The case revolved around whether the Biden administration abused its position of power or actually engaged in bullying when it demanded the removal of controversial posts about COVID vaccines and other issues.
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WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court handed the Biden administration an election victory on Wednesday by rejecting a conservative challenge to the government’s efforts to require social media companies to remove posts they deemed to contain misinformation.
The 6-3 decision, led by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, was in response to a lawsuit filed at a volatile time when social media was awash with controversial posts about COVID-19, vaccines, top government scientist Anthony Fauci and other emotive topics. Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented.
Barrett, writing for the majority, said opponents have argued that unrestricted expression on social media is critical to their work as scientists, experts and activists.
“But they do not point to a specific instance of content moderation that caused them identifiable harm,” Barrett wrote. “They have therefore failed to demonstrate harm that is sufficiently ‘specific and detailed.'”
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In his dissent, Alito complained that the majority “unjustifiably refuses to address this serious threat to the First Amendment.”
“For months, senior administration officials exerted relentless pressure on Facebook to suppress Americans’ free speech,” Alito wrote.
By dismissing the case without ruling on the underlying First Amendment issue, the justices avoided commenting on when governments go too far in their interactions with media platforms regarding their content.
The Republican-led states of Missouri and Louisiana, as well as five individual social media users, had accused the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and others of violating their free speech rights by forcing Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly known as Twitter) to remove or downgrade posts.
The Justice Department said government agencies did not improperly threaten social media companies, Instead, they asked them to remove harmful or false information, including about vaccines. When the platforms did not comply, there were no retaliations, the Justice Department said.
A district court in Louisiana ruled against the government and imposed comprehensive restrictions on the government’s interaction with social media platforms.
While the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans has limited the restrictions, the Justice Department said it would still impose unprecedented restrictions on government officials speaking about matters of public interest, addressing national security threats or sharing public health information.
The restrictions were suspended while the Supreme Court reviewed the case.
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Experts had described the Murthy v. Missouri case as a unique opportunity for the court to determine how far governments can go to prevent the spread of harmful content on the Internet.
Alex Abdo, litigation director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said it was disappointing that the Supreme Court did not provide clearer guidance on the limits the First Amendment places on government pressure campaigns.
“This guidance would have been particularly valuable in the months leading up to the election,” he told USA TODAY.
However, the Supreme Court said the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate a sufficient connection between the Biden administration’s communications with social media companies and the restrictions on their postings.
“Of course, the record shows that the government defendants played a role in at least some of the platforms’ moderation decisions,” Barrett wrote. “But the Fifth Circuit overlooked the complexity of the evidence by attributing every platform decision, at least in part, to the defendants.”
Even if there were a connection, Barrett said, the plaintiffs had not sufficiently demonstrated that it was likely that they would suffer harm in the future.
The platforms continue to enforce their own policies against COVID disinformation, so blocking the government from communicating with the companies is unlikely to make much difference, the majority said.
The court also heard another content moderation case this year, examining the constitutionality of laws passed in Florida and Texas to limit the ability of social media giants to regulate user content.
Both cases arose from concerns among conservatives that their views were being suppressed, including on claims about election fraud in 2020 and the origins and treatment of Covid-19.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who argues the Biden administration pressured social media companies to censor posts about Hunter Biden’s laptop and COVID-19 vaccines, said Wednesday the Supreme Court’s decision shows the need for legislation to protect free speech.
“Our country benefits when ideas can be tested on their merits and debated fairly, whether online or in the halls of Congress,” said Jordan, Republican of Ohio.
“While we respectfully disagree with the court’s decision, our research has shown that legislative reforms like the Censorship Accountability Act are needed to better protect Americans harmed by the unconstitutional censorship industrial complex. Our important work continues.”
