Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Biden Administration in
Originally published on www.childrenshealthdefense.org by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.
The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled the plaintiffs in the Murthy v. Missouri censorship case didn’t have standing to sue the Biden administration for pressuring social media companies to censor certain content — but Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the similar case he and Children’s Health Defense filed against the administration will move forward.
The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled against plaintiffs, including two states and five social media users, who sued top Biden officials and government agencies for pressuring social media companies to censor content.
In the 6-3 decision in Murthy v. Missouri, the justices ruled the plaintiffs didn’t have legal standing to bring their case.
The ruling reversed decisions by two lower courts, which held that when the government “coerced” or “significantly encouraged” the platforms to moderate content related to COVID-19, presidential elections and other controversial topics, they transformed the social media companies’ decisions into state action, violating plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights.
Commenting on today’s decision, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) CEO Mary Holland said she “is deeply disappointed” in the court’s decision to reverse the preliminary injunction “that the Western District of Louisiana granted and the 5th Circuit affirmed.”
Holland said, “We consider the government’s role in coercing and encouraging censorship by social media platforms the greatest threat to free speech in our time.”
CHD and its founder and chairman on leave Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in March 2023 made similar allegations against the Biden administration in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of all American news consumers.
A federal judge in July 2023 consolidated the two lawsuits, which allowed them to have shared processes for discovery.
Plaintiffs in Kennedy et al. v. Biden et al. also requested and were granted a preliminary injunction by the same judge, Terry Doughty, prohibiting key Biden administration officials and agencies from coercing, significantly encouraging, or taking joint action with social media platforms to suppress or censor online co