Notice Amy wrote for the majority.
BREAKING: Supreme Court tosses out claim Biden administration coerced social media companies to remove content
The Supreme Court threw out claims that the Biden administration unlawfully coerced social media companies into removing contentious content. In reaching its conclusion, the court overturned an injunction that would have limited contacts between government officials and social media companies on a wide range of issues if all
The court on a 6-3 vote found that plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.
Writing for the majority, conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the plaintiffs, Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, along with five social media users, had failed to show they had suffered harm at the hands of specific government officials.
She noted that social media platforms routinely moderated content even before the alleged coercion happened.
"In fact, the platforms, acting independently, had strengthened their pre-existing content moderation policies before the government defendants got involved," she added.
While the evidence shows government officials "played a role" in moderation choices, that is not enough to justify a sweeping injunction, Barrett wrote.
The plaintiffs also failed to show that previous examples of content moderation could be linked to the communications government officials had with the platforms, she added.
Justice Samuel Alito dissented, joined by two other conservatives, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Alito suggested the dispute was "one of the most important free speech cases to reach this court in years."owed to go into effect.
The majority "permits the successful campaign of coercion in this case to stand as an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear and think," he added.
The plaintiffs filed the underlying lawsuit alleging that U.S. government officials went too far in putting pressure on platforms to moderate content. The individual plaintiffs include Covid lockdown opponents and Jim Hoft, the owner of the right-wing website Gateway Pundit.
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-tosses-claim-biden-administration-coerced-social-media-c-rcna151356?
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