So things still do not look good right now.

END OF MESSAGE

The fact there are multiple plaintiffs, plus other sympathetic parties planning to file amicus briefs, is an indication the appeal was most likely researched and written by committee, with preliminary drafts making the rounds for everyone to make comments and suggestions. The finished product is 83 pages which means it was probably edited down from something substantially larger. And, of course, the definitive reason is because lawyers charge by the hour. In that sense they're like providers, except that only one of the two leaves you with a smile on your face to go with the hole in your pocket.

I just read the actual appellate brief (found here: https://cdn-files.avn.com/files/2019/2/0/5c65dc9835e98-woodhull-v-doj-fosta-appeal.pdf) and the district court's reliance on lack of standing in this case is a sign of real desperation on the part of the district court judge to avoid reviewing the merits of the arguments that FOSTA is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech.  

The judge wanted NO part of that shit sandwich; he would've been forced to either knock FOSTA down (political suicide) or obviously surrender his judicial integrity by making up an argument that would be reversed on appeal. He's hoping that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals will uphold his cowardly dismissal on the basis of standing and thus remove the burning hot potato from his crotch.  

The judge, BTW, is a George W. Bush appointee who has been mostly a right-wing hack on the bench. Not entirely, but he sure doesn't want to be the guy who struck down the "anti-sex trafficking" law.  

Best hope now is that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals reverses the "lack of standing" nonsense and throws the case back to the district court. Then, hopefully, the trial judge nuts up and slaps down FOSTA for being an obviously-unconstitutional restraint on free speech. In other words, if you're trafficking, then there are already laws against that activity and those fuckers should be convicted and buried underneath a prison. If you're a website that is publishing third-party content (like Facebook or YouTube or TER or Twitter, etc...), then you're NOT FUCKING RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT PEOPLE SAY ON YOUR SITE. Is AT&T responsible for what people say on the phone? FFS.  

If you want to read the part of the appellate brief which describes how FOSTA hurt sites like TER, read p. 10-12.  

If you want to read the judge's actual ruling which is the subject of the appeal, it's here: https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2813&context=historical.

Any idiot, even the OP, knows the place to file these kind of cases is in the ninth circuit, and I certainly hope that is where the inevitable NEXT challenge is filed.  

 
Our best short term bet is that a friendly judge not only agrees that FOSTA/SESTA is unconstitutional, but that he/she gives injunctive relief to the plaintiff/s and sets the law aside until the case works its way through the system until it's ultimately decided by the Supremes.

While the Ninth Circuit is more likely to be sympathetic, they also have the most SCOTUS reversals and they sometimes overreach with their legal reasoning, leaving it open to attack. OTOH, if plaintiffs have a strong argument and are able to sway the DC Court, that opinion has a higher likelihood of being allowed to stand. With a well-reasoned opinion in hand, it'd be easier for SCOTUS to deny cert. Of course, we're not close to that possible outcome because even if the DC Court rules for plaintiffs at this point it'll still be sent back to District Court. That being said, in scanning the arguments it seems like the District judge made a clear error in denying standing. Lots of road still ahead on this.

I found some other articles on it that led me to the link below, where it looks like the appear process actually began in  October.  I'm no lawyer so I'm not going to claim any special insight into all the various steps in the process.

Time limits in which to file an appeal.  The appellant must give notice of their intent to appeal in a relatively short time after losing the ruling, and then "designate the record" for the appeal which requests the court clerk to assemble the record that is going to be the subject of the appeal. This is usually where the delay comes.  The court reporter must transcribe the proceedings from the stenographers tape to a printed booklet, and the clerk must include all moving papers, oppositions, replies and other filings that are going to be the subject of the appeal.  Its not unusual for the record on appeal to take two or three months to prepare.  The appellate judges must have a complete record in order to make a decision on whether the district court erred in its initial ruling.  

From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_Circuit#Rate_of_overturned_decisions

"Rate of overturned decisions
From 1999 to 2008, of the 0.151% of Ninth Circuit Court rulings that were reviewed by the Supreme Court, 20% were affirmed, 19% were vacated, and 61% were reversed; the median reversal rate for all federal appellate courts was 68.29% for the same period. From 2010 to 2015, of the cases it accepted to review, the Supreme Court reversed around 79 percent of the cases from the Ninth Circuit, ranking its reversal rate third among the circuits; the median reversal rate for all federal circuits for the same time period was around 70 percent.
.
Some argue the court's high percentage of reversals is illusory, resulting from the circuit hearing more cases than the other circuits. This results in the Supreme Court reviewing a smaller proportion of its cases, letting stand the vast majority of its cases."

Far be it from me to dispute Wikipedia re stats and percentages. I'd only note that, in addition to the raw numbers, consideration needs to be given to the legal issues decided by affirmations and reversals. Maybe there's some kind of weighted-average that could be developed? How that would work is anyone's guess as I'm sure different parts of the political spectrum would weight things differently.

I am not my brothers keeper ??