Free speech supporters got both good news and bad from the Supreme Court on Friday. The court agreed to look at whether a far-ranging censorship scheme directed by the Biden administration violates the U.S. Constitution.
However, the court blocked a lower court’s temporary restriction on federal agencies’ participation in that scheme until the case is decided, expected to be sometime before the end of June. That lifting of the ban means the Biden administration can resume directing Big Tech companies to censor Americans’ speech and debate.
“[W]hat the Court has done, I fear, will be seen by some as giving the Government a green light to use heavy-handed tactics to skew the presentation of views on the medium that increasingly dominates the dissemination of news. That is most unfortunate,” Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a blistering dissent to the court’s temporary allowance of the censorship regime. Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch joined that dissent.
The other justices did not explain why they decided to allow the federal government to continue its comprehensive censorship of Americans’ speech. The case was originally brought by groups concerned about restrictions on debate regarding “the COVID–19 lab leak theory, pandemic lockdowns, vaccine side effects, election fraud, and the Hunter Biden laptop story.” The groups further allege it was government officials who were “pulling the strings” of that censorship because these officials “coerced, threatened, and pressured” the social media companies.
The United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana found
