Supreme Court Justice Alito Keeps Hold on Biden's Push to Censor Social Media Content Amid First Amendment Debate

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has extended a temporary block on an order that restricted the Biden administration's ability to encourage social media platforms to remove content they deemed as misinformation. The injunction, issued by a lower court, had concluded that federal officials violated the First Amendment's free speech protections by coercing these platforms to censor certain posts. Alito's decision to keep the matter on hold until Wednesday allows the court more time to consider the administration's request to block the injunction.

The lawsuit, which was first filed in Louisiana, involved Republican attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana, as well as a group of social media users. They accused federal officials of unlawfully suppressing conservative-leaning constitutionally protected speech on major platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The posts in question expressed opinions that federal officials categorized as misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden administration defended its actions, arguing that it was working to combat online misinformation by alerting social media companies to content that violated their own policies. In July, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana concluded that government officials had coerced social media companies into suppressing posts that expressed views against COVID-19 vaccines, pandemic-related lockdowns, or questioned the results of the 2020 election.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later narrowed the injunction, but it still applied to the White House, the surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the FBI, prohibiting them from coercing or significantly encouraging companies to remove content. The Biden administration argued that even the narrowed injunction went too far and would impede how the White House, FBI, and health officials address matters of public concern and security. The Supreme Court will now consider this argument as they deliberate on the case.