The Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed a case claiming that the Biden administration unlawfully coerced social media companies into removing content and banning users based on political views.
In a 6-3 decision, the Court found that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue – as opposed to tossing the case on merit.
Clearly it was easier to punt this one than focus on the mountain of evidence that the Biden administration and US intelligence agencies were directly pressuring social media platforms to censor free speech disfavorable to the regime.
GOP attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, along with five social media users, filed the underlying lawsuit claiming that US government officials exceeded their authority by pressuring social media platforms to moderate content. The individual plaintiffs include Harvard's Martin Kulldorff and Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya, as well as Gateway Pundit owner Jim Hoft.
The laws sought to prevent social media companies from banning users based on their political views, even if users violate platform policies.
“If the allegations made by plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history,” wrote Doughty. “The plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the government has used its power to silence the opposition.”
Dozens of people and agencies were bound by the injunction including President Biden, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control, the Treasury Department, State Department, the US Election Assistance Commission, the FBI and entire Justice Department, and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Bhattacharya and Kulldorff, who are among the originators of the Great Barrington Declaration that denounced the lockdown regime, have been victims of social media censorship. For example, the pair says their censorship-triggering statements included assertions that "thinking everyone must be vaccinated is scientifically flawed," questioning the value of masks, and stating that natural immunity is stronger than vaccine immunity.
On appeal the New Orleans-Based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the scope of Doughty's injunction, however it still required the White House, FBI and top health officials not to "coerce or significantly encourage" social media companies to remove content considered to be misinformation in a practice known as "jawboning" – in which the government pressures private parties to do its bidding, sometimes with the implicit threat of negative consequences if its demands aren't met.