Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Biden Administration’s Contacts With Social Media Companies

The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Biden Administration's contacts with social media platforms to combat what administration officials said was misinformation. The lawsuit, spearheaded by Republican state attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana, had fared well in the lower courts, at one point resulting in an unprecedented injunction that blocked top government officials from communicating with social-media companies about removing “content containing protected free speech” from their platforms. The states claimed executive branch officials for years pressured digital platforms to censor conservative speakers. That campaign reached a fever pitch in 2021, they alleged, after President Biden took office and sought to promote Covid vaccines and counter former President Donald Trump’s claims that the election was rigged. The Supreme Court ruled that the states and users who had challenged the contacts had not suffered the sort of direct injury that gave them standing to sue. The decision, by a 6 to 3 vote, left fundamental legal questions for another day.  Justice Samuel Alito Jr, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, dissented.