The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declined to rule on the merits of state laws curbing Big Tech’s regulation of online speech, instead sending the case back to lower courts for further review.
“The parties have not briefed the critical issues here, and the record is underdeveloped,” Associate Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court. “So we vacate the decisions below and remand these cases. That will enable the lower courts to consider the scope of the laws’ applications, and weigh the unconstitutional as against the constitutional ones.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined Kagan’s opinion in full, while Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson concurred in part and the judgement. Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito filed separate opinions concurring in the judgement, the latter of which was joined by Thomas and Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Barrett also authored a separate concurring opinion.
Known as Moody v. NetChoice, LLC, the case centered on laws passed by Florida and Texas in 2021 that sought to regulate social media companies’ ability to censor content it deemed unfavorable. This prompted NetChoice LLC and the Computer & Communications Industry Association — “trade associations whose members include Facebook and YouTube” — to file “facial First Amendment challenges against the laws.”
District courts overseeing the respective challenges issued preliminary injunctions barring the statutes from taking effect. Appeals of the rulings produced differing judgements from two appellate courts.
The 11th Circuit Court upheld the lower
