{"id":2283919,"date":"2024-06-26T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T16:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-allows-feds-censorship-plot-ahead-of-2024-election\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T12:04:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T16:04:58","slug":"scotus-allows-feds-censorship-plot-ahead-of-2024-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-allows-feds-censorship-plot-ahead-of-2024-election\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUS Allows Feds&#8217; Censorship Plot Ahead Of 2024 Election"},"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\">18<\/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%2Fscotus-allows-feds-censorship-plot-ahead-of-2024-election%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=2283919&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 U.S. Supreme theate overturned a lower court decision that\u200c had imposed an injunction against the federal government&#8217;s alleged collaboration with \u2064Big \u2063Tech firms \u200bto censor online content. This preliminary injunction,\u200c initiated\u200d by Missouri\u2062 and Louisiana, argued that this collaboration infringed on First Amendment rights by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/loudon-county-ends-school-meeting-after-pushback-from-parents-parents-sing-star-bangled-banner-cops-make-arrests\/\" title=\"Loudon County Ends School Meeting After Pushback From Parents, Parents Sing Star Bangled Banner, Cops Make Arrests\">suppressing free speech<\/a>, particularly criticism of government COVID policies \u2063and other sensitive\u2064 topics. The plaintiffs claimed\u200b that the Biden\u2064 administration \u200borchestrated efforts to control narratives on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-new-acting-attorney-general-jeff-rosen-recently-wrote-an-essay-on-foreign-influence-in-us-elections-this-tells-us-a-little-about-his-knowledge-of-whats-going-on-today\/\" title=\"The New Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen Recently Wrote an Essay on Foreign Influence in US Elections \u2013 This Tells Us A Little About His Knowledge of What\u2019s Going On Today\">social media platforms<\/a>, even demanding the removal of\u2064 factually \u200daccurate information\u200b if deemed\u200c unfavorable.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate adequate standing, as they could not show a direct link between the alleged censorship and any personal injury they\u2063 sustained. Consequently, the Court dismissed the lower court&#8217;s decision, noting that without proven standing, they could\u2063 not address \u2062the merits of the case \u2064itself. Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, emphasized that the Court&#8217;s role is not to conduct broad legal oversight of executive actions without\u200c specific, substantiated allegations of\u200d harm. The ruling allows federal \u2062agencies to resume their communications with Big\u200d Tech companies regarding content moderation.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Samuel Alito, \u2063dissenting, expressed concern that the government&#8217;s subtle tactics of influencing content\u2064 moderation could be more dangerously \u2063coercive than\u200c overt censorship, suggesting a slippery slope towards sophisticated governmental control over public discourse. The decision leaves open significant questions about the \u2064extent of \u2062governmental influence\u200c over online content as the 2024 election approaches, with both CISA and the FBI already resuming activities that were previously\u200c curtailed by the injunction.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court\u2019s injunction prohibiting the federal government from colluding with Big Tech companies to censor posts it doesn\u2019t like, effectively green-lighting the Biden administration\u2019s ability to carry out such operations during the 2024 election. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo establish standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury that is traceable to a Government defendant and redressable by the injunction they seek. Because no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction,\u201d Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/23pdf\/23-411_3dq3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> for the court\u2019s majority.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson signed onto Barrett\u2019s opinion. Associate Justice Samuel Alito authored the minority\u2019s dissent, which was joined by Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.<\/p>\n<p>Filed by Missouri and Louisiana, the lawsuit before the high court alleged that the federal government\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/07\/12-times-the-biden-white-house-colluded-with-big-tech-to-throttle-free-speech-according-to-missouri-v-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">collusion<\/a> with Big Tech companies to suppress Americans\u2019 online speech violates the First Amendment. Shortly after taking power in January 2021, the Biden administration began coordinating with social media giants to censor posts they deemed unfavorable, even if said posts contained factually correct information.<\/p>\n<p>The administration specifically targeted posts containing claims and facts about government Covid policies, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/01\/bombshell-emails-show-the-biden-administration-colluded-with-big-tech-to-censor-covid-misinformation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">unearthed communication records<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty ultimately agreed with the plaintiffs\u2019 arguments, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/05\/judge-bars-biden-administration-from-colluding-with-big-tech-to-censor-free-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">issuing<\/a> a preliminary injunction on July 4, 2023, that barred federal agencies from colluding with Big Tech to censor posts they don\u2019t like. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/courts-strike-blow-against-white-houses-social-media-censorship-opinion-1826831\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">upheld<\/a> Doughty\u2019s injunction in September. While the initial ruling did not include the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/cisa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)<\/a>, the court later issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/10\/05\/fifth-circuit-corrects-critical-error-in-prior-ruling-to-shut-down-deep-state-censorship-tactic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">corrected ruling<\/a> that also prevented CISA from colluding with Big Tech to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-confirms-its-restarting-online-censorship-efforts-ahead-of-2024-election\/\" title=\"FBI to Resume Online Censorship Efforts Before 2024 Election\">squash free speech online<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Supreme Court, however, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govexec.com\/oversight\/2023\/10\/supreme-court-ends-restrictions-federal-agency-contacts-social-media-firms\/391434\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lifted<\/a> the 5th Circuit\u2019s injunction in October, effectively allowing the federal government\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/10\/26\/5-examples-of-the-illegal-government-censorship-scotus-just-allowed-to-resume\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">censorship operations<\/a> to resume while it considered the merits of the case.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/08\/fbi-confirms-its-restarting-online-censorship-efforts-ahead-of-2024-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">confirmed<\/a> to The Federalist last month that it had resumed collusive efforts with social media companies to censor posts it claims are \u201cdisinformation\u201d ahead of the 2024 election. Neither CISA nor the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/14\/state-department-wont-say-if-its-colluding-with-big-tech-to-censor-speech-ahead-of-2024-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">State Department<\/a> would confirm to The Federalist whether they had similarly resumed such communications with Big Tech when recently pressed on the matter.<\/p>\n<p>In her majority opinion, Barrett claimed that \u201c[a]t this stage\u201d of litigation, plaintiffs have not \u201cestablished standing to seek an injunction\u201d against the named federal agencies and that as such, the Supreme Court \u201clack[s] jurisdiction to reach the merits of the dispute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe plaintiffs, without any concrete link between their injuries and the defendants\u2019 conduct, ask us to conduct a review of the years-long communications between dozens of federal officials, across different agencies, with different social-media platforms, about different topics,\u201d Barrett wrote. \u201cThis Court\u2019s standing doctrine prevents us from \u2018exercis[ing such] general legal oversight\u2019 of the other branches of Government. \u2026 We therefore reverse the judgment of the Fifth Circuit and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his dissent, Alito noted that \u201c[w]hat the officials did in this case was more subtle than the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alito-americans-will-regret-courts-allowance-of-govt-censorship\/\" title=\"Alito: Americans Will Regret Court's Allowance Of Govt. Censorship\">ham-handed censorship found<\/a> to be unconstitutional\u201d in a prior case before the court but that the feds\u2019 censorship shenanigans documented in <em>Murthy v. Missouri<\/em> is \u201cno less coercive.\u201d In fact, the associate justice highlighted how the Biden administration\u2019s efforts were \u201ceven more dangerous\u201d due to the high-level government officials involved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was blatantly unconstitutional, and the country may come to regret the Court\u2019s failure to say so,\u201d Alito wrote. \u201cOfficials who read today\u2019s decision together with <em>Vullo<\/em> will get the message. If a coercive campaign is carried out with enough sophistication, it may get by. That is not a message this Court should send.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The high court\u2019s Wednesday ruling has major implications for the upcoming 2024 election.<\/p>\n<p>Leading up to the 2020 election, for example, CISA upped its censorship efforts by flagging posts for Big Tech companies it claimed were worthy of being censored, some of which called into question the security of voting practices such as mass, unsupervised mail-in voting. This was done despite CISA <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/23\/docs-cisa-knew-risks-of-mail-in-voting-in-2020-but-got-posts-about-them-censored-anyway\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">privately acknowledging<\/a> the risks associated with such practices.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI also took on a censorship role during the 2020 election, in what has been characterized as a clear attempt to help Joe Biden\u2019s election prospects. In the months leading up to the November contest, the agency \u2014 which had <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/22\/fbi-knew-hunter-bidens-laptop-was-authentic-a-year-before-pressuring-big-tech-to-censor-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">authenticated<\/a> Hunter Biden\u2019s infamous laptop as early as November 2019 \u2014 was issuing warnings to then-Twitter and Facebook to be on the lookout for so-called \u201cRussian propaganda\u201d and \u201chack-and-leak operations\u201d by \u201cstate actors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the New York Post dropped its <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/10\/14\/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bombshell story<\/a> on the laptop weeks before the 2020 contest, both companies went out of their way to censor the story and prevent its reach. <\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/12\/03\/twitter-files-confirm-big-tech-leftists-suppressed-hunter-biden-laptop-story-ahead-of-2020-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>, users were not permitted to share the story, even via direct message. The website <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mtaibbi\/status\/1598831435288563712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1598831435288563712%7Ctwgr%5E0dee083d53d2a99e2f688dab3ba3a2c2810f463c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&#038;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthefederalist.com%2F2022%2F12%2F03%2Ftwitter-files-confirm-big-tech-leftists-suppressed-hunter-biden-laptop-story-ahead-of-2020-election%2F\">further<\/a> took down links and added warnings that it may be \u201cunsafe.\u201d Meanwhile, Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/thefdrlst.wpengine.com\/2020\/10\/14\/facebook-is-now-officially-censoring-the-new-york-posts-hunter-biden-bombshell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a> shortly after the story broke that it would be \u201creducing [the story\u2019s] distribution\u201d pending verification by \u201cthird<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-rep-jim-banks-demands-answers-from-facebook-over-new-york-posts-reporting-on-hunter-biden\/\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Jim Banks Demands Answers From Facebook Over New York Post\u2019s Reporting On Hunter Biden\">-party fact checking partners<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg later <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/26\/confirmed-fbi-colluded-with-big-tech-to-prevent-voters-from-learning-about-hunter-bidens-laptop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admitted<\/a> during a 2022 Joe Rogan podcast interview that the company\u2019s decision to suppress the story was based on the FBI\u2019s warning.<\/p>\n<p>Under the Supreme Court\u2019s recent ruling, such efforts are now permitted. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a lower court&#8217;s ruling that prevented the federal government from collaborating with Big Tech to censor certain posts, thereby enabling the Biden administration to engage in such activities for the 2024 election. The Court stated that plaintiffs need to show a significant imminent risk to establish standing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2283920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States_swag.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[32431,6371,6617,6994],"class_list":["post-2283919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-2024-election","tag-censorship","tag-feds","tag-scotus"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States_swag.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283919","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\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2283920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}