{"id":9552,"date":"2024-03-16T15:37:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T16:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=9552"},"modified":"2024-03-16T17:08:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T17:08:17","slug":"u-s-supreme-court-to-hear-case-alleging-government-censorship-of-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=9552","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Case Alleging Government Censorship of Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/government-censorship-of-social-media\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday about whether the government can persuade social media companies to remove content from platforms.<\/p>\n

The Biden administration appealed<\/a> to the nation’s highest court after a ruling by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last September that stated Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the White House, the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention violated the First Amendment<\/a> by influencing social media companies in moderating content on COVID-19 and the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

More than 50 individuals and organizations filed legal briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri. The case was originally known as Missouri v. Biden.<\/p>\n

Last July, U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty ruled against the Biden administration and issued an injunction<\/a> requested by Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to stop nine government agencies and their leaders and employees from specific actions and interactions<\/a> with social media companies. The case was originally filed by then-Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, now a U.S. Senator. Bailey, the former chief counsel for Republican Gov. Mike Parson, was appointed by Parson after Schmitt’s election in 2022.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the government\u2019s appeal on the question<\/a> of whether the \u201cgovernment\u2019s challenged conduct transformed private social-media companies\u2019 content-moderation decisions into state action\u201d and violated the First Amendment, according to the document granting the case.<\/p>\n

In the government\u2019s brief<\/a>, it disagreed with arguments “government officials transformed private platforms into state actors subject to First Amendment constraints merely by speaking to the public on matters of public concern or seeking to influence or inform the platforms\u2019 editorial decisions. The Court should reject that radical expansion of the state-action doctrine, which would \u2018eviscerate certain private entities\u2019 rights to exercise editorial control over speech and speakers on their properties or platforms.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Missouri\u2019s brief<\/a> highlights \u201c103 pages of factual findings, supported by 591 footnotes\u201d compiled in the district court\u2019s ruling against the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese unrebutted findings demonstrate \u2018a broad pressure campaign designed to coerce social media companies into suppressing speakers, viewpoints, and content disfavored by the government,\u2019\u201d the brief states.<\/p>\n

Eight of the briefs weren\u2019t in support of either side, including one jointly filed<\/a> from Netchoice, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Chamber of Progress and the Cato Institute. It highlighted the concept of \u201cjawboning,\u201d defined by the Cato Institute<\/a> as \u201cwhen a government official threatens to use his or her power \u2013 be it the power to prosecute, regulate, or legislate \u2013 to compel someone to take actions that the state official cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court should ensure that its decision does not permit the government to do indirectly what it cannot do directly \u2013 undermine digital services\u2019 rights to curate and disseminate content,\u201d the brief stated. \u201cAnd the Court should clarify that there is no requirement of a predicate showing of state action for a jawboning claim against the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brief also asked the court to explain that any lawsuits from \u201cjawboning\u201d must be filed against the government and not the social media entity to be consistent with legal precedent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/government-censorship-of-social-media\/ The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9552"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9554,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9552\/revisions\/9554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}