{"id":2284709,"date":"2024-06-27T15:11:15","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T19:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/free-speech-fight-goes-on-after-scotuss-devastating-ruling\/"},"modified":"2024-06-27T15:17:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T19:17:21","slug":"free-speech-fight-goes-on-after-scotuss-devastating-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/free-speech-fight-goes-on-after-scotuss-devastating-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Speech Fight Goes On After SCOTUS&#8217;s Devastating Ruling"},"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%2Ffree-speech-fight-goes-on-after-scotuss-devastating-ruling%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=2284709&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 recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling has intensified the debate around free speech, particularly \u2064regarding government involvement with Big \u2064Tech in content moderation. In a significant case, Murthy v. Missouri, the Supreme Court, with a 6-3 majority, overturned a lower court injunction that previously restrained the \u2064federal government from possible coercion with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/people-who-trash-their-family-in-public-cant-be-trusted\/\" title=\"Don't trust those who publicly criticize their own family.\">social\u2064 media platforms<\/a> to regulate content. This decision has raised concerns about undermining the First Amendment by potentially facilitating\u200d government-induced censorship through private tech companies.<\/p>\n<p>Jenin Younes, litigation counsel from the New Civil Liberties Alliance, expressed determination\u2063 to continue the\u200c legal fight. The case, pivoting on issues about standing and the capability\u200d of plaintiffs to prove imminent personal harm caused by \u200bgovernment \u200cactions, is set to undergo further proceedings in lower courts. Critics argue that this ruling could chill\u200b free \u2062expression, especially voices critical of governmental policies, as evidenced in previous\u2064 action against individuals like Martin Kulldorff and others who \u2063<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/legal-battles-over-pronoun-use-could-soon-land-at-supreme-court\/\" title=\"Pronoun use disputes may soon reach Supreme Court.\">faced professional consequences<\/a> for their dissenting views on COVID-19 policies.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Samuel Alito,\u200d in his dissent, \u200cwarned of the precedent \u200dthis ruling sets, suggesting that \u2064sophisticated government \u2063coercion \u200cmight evade judicial scrutiny. Advocates for free speech are thus gearing up for a potentially arduous legal battle to\u2064 prove \u200bthe direct\u2063 censorial impacts of\u2062 government-tech collaboration\u2063 on specific\u200d plaintiffs, striving\u2062 to\u2064 fortify the First Amendment against expansive governmental control\u200b over public\u200d discourse.  <\/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>Free speech may have taken a beating in the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s ruling giving Big Government and Big Tech free rein over the First Amendment, but an attorney for the private plaintiffs in the case says the battle is far from over. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not giving up. \u2026 We are pursuing it on the merits \u2026 in the district court, and we want to get more discovery,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/nclalegal.org\/personnel\/jenin-younes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jenin Younes<\/a>, litigation counsel for the <a href=\"https:\/\/nclalegal.org\/media\/in-the-news\/?gad_source=1&#038;gclid=CjwKCAjwm_SzBhAsEiwAXE2CvyMngCOPLQp8XbFfU8XPceVUpQxSEkFY6P4UDjSwH66P45dyOPi19BoCjaIQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New Civil Liberties Alliance<\/a> tells me in the latest edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/what-murthy-means-for-the-future-of-free-speech--60529351\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cThe Federalist Radio Hour\u201d podcast<\/a>.   <\/p>\n<p>NCLA represents the private plaintiffs in the ruling that saw a 6-3 majority in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/case-files\/cases\/murthy-v-missouri-3\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Murthy v. Missouri<\/em><\/a>  reverse a lower court\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/05\/judge-bars-biden-administration-from-colluding-with-big-tech-to-censor-free-speech\/#:~:text=A%20federal%20judge%20in%20Lousiana,exercising%20their%20First%20Amendment%20rights.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">injunction<\/a> that blocked the federal government from partnering with social media giants to silence posts it doesn\u2019t like. As my colleague Shawn Fleetwood <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/26\/scotus-green-lights-feds-big-tech-censorship-scheme-ahead-of-2024-election\/\">wrote<\/a>, the decision \u2014 based on an absurd standing argument \u2014 effectively frees the Biden administration to continue its censoring operations during the 2024 election. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Supreme Court majority has practically erased the First Amendment and permitted government to co-opt private entities, like social media platforms, to accomplish its censorship aims,\u201d NCLA said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/nclalegal.org\/press_release\/supreme-court-issues-troubling-decision-in-ncla-case-against-censorship-industrial-complex\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press release<\/a> following the ruling. <\/p>\n<p>In the majority opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/23pdf\/23-411_3dq3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> that the plaintiffs failed to establish standing because they did not \u201cdemonstrate 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction,\u201d the decision opines. <\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Truth Can Get You Fired\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>But if the past is truly an indicator of the future, it\u2019s difficult to reconcile the standing argument with the speech suppression that occurred, particularly against those who rightly questioned the government\u2019s Covid policies and voiced legitimate concerns over Covid vaccines. <\/p>\n<p>NCLA\u2019s clients, Drs. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hoover.org\/research\/man-who-talked-back-jay-bhattacharya-fight-against-covid-lockdowns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jayanta Bhattacharya<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/anti-lockdown-vaccine-mandate-skeptic-martin-kulldorff-announces-fired-harvard\">Martin Kul<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/anti-lockdown-vaccine-mandate-skeptic-martin-kulldorff-announces-fired-harvard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">l<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/anti-lockdown-vaccine-mandate-skeptic-martin-kulldorff-announces-fired-harvard\">dorff<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/white-houses-misinformation-pressure-campaign-was-unconstitutional-opinion-1829955\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Aaron Kheriaty<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/coloradonewsline.com\/2024\/03\/18\/suppression-of-free-speech-supreme-court\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jill Hines<\/a>, were all censored for daring to challenge the government\u2019s \u201cdisinformation\u201d campaign on the pandemic. It cost Kulldorff his job as a respected professor at Harvard. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am no longer a professor of medicine at Harvard. The Harvard motto is Veritas, Latin for truth. But, as I discovered, truth can get you fired. This is my story \u2014 a story of a Harvard biostatistician and infectious-disease epidemiologist, clinging to the truth as the world lost its way during the Covid pandemic,\u201d he wrote earlier this year in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/article\/harvard-tramples-the-truth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">column<\/a> for City Journal.\u00a0Kulldorff had questioned the lockdowns and vaccine mandates. <\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Scientific institutions have enjoyed enormous prestige among the public. The COVID-19 pandemic, and the dreadful performance of the experts and institutions, ended this idyll. \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mgurri?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@mgurri<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3KcnfTq0Gj\">https:\/\/t.co\/3KcnfTq0Gj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Martin Kulldorff (@MartinKulldorff) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MartinKulldorff\/status\/1805600127693754722?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>\u2018Factual Errors\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>No one was hurt by the government? The majority opinion asserts that while the Big Tech speech suppressors did have content moderation policies and may have been censoring users, the plaintiffs provided no documentation showing the government coerced the social media giants to do so. <\/p>\n<p>As censor-in-chief Joe Biden would say, that\u2019s malarkey. <\/p>\n<p>Younes said the ruling is rooted in some \u201cfactual errors\u201d by the majority. The Louisiana District Court Judge who on July 4, 2023, issued the injunction against the government said the executive branch <a href=\"https:\/\/fedsoc.org\/commentary\/fedsoc-blog\/a-first-amendment-bulwark-against-a-ministry-of-truth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cseems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian \u2018Ministry of Truth.\u2019\u201d<\/a> U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty conducted a thorough review of voluminous records showing dozens of agencies communicating with Big Tech companies, according to Younes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[There were] probably close to 100 federal officials that we know of who were colluding with, coercing, pressuring, influencing the companies to effectuate their censorship desires,\u201d the attorney said, adding that the justices in the majority appear to have \u201cread the government\u2019s brief and just believed everything they said.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>In his dissent, Justice Samuel Alito warned that the government\u2019s conduct was \u201cblatantly unconstitutional, and the country may come to regret the Court\u2019s failure to say so.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOfficials who read today\u2019s decision together with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/cases\/national-rifle-association-v-vullo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Vullo<\/a> 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<h2>Difficult but Not Impossible <\/h2>\n<p>While the high court remanded the case to the lower court \u201cfor further proceedings consistent with this opinion,\u201d Younes said expanded discovery might just stop the overreaching government yet. NCLA plans to go after government and Big Tech communications involving its clients to show the direct harm caused, as demanded in the majority\u2019s standing argument. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe district court has shown that it believes in our case and \u2026 said this is arguably the most massive attack on free speech in the history of the United States, which I agree with,\u201d Younes said. \u201cThe federal government was censoring entire narratives, entire lines of thought. If you questioned the efficacy of the vaccines in 2021, even if you were a vaccine expert like our client, Martin Kulldorff, you would be censored on social media, as he was.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The case may also get an assist from a presidential candidate. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now running as an independent, had sought to intervene in the Supreme Court case but was turned back by the majority. If anyone knows censorship, it\u2019s RFK Jr., who was blocked from social media as part of what the government and corporate media have described as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/05\/13\/996570855\/disinformation-dozen-test-facebooks-twitters-ability-to-curb-vaccine-hoaxes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cDisinformation Dozen\u201d<\/a> for challenging the government\u2019s faulty narrative on Covid vaccines. <\/p>\n<p>Kennedy has lots of emails showing the Biden administration trying to silence his speech. <\/p>\n<p>As government water carrier USA Today <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2024\/03\/17\/supreme-court-social-media-disinformation-censorship\/72936443007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, one email shows the Biden administration pouncing after Kennedy suggested baseball legend Hank Aaron\u2019s death may have been caused by his Covid-19 vaccine. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWanted to flag the below tweet and am wondering if we can get moving on the process for having it removed ASAP,\u201d the digital director for the White House\u2019s Covid response team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/DocketPDF\/23\/23-411\/293781\/20231219192444120_23-411%20J.A.%20-%20Murthy%20FILE.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote in an email<\/a> to an official at Twitter, the publication reported. <\/p>\n<p>Alito also dissented in the court\u2019s rejection of Kennedy\u2019s motion to join the lawsuit, suggesting standing could be a problem and RFK Jr. could help take away that argument. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The Supreme Court is] making it very difficult to bring the case, but they\u2019re not making it impossible,\u201d\u00a0Younes said.<\/p>\n<p>If the Supreme Court won\u2019t stand up to assaults on the First Amendment, Congress must, said plaintiff Jill Hines, NCLA client and co-director of Health Freedom Louisiana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter reviewing the shocking and incriminating evidence indicating a massive government censorship scheme, the Justices erroneously determined to allow the government access to social media companies for the purpose of undermining free speech,\u201d she said in the press release. \u201cCongress must act immediately to defund agencies and third parties actively involved in this broadly pervasive and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-department-faces-lawsuit-from-conservative-media-over-funding-censorship-scheme\/\" title=\"Conservative media sues State Department over alleged 'censorship scheme' funding\">unconstitutional censorship scheme<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-knew-100-percent-he-was-fighting-for-the-little-guy-former-top-trump-economic-adviser\/\" title=\"Trump Knew \u2018100 Percent\u2019 He Was \u2018Fighting for the Little Guy\u2019: Former Top Trump Economic Adviser\">award-winning investigative reporter<\/a> and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Supreme Court&#8217;s decision favored Big Government and Big Tech over First Amendment rights, but the plaintiffs&#8217; attorney remains determined. &#8220;We are not giving up&#8230; We are pursuing it on the merits,&#8221; they stated, signaling the ongoing fight for free speech<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2284710,"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\/Screenshot-2024-06-27-at-12.53.39-PM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[32311,33068,5782,6994,32275],"class_list":["post-2284709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-free-speech","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-ruling","tag-scotus","tag-supreme-court"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-27-at-12.53.39-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284709","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\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2284709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2284710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2284709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2284709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2284709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}