The Biden administration's efforts to squelch dissent could be headed to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court ruled the administration's efforts were in violation of the First Amendment.
"The thrust of this case – the goal of this case – is to stop what is a pretty extensive and established practice of government actors and platforms communicating about certain areas of content moderation," Stanford Law professor Evelyn Douek told The Hill. "An unclear rule has the potential to chill a wide variety of ongoing, established practices."
The appeals court ruled Friday that federal agencies must not "coerce" social media platforms to censor speech the government does not like.
President Joe Biden's Justice Department will weigh asking the Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision.
The Biden administration has sought to curb misinformation on social media, but the Twitter Files and the Facebook Files from House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, have revealed extensive government efforts to urge social media to censor information, which two Republican attorneys general said was an unconstitutional work-around that violates the First Amendment.
The GOP AGs filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration for its "campaign of censorship," where it "coordinated and colluded with social-media platforms to identify disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content."
Friday's appeals ruling "really sharply narrowed" the curbs ordered upon the Biden administration, Electronic Frontier Foundation's David Greene told The Hill.
"Indeed, many of those officials were permissibly exercising government speech, 'carrying out [their] responsibilities,' or merely 'engaging in [a] legitimate action,'" the ruling read.
The Supreme Court could be asked to settle the discrepancies, Douek said.
"It feels like there's kind of an anchoring effect going on here, where the district court ruling was so crazily broad that when the court of appeals comes in and narrows it, it maybe looks sensible by comparison," she told The Hill. "But it's still pretty broad, in a lot of ways."
Louisiana GOP Attorney General Jeff Landry wants the case to head to trial.
"We are determined to bring this to trial so that the victims are vindicated and we can prevent this gross abuse of power from ever happening again, especially in a time of crisis when information is most important," Landry told The Hill.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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