Censorship has its day in court
Murthy v. Missouri addresses federal communications with social media platforms
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that could determine the level of communication that the federal government can have with social media platforms.
Murthy v. Missouri, originally filed as Missouri v. Biden in 2022, was brought by former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is now a U.S. Senator, and former Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, who now serves as the state’s governor, as well as five individual plaintiffs
Current Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill have taken up the case, which alleges that the federal government worked with social media sites to censor posts, especially those with conservative content, infringing on the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
Bailey has previously called this “the most important First Amendment suit in this nation’s history.” He contends that statements made by the federal government to social media sites could be seen as threatening punitive action if certain posts were not removed.
Attorneys from both states’ legal teams argued their case in the Monroe Division of the United States Western District Court of Louisiana in July.
That court ruled that the government had “blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech” when it suggested that select posts be removed from social media platforms.
Among the posts in question were those that questioned the origin of the COVID-19 virus, the results of the 2020 election, information casting doubt on the efficacy of vaccine and mask mandates and posts theorizing about the Hunter Biden laptop controversy.
In its 155-page decision, the lower court alleged that federal officials “almost exclusively targeted conservative speech,” granting an injunction that barred any federal officials from communicating with social media companies about removing content.
In September, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans agreed with the lower