Justice Jackson’s Remark on Free Speech Limiting Government Wasn’t the Most Troubling
In a stunning display during Monday’s Supreme Court oral arguments for Murthy v. Missouri, a social media censorship saga, free-speech advocates were set ablaze when Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson posed a worrying question: Could the First Amendment actually be a stumbling block for the government during pivotal moments?
“Hamstring[] the government in significant ways in the most important time periods.”
The implications behind Justice Jackson’s query strike at the heart of the Bill of Rights—intended exactly to ‘hamstring’ the government to safeguard individual freedoms.
The Deeper Issue Beyond “Hamstringing”
Surprisingly, that wasn’t even the peak of controversy in the conversation.
What Came Next…
Justice Jackson dug deeper into her point. “So can you help me? Because I’m really — I’m really worried about that,” Justice Jackson expressed to Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga.
Aguiñaga, representing the states of Louisiana and Missouri, alongside censored social media users, clarified that while the government can indeed correspond with tech fraternities, it must bow to First Amendment principles—never urging censorship of third-party content.
A Haunting Premise
Amidst this volley lays a chilling assumption—the government’s actions hinge on what it perceives as ‘threatening circumstances.’
- The past few years have exemplified the dangers of this subjectivity.
- The governmental stance on ‘vaccine hesitancy’ and public health measures like masking underlined a potential overreach.
- Demands made to social media giants resulted in silenced voices that, in retrospect, held merit.
Political Motivations
Beyond the pandemic, the blocking of the Hunter Biden laptop story narratives painted a stark image—not of public danger, but of political gameplay.
Confronting Justice Jackson’s Stance
The Murthy case sheds light on the perils of prioritizing government perspective over factual discourse.
Disturbingly, Justice Jackson wasn’t solitary in her stance; the idea that the government could ‘encourage’ Big Tech to mute lawful speech without ‘coercing’ was floated, despite such action clearly falling afoul of the constitutional text meant to protect free speech.
The Core of the First Amendment
The very language of the amendment denotes the severity of abridging speech, which Aguiñaga firmly reminded the court. Yet Justice Jackson countered with a terse, “But we have a — we have a test.”
This encapsulates the underlying issue with the argument—losing sight of the foundational principles in preference of complex jurisprudence.
The Final Verdict Hangs in the Balance
Ultimately, it falls to the justices to uphold the Constitution in its true spirit. Will they opt for the pure, textually based standard, or will a judge-created test prevail? Only time will reveal.
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