{"id":2603841,"date":"2026-05-18T07:59:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/covid-dissenter-alex-berensons-free-speech-victory-might-be-the-first-of-many\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T07:59:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T11:59:30","slug":"covid-dissenter-alex-berensons-free-speech-victory-might-be-the-first-of-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/covid-dissenter-alex-berensons-free-speech-victory-might-be-the-first-of-many\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Berenson\u2019s Free Speech Victory Might Be The First Of Many"},"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\">22<\/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%2Fcovid-dissenter-alex-berensons-free-speech-victory-might-be-the-first-of-many%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=2603841&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>Alex Berenson, an autonomous journalist, has partially won a long-running case over twitter\u2019s suspension of him. Last week, he settled with the federal government for $150,000 and-crucially-obtained an acknowledgment that the government violated the First Amendment by exerting coercive pressure on social media companies to suppress disfavored speech. The settlement does not end his lawsuit, but it strengthens his broader claims against other defendants.<\/p>\n<p>The article recounts how, after Berenson criticized COVID-19 policies and vaccines, Twitter permanently banned him in 2021 following what he alleges was coordinated pressure involving Biden administration officials and Pfizer-related actors. During discovery in the twitter case, Berenson obtained internal Slack messages suggesting the Biden administration\u2019s role; Twitter later reinstated his account after that publicity and settlement.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2023, Berenson sued multiple Biden-era officials (and Pfizer executives) alleging First Amendment violations, including a conspiracy claim under 42 U.S.C. \u00a7 1985(3) (which can apply when private parties conspire with the government to violate constitutional rights). A district court dismissed his claims, and he appealed to the Second Circuit.After the Trump Administration\u2019s settlement, the government conceded the First Amendment issue for \u201cofficial capacity\u201d defendants, leaving the remaining litigation focused on whether berenson can prove the \u00a7 1985(3) elements-especially whether \u201cunvaccinated Americans\u201d qualifies as the kind of \u201cclass\u201d the statute requires.<\/p>\n<p>The piece argues that the government\u2019s admission undermines defenses against the remaining defendants regarding the first Amendment predicate, making the central question for the appeals court whether berenson\u2019s alleged class supports his conspiracy claim. It also suggests that Pfizer-connected defendants may face increased litigation and reputational pressure given the settlement\u2019s implications.  <\/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>Independent journalist Alex Berenson scored another victory for free speech last week when he settled his lawsuit against the federal government for $150,000 and an acknowledgement that \u201cthe Government did in fact violate the First Amendment by exerting substantial coercive pressure on social media companies such as Twitter to suppress disfavored speech like Plaintiff\u2019s; . . .\u201d Berenson\u2019s win does not end his case, however, as he continues to pursue his claims against several other Defendants. And in settling with Berenson, the Trump Administration just strengthened the former New York Times reporter\u2019s case.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, Berenson gained a heavy following on Twitter as he criticized the public policy response to Covid-19 and challenged the conventional wisdom of the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. As his lawyer would later <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.ca2.c27fd0b8-a855-418c-be38-43edcfbf50e6\/gov.uscourts.ca2.c27fd0b8-a855-418c-be38-43edcfbf50e6.39.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a> in briefing, \u201cTwitter became the primary outlet for his journalism which earned him hundreds of thousands of followers while the company resisted calls from third parties to censor his reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, following coercion from members (and then former-members) of the Biden Administration, along with alleged pressure from representatives of Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer Pfizer, Twitter permanently banned Berenson. Unaware of those concerted efforts toward banning him, Berenson originally sued only Twitter, alleging, among other things, breach of contract and other state law claims premised on the social media giant\u2019s violations of its own promises and policies in banning Berenson.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the discovery in his case against Twitter, Berenson obtained internal Slack messages which revealed the Biden Administration\u2019s role in Berenson being permanently banned from the social media giant. After Berenson\u00a0went <a href=\"https:\/\/alexberenson.substack.com\/p\/the-white-house-privately-demanded?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F12729762-alex-berenson&#038;utm_medium=reader2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">public<\/a> with the Slack messages, Twitter settled with Berenson, reinstating his account and acknowledging he never should have been suspended.<\/p>\n<p>After settling with Twitter, and based on the evidence he obtained during discovery, Berenson filed suit in April of 2023 against then-President Biden; Andrew Slavitt, who had served as the Senior Advisor to the COVID-19 Response Coordinator; Robert Flaherty, who served as the Director of Digital Strategy at the White House; Vivek Murthy, the Biden Administration\u2019s Surgeon General; Scott Gottlieb, who was a former FDA Commissioner and member of the Board of Directors of Pfizer; and Albert Bourla, who served as the Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer. Berenson\u2019s lawsuit detailed efforts by the Defendants that began soon after President Biden\u2019s inauguration in January 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint highlighted an April 2021 White House meeting led by Slavitt at which the Biden Administration pushed Twitter to remove Berenson from the platform. According to the complaint, the efforts to ban Berenson took on new urgency in July of 2021, after the Biden Administration and Pfizer learned the mRNA shots were losing their efficacy much faster than anticipated. Twitter temporarily suspended Berenson\u2019s account, but following his reinstatement, former FDA Commission and Pfizer Director Gottlieb complained to a Twitter lobbyist about Berenson. Soon after \u201cGottlieb\u2019s complaint, Twitter banned Mr. Berenson permanently and told media outlets he had committed \u2018repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules,\u2019\u201d the lawsuit alleged.<\/p>\n<p>Berenson\u2019s complaint alleged three claims, with Count I alleging the government defendants violated the First Amendment. In Count II, Berenson\u2019s alleged a Section 1985(3) claim against all of the Defendants for conspiracy to violate his First Amendment rights. Count III was a state law claim for tortious interference brought against the two Pfizer Defendants, along with Slavitt.<\/p>\n<p>The Defendants all sought dismissal of the lawsuit based on a variety of reasons, including a claim that the government defendants had not violated Berenson\u2019s First Amendment rights. However, after Trump won re-election in 2024, the \u201cofficial capacity defendants\u201d \u2014 more on that terminology shortly \u2014 informed the Court that it was no longer arguing that Berenson had failed to state a plausible First Amendment claim. Nonetheless, the government Defendants maintained that the Court should dismiss Berenson\u2019s lawsuit for other reasons.<\/p>\n<p>The district court agreed and dismissed all of Berenson\u2019s claims. Berenson appealed to the Second Circuit and his settlement with the Trump Administration came with that briefing currently half-finished.<\/p>\n<p>Here, it is important to recognize that Berenson sued the government defendants in two capacities: in both their \u201cofficial capacities\u201d and in their \u201cindividual capacities.\u201d A lawsuit against a defendant in his \u201cofficial capacity\u201d is, in effect, against the government or the government position, while an individual capacity lawsuit is against the individual personally and liability would be against that individual.<\/p>\n<p>This distinction matters because the settlement agreement Berenson reached last week with the federal government resolved solely his claims against the \u201cofficial capacity\u201d Defendants. Still remaining are Berenson\u2019s individual capacity claims against Flaherty, Slavitt, and Murthy, as well as his claims against Gottlieb and Pfizer CEO Bourla, under Section 1985(3) for conspiracy to violate his First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n<p>And as Berenson told The Federalist, \u201cthe government\u2019s admission is a crucial step forward in our case. It proves the\u00a0Biden Administration violated my First Amendment rights by forcing me off Twitter, a necessary predicate for a [Section] 1985(3) conspiracy claim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To expand on Berenson\u2019s point: The First Amendment prohibits the government \u2014 not private actors \u2014 from abridging freedom of speech and of the press. But Section 1985(3) applies to private actors who conspire with the government to violate an individual\u2019s constitutional rights based on the Plaintiff\u2019s membership in a class. And \u201c[t]he evidence we have provided in our complaint shows beyond doubt that Pfizer\u2019s top officials conspired with the administration\u00a0to coerce Twitter to ban me,\u201d Berenson told The Federalist. <\/p>\n<p>Further, in his complaint Berenson alleged he was \u201cspeaking on behalf of an identifiable class of Americans who had chosen not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.\u201d The complaint further stressed that that class \u201c\u2018includes a disproportionate number of African-Americans, political conservatives, and evangelical Christians.\u2019\u201d In fact, as Berenson\u2019s appellate brief noted: \u201cThe political nature of the class was not lost on the Government itself. In February 2021, while serving in the White House, Slavitt stated that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy \u2018may be political.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The courts are currently split on the types of \u201cclasses\u201d that qualify under Section 1985(3), but to prevail against the other Defendants Berenson must also establish a First Amendment violation \u2014 or an attempt to violate the First Amendment. Prior to Berenson\u2019s settlement agreement with the official capacity Defendants, the other Defendants could argue alternatively either that Berenson lost because he did not allege a class protected under Section 1985(3) or because he did not allege a First Amendment violation. <\/p>\n<p>That latter argument will surely fall flat now with the government acknowledging in its settlement agreement that it violated Berenson\u2019s First Amendment rights. That remains true even though the settlement agreement added the lawyerly caveat that the settlement agreement \u201cshall not be construed as evidence or as an admission regarding any issue of law or fact, or regarding the truth or validity of any allegation or claim raised in this action, . . .\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It matters not that the settlement agreement cannot be construed \u201cas evidence\u201d or \u201cas an admission\u201d because we already have President Trump\u2019s acknowledgements of the abridgements of free speech in his various Executive Orders \u2014 which were also quoted in the settlement agreement. Add to that, the associate attorney general\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-settles-lawsuit-challenging-biden-administrations-alleged-social-media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a> in announcing the Trump Administration\u2019s settlement with Berenson that \u201c[t]he Biden Administration engaged in blatant viewpoint discrimination, wielding power over social media to kick conservatives off Twitter completely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That leaves really only one main issue for the appellate court, namely whether Berenson alleged a \u201cclass\u201d for purposes of Section 1985(3). Or, as Berenson told The Federalist, \u201c[t]he question the Second Circuit must now answer in deciding if my [Section] 1985(3) claim can move ahead is this: Do people unvaccinated against Covid deserve the same civil rights protections as other minority groups who have faced discrimination?\u201d \u201cWe believe Second Circuit precedent \u2013 along with the words of then-President Biden himself during the summer of 2021 \u2013 provides ample room for the court to provide that protection,\u201d Berenson added.<\/p>\n<p>Until now, the individual capacity and Pfizer Defendants seemed content with arguing that Berenson could not sue under Section 1985(3) because \u201cunvaccinated Americans\u201d is not a \u201ccognizable class under Section 1985(3).\u201d However, with Berenson\u2019s victory against the official capacity Defendants and their admission to violating his First Amendment rights, the calculus for the alleged co-conspirators to settle might now have changed \u2014 or at least maybe for the Pfizer-connected defendants who must consider the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >potentially negative public relations\u2019 impact<\/a> on the pharmaceutical giant.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist\u2019s senior legal correspondent. Margot\u2019s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion, National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press.     She is also a regular guest on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-alito-freakout-is-a-false-flag-operation-to-take-down-the-court\/\" title=\"Democrats are falsely targeting Alito to undermine the Court\">nationally syndicated radio programs<\/a> and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.      Cleveland is a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-media-lies-about-the-latest-special-counsel-revelations\/\" title=\"5 Media Lies About The Latest Special Counsel Revelations\">full-time university faculty member<\/a> and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance.       Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments\u2014her dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alex Berenson wins $150,000 settlement admitting First Amendment violations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2603842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-196.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[79845,38845,33332,32311,33335],"class_list":["post-2603841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-alex-berenson","tag-civil-liberties","tag-first-amendment","tag-free-speech","tag-legal-victory"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-196.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603841","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\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2603841"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2603845,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603841\/revisions\/2603845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2603842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2603841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2603841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2603841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}