{"id":2284219,"date":"2024-06-26T18:29:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T22:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alito-defends-free-speech-as-supreme-court-majority-punts-on-biden-censorship-case-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T18:32:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T22:32:05","slug":"alito-defends-free-speech-as-supreme-court-majority-punts-on-biden-censorship-case-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alito-defends-free-speech-as-supreme-court-majority-punts-on-biden-censorship-case-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Alito defends free speech as Supreme Court majority punts on Biden censorship case &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"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\">32<\/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%2Falito-defends-free-speech-as-supreme-court-majority-punts-on-biden-censorship-case-washington-examiner%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=2284219&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>In the Supreme Court \u2062case Murthy v. Missouri, the\u200b majority ruled against the plaintiffs, finding they lacked the standing\u200b necessary \u2063to proceed with their lawsuit, which accused the Biden administration of infringing on \u2064free speech by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-senators-warn-biden-admin-running-covert-censorship-operation\/\" title=\"Republican Senators Warn Biden Admin Running Covert Censorship Operation\">pressuring <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><\/a> to censor certain content related to COVID-19 and vaccines. Justice Samuel Alito, dissenting in the \u200bcase, argued that the court was shirking its duty to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-did-the-us-military-place-amy-coney-barrett-under-house-arrest\/\" title=\"FACT CHECK: Did The US Military Place Amy Coney Barrett Under House Arrest?\">protect constitutional rights<\/a> by not addressing these serious concerns. His dissent was supported by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. Alito contended that the plaintiff, healthcare activist \u200dJill Hines, demonstrated sufficient cause for standing as her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-jr-heres-what-comes-next-for-our-amazing-movement\/\" title=\"Trump Jr.: \u2018Here\u2019s What Comes Next for Our Amazing Movement\u2019\">social media content<\/a> was censored following direct actions from the White House.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the decision, figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expressed disappointment, citing the dissent as aligning with their views on free speech violations and \u2062indicating plans to continue pursuing similar issues in other judicial platforms. \u2063Meanwhile, Missouri&#8217;s Attorney General,\u2062 Andrew\u200d Bailey, vowed to continue fighting against\u2064 what he perceives as governmental overreach in censorship, planning to seek further discovery in lower courts. This ruling highlights\u200c an ongoing debate over the intersection of government\u200d influence and free speech on \u2064social media platforms.  <\/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>Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/samuel-alito\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Samuel Alito<\/a> on Wednesday wrote a dissent that stood up for defenders of free speech after the majority on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/supreme-court\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Supreme Court<\/a> declined to weigh the merits of a major case accusing the Biden administration of attempting to censor users on social media.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit known as <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2576209\/murthy-v-missouri-could-have-major-ramifications-for-big-tech-and-free-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Murthy v. Missouri<\/a><\/em> alleged the Biden administration violated the First Amendment with several meetings in 2021 in which officials encouraged major social media platforms \u2014 primarily Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube \u2014 to suppress posts about COVID-19 and vaccines that did not conform with U.S. government health guidelines. But the 6-3 majority opinion authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett punted on the dispute by finding that plaintiffs lacked standing to sue the administration.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>FILE \u2013 Associate Justice Samuel Alito joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, Oct. 7, 2022, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo\/J. Scott Applewhite, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Morgan Marietta, a dean at the University of Austin\u2019s Center of Economics, Politics &#038; History, told the <em>Washington Examiner <\/em>that the <em>Murthy <\/em>ruling is a \u201cpart of a trend on the Court to deny standing in order to dodge difficult constitutional questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Court has a duty to vindicate constitutional rights, no matter how politically fraught, and Justice Alito writes in dissent\u00a0that the Court \u2018shirks that duty,&#8217;\u201d Marietta said.<\/p>\n<p>Conservatives and free speech proponents largely expressed disappointment on Wednesday in the outcome, including independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who claimed the Supreme Court \u201cgot it wrong\u201d on Wednesday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJustice Alito\u2019s dissent outlines the correct analysis, finding standing and First Amendment violations on the merits. I will continue to fight for free speech in the courts and on the campaign trail,\u201d Kennedy wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy on Wednesday also said he believed his own lawsuit, known as <em>Kennedy v. Biden<\/em>, which alleges the federal government violated the First Amendment by inducing social media companies to censor statements against vaccines, would be an appropriate vehicle to challenge the alleged censorship efforts by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<blockquote data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Supreme Court got it wrong \u2013 and has failed to uphold its responsibility to the Constitution by finding no standing in Murthy v. Missouri. My case of Kennedy v. Biden will proceed in the trial court where there is no question that <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChildrensHD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ChildrensHD<\/a> and I have standing. Justice\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RobertKennedyJr\/status\/1805990633510727701?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 26, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>However, U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana ruled in the <em>Kennedy <\/em>case that the injunction against the White House would be <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/litigation\/rfk-jr-wins-deferred-injunction-in-anti-vax-social-media-suit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>stayed<\/a> pending the outcome of the <em>Murthy <\/em>case. Because of the ruling against Missouri and the plaintiffs who sued, Marietta said, \u201cI am not sure at this point why it would have a different outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alito\u2019s dissent was joined by fellow Republican-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. Much of his writings in the dissent focused on whether the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Joe Biden\">Biden<\/a> administration did indeed engage in impermissible censorship, in addition to the claims from plaintiff Jill Hines, a healthcare activist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHines showed that, when she sued, Facebook was censoring her COVID-related posts and groups,\u201d Alito wrote. \u201cAnd because the White House prompted Facebook to amend its censorship policies, Hines\u2019s censorship was, at least in part, caused by the White House and could be redressed by an injunction against the continuation of that conduct. For these reasons, Hines met all the requirements for Article III standing.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>Attorney General State of Missouri Andrew Bailey testifies during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mariam Zuhaib)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>GOP Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey vowed that he would not give up the fight against censorship efforts despite his loss at the high court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are going back to the district court to obtain more discovery in order to root out Joe Biden\u2019s vast censorship enterprise once and for all,\u201d Bailey added.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, other First Amendment advocacy groups, such as the Knight Institute, expressed disappointment in the decision but said that the majority opinion got it right based on the \u201cCourt\u2019s account of the facts,\u201d according to Alex Abdo, the litigation director for the Knight Institute.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStill, it is disappointing that we have so little guidance on the limits that the First Amendment places on government efforts to pressure social media platforms into suppressing speech,\u201d Abdo added.<\/p>\n<p>The decision on Wednesday stands in contrast to another government coercion case that was decided by a 9-0 vote in May, in which the justices sided with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/national-rifle-association\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Rifle Association<\/a>\u2018s claims that a former superintendent of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-york\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York<\/a>\u2018s Department of Financial Service illegally retaliated against the pro-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/second-amendment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Second Amendment<\/a> group after the Parkland, Florida, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alec-baldwin-stephanopoulos-interview-gets-massive-backlash-disgusting-a-money-making-ratings-grab\/\" title=\"Alec Baldwin, Stephanopoulos Interview Gets Massive Backlash: 'Disgusting,' 'A Money Making Ratings Grab'\">high school mass shooting<\/a> that left 17 people dead.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe other ruling this year about government coercion of speech (<em>NRA v. Vullo<\/em>) came out the right way only because the\u00a0government\u2019s actions were so blatant they could not be ignored,\u201d Marietta said.<\/p>\n<p>Alito\u2019s dissent included a a stark warning to free speech advocates, saying the outcome in <em>Murthy <\/em>\u201cpermits the successful campaign of coercion in this case to stand as an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear, and think.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AGAndrewBailey\/status\/1805979926438244769\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justice Samuel Alito dissented on Wednesday, defending free speech advocates after the Supreme Court majority chose not to review a significant case. The case, Murthy v. Missouri, accused the Biden administration of attempting to censor social media users<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2633,"featured_media":2284220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP20318142785939.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[4430,3620,32311,32275],"class_list":["post-2284219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-alito","tag-biden","tag-free-speech","tag-supreme-court"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP20318142785939.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284219","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\/2633"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2284219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2284220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2284219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2284219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2284219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}