{"id":1475797,"date":"2022-05-15T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2022-05-15T12:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1475797"},"modified":"2022-05-15T08:00:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-15T12:00:24","slug":"justice-thomas-will-be-key-player-in-battle-against-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/justice-thomas-will-be-key-player-in-battle-against-censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Thomas Will Be Key Player in Battle Against Censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjustice-thomas-will-be-key-player-in-battle-against-censorship%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1475797&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>All eyes will be on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas now that the Texas \u201ccensorship\u201d law will go into effect.<\/p>\n<p><em>Protocol <\/em>on Thursday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2022\/5\/12\/23068017\/supreme-court-first-amendment-twitter-facebook-youtube-instagram-netchoice-paxton-texas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that a legal challenge to the new law that reached the high court would be a gift to Thomas. In the past, Thomas argued social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter were \u201csufficiently akin\u201d to \u201ccommon carriers,\u201d and as such, users should not be denied access to the platforms based on their viewpoints.<\/p>\n<p><em>Protocol <\/em>also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.protocol.com\/bulletins\/thomas-scotus-twitter-trump-ban\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that last year Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court had \u201cno choice\u201d but to \u201caddress how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After the Fifth Circuit upheld the controversial law earlier this week, experts stated that this could be Thomas\u2019 opportunity to go after Section 230, which some conservatives argued allowed social media platforms to censor right-of-center content without consequences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He took the opportunity to rip on Sec. 230 in [a] case that didn\u2019t even present the issue in any way at all. So one that presents the issue, I think he\u2019ll certainly jump on that,\u201d David Greene, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told <em>Protocol<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Others said social media companies wanted the issue to be taken up in the Court\u2019s \u201cshadow docket,\u201d where cases were heard without oral argument.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just don\u2019t see how social media companies can risk having this law stay on the books,\u201d University of Texas at Austin law professor, Steve Vladeck, told <em>Protocol<\/em>. \u201cThere will be a ton of pressure to ask the Supreme Court to vacate the stay.\u201d Vladeck has <a href=\"https:\/\/law.utexas.edu\/faculty\/stephen-i-vladeck\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argued<\/a> over a dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the Supreme Court was more active when it intervened in cases that were impactful to society at large.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reality here is that the Fifth Circuit stay is going to create such an immediate impact that it\u2019s going to be hard for the court to think that it&#8217;s appropriate to wait,\u201d he noted to <em>Protocol<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, tech groups like NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) were in a panic over the loss.\u00a0NetChoice, the plaintiff in the lawsuit to stop the law, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbusters.org\/blogs\/free-speech\/autumn-johnson\/2021\/09\/23\/tech-trade-group-sues-texas-over-new-anti-censorship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sued<\/a> Texas and Florida over \u201ccensorship\u201d laws last year and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbusters.org\/blogs\/free-speech\/autumn-johnson\/2021\/10\/30\/trade-group-says-texas-law-will-make-social-media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argued<\/a> that the laws <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbusters.org\/blogs\/free-speech\/autumn-johnson\/2021\/05\/29\/tech-trade-group-sues-desantis-over-floridas-new-anti\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">violated<\/a> the First Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAllowing HB 20 to take effect will inflict significant harm on Texans by threatening the safety of users, creators, and businesses that use these websites to reach audiences in a family-friendly way,\u201d Steve DelBianco, President and CEO of NetChoice, said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/netchoice.org\/media-press\/netchoice-and-ccia-sue-state-of-texas-for-legislation-hb-20-that-flagrantly-violates-texan-free-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> at the time. \u201cNo American should ever be forced to navigate through harmful and offensive images, videos and posts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement to <em>Protocol<\/em>, CCIA president Matt Schruers affirmed that \u201c[n]o option is off the table\u201d to stop the law.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Conservatives are under attack. <\/em><\/strong><em>Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on \u201chate speech\u201d and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mrc.org\/contact-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>contact form<\/em><\/a><em>, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All eyes will be on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas now that the Texas \u201ccensorship\u201d law will go into effect. Protocol on Thursday reported that a legal challenge to the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1475797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1475797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1475797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1475797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1475797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}