rights. Your letter makes that clear by failing to identify any legal claim," Slater added.
He detailed the main points of his argument against Swift’s legal team on GMA, stating, "We wanted to really hit home that there is no legal claim here, that this is just public information and that he’s not using it in a nefarious way."
He continued: "And this is him tracking jets, and there’s a purpose. These jets are emitting an insane amount of carbon emissions."
GMA also spoke to University of Washington law professor Ryan Calo, who said he doesn’t see "an underlying cause of action that Swift legal team could bring to bear against this individual."
"But I don't see how it violates any civil or criminal law," he noted, before mentioning that FAA puts out information of flight locations to the public "in order to track safety performance, as well as to have the best chance of finding a plane should it go down, in a very rare instance, when there was a failure."
"And the other would be for reasons of accountability," Calo added.
Sweeney has found himself in the cross-hairs of powerful people for his private jet tracking before, having his X account recording the location of X owner Elon Musk’s private jet suspended on the social media platform in 2022.
