NEW ORLEANS — In your Breakdown: Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington for arguments on a lawsuit about social media and free speech.
Murthy v. Missouri came about after President Joe Biden’s administration pushed Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to take down posts that they said spread misinformation about the pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.
Landry, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, and five social media users allege that those government officials went too far, censoring posts they didn’t agree with and violating constitutional free speech.
Landry said ahead of the hearing Monday, "We hope that the Supreme Court gets it right, that they see that the government does not have the ability to go in and to coerce and to threaten social platforms, to censor, to basically muzzle America's speech."
During oral arguments, Justice Samuel Alito pointed to emails that he said showed “constant pestering” by White House employees for meetings with social media sites. He also said the government treats the platforms like “subordinates.”
But there was lots of skepticism from other justices.
Some said the brief lacked evidence and omitted information and questioned if Landry and the social media users could actually prove the government had a hand in removing posts.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that social media platforms “say no all the time to the government.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett warned that setting a precedent where a government can’t encourage a platform to remove problematic posts may have unintended consequences.
The Supreme Court will hear five total cases regarding free speech and social media this year.
We should expect a ruling on this case in June.
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