{"id":1498826,"date":"2022-05-31T18:00:47","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T22:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1498826"},"modified":"2022-05-31T18:00:57","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T22:00:57","slug":"supreme-court-blocks-texas-social-media-censorship-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-blocks-texas-social-media-censorship-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Blocks Texas Social Media Censorship Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/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%2Fsupreme-court-blocks-texas-social-media-censorship-law%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=1498826&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>The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a Texas social media censorship law in a 5-4 decision.<\/p>\n<p>Justices John\u00a0Roberts,\u00a0Brett Kavanaugh,\u00a0Amy Coney Barrett,\u00a0Sonia Sotomayor, and\u00a0Stephen Breyer\u00a0ruled in favor of the ruling on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: Supreme Court blocks Texas&#8217; social media censorship law by an unusual 5\u20134 vote. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/S9iHvKOTlU\">https:\/\/t.co\/S9iHvKOTlU<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/669Q0Izdjo\">pic.twitter.com\/669Q0Izdjo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mjs_DC\/status\/1531738700413026310?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The case may return to the Supreme Court, though the current decision will stop the enforcement of the law, a ruling that stands in contrast to a court of appeals ruling earlier in May.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe decision does not rule on the merits of the law, but reimposes an injunction blocking it from taking effect while federal courts decide on whether it can be enforced. The Supreme Court is likely to be asked to take a look at the constitutionality of the law in the future,\u201d CNBC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/05\/31\/supreme-court-blocks-texas-social-media-law-tech-companies-warned-would-allow-hateful-content-to-run-rampant.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here&#8217;s the court&#8217;s brief order blocking Texas from implementing the law for now, with a six-page dissent from Alito: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/nb2YE3JWJX\">https:\/\/t.co\/nb2YE3JWJX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Note that Kagan did not sign onto Alito&#8217;s dissent, though she indicated that she would have allowed the law to take effect.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SCOTUSblog\/status\/1531745117933080577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Justices Samuel Samuel Alito,\u00a0Clarence Thomas,\u00a0Neil Gorsuch, and\u00a0Elena Kagan dissented in the case. Alito offered a lengthy dissent regarding the ruling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile I can understand the Court\u2019s apparent desire to delay enforcement of HB20 while the appeal is pending, the preliminary injunction entered by the District Court was itself a significant intrusion on state sovereignty, and Texas should not be required to seek preclearance from the federal courts before its laws go into effect,\u201d Alito <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/21pdf\/21a720_6536.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Court of Appeals, after briefing and oral argument, concluded that the District Court\u2019s order should be stayed, and a decision on the merits can be expected in the near future. I would not disturb the Court of Appeals\u2019 informed judgment about applicants\u2019 entitlement to a stay,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Kagan did not join Alito\u2019s dissent, though she indicated agreement with allowing the law to take effect.<\/p>\n<p>In December,\u00a0a federal judge had previously granted a preliminary injunction against the proposed law, which would prevent Big Tech giants like Twitter and Facebook from blocking content or banning users based on political viewpoints.<\/p>\n<p>In September, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed HB20 into law after it had passed the state\u2019s legislature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a dangerous movement by some social media companies to silence conservative ideas and values,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TexasGovernor\/videos\/551694886068292\">said<\/a>\u00a0Abbott at the time. \u201cThis is wrong and we will not allow it in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Judge Robert Pitman for the Western District of Texas granted the preliminary injunction in December, saying Big Tech companies have a First Amendment right to moderate content on their platforms.<\/p>\n<p>As\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/tech\/services-and-software\/federal-judge-blocks-texas-social-media-censorship-law\/\">CNET<\/a>\u00a0reported, Judge Pitman also rejected the defendants\u2019 argument that such companies are \u201ccommon carriers,\u201d adding that the state offered \u201cno convincing support for recognizing a governmental interest in the free and unobstructed use of common carriers\u2019 information conduits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis Court is convinced that social media platforms, or at least those covered by HB 20, curate both users and content to convey a message about the type of community the platform seeks to foster and, as such, exercise editorial discretion over their platform\u2019s content,\u201d Pitman wrote in his ruling. \u201cWithout editorial discretion, social media platforms could not skew their platforms ideologically, as the State accuses of them of doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a Texas social media censorship law in a 5-4 decision. Justices John\u00a0Roberts,\u00a0Brett Kavanaugh,\u00a0Amy Coney Barrett,\u00a0Sonia Sotomayor, and\u00a0Stephen Breyer\u00a0ruled in favor of the ruling on Tuesday. BREAKING: Supreme Court blocks Texas&#39; social media censorship law by an unusual 5\u20134 vote. https:\/\/t.co\/S9iHvKOTlU pic.twitter.com\/669Q0Izdjo \u2014 Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) May 31, 2022 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":1498863,"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-1498826","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\/1498826","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\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1498826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1498863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1498826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1498826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1498826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}