Children's Health Defense By
The U.S. Supreme Court today heard arguments in a case that could determine if the U.S. government can legally pressure tech companies to remove content from social media platforms without violating the First Amendment.
The arguments pertained to a lawsuit filed in May 2022 by the attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, along with several social media users alleging President Joe Biden and other top administration officials “pressured and colluded” with social media companies to censor and suppress information, including posts that contradicted the official government narrative on COVID-19 origins, vaccines and treatments.
The question before the court is whether to uphold a preliminary injunction — issued on July 4, 2023, by a federal judge and largely upheld on appeal — barring several federal agencies and Biden administration officials from coercing, “significantly encouraging” or taking joint action concerning content moderation by social media companies until the lawsuit is decided.
Commenting on today’s arguments to free speech advocates gathered outside the courthouse today, Mary Holland, president of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said, “I think that there was agreement that … it is absolutely a violation of the First Amendment for the government to coerce anyone to censor speech.”
However, according to Holland, an attorney who was inside the courthouse during arguments, the U.S. Department of Justice is arguing there was no coercion.
“To my mind, that’s absolutely absurd,” she said. “The government over many months with incredibly consistent phone calls and emails was telling the platforms to take down certain posts. So in my view, there’s no question that this was coercion.”
CHD and its founder and Chairman on Leave Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in March 2023 filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all American news consumers against the Biden administration, making allegations similar to those made in Murthy v. Biden (formerly Missouri v. Biden). A federal judge in July 2023 consolidated the two lawsuits.
Plaintiffs in Kennedy et al. v. Biden et al. also requested and were granted a preliminary injunction by the same judge, Terry Doughty, prohibiting key Biden administration officials and agencies from coercing, significantly encouraging, or taking joint action with social media platforms to suppress or censor online content.
However, Judge Doughty simultaneously issued a stay on the injunction until 10 days after the Supreme Court rules in today’s case, which is expected to happen in mid-summer.
The outcome of the two cases could have wide-reaching implications for the First Amendment and online speech. The New York Times called Murthy v. Missouri one of “the most important First Amendment” cases of the internet age…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (childrenshealthdefense.org)
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