US Supreme Court backs White House on social media post removal

The US Supreme Court cleared the Biden administration to communicate freely with social media companies in an election-year ruling that bolsters the government's ability to seek removal of what officials see as misinformation.

The justices, voting 6-3, tossed out court-imposed restrictions on contacts by the White House and several federal agencies. A federal appeals court said the curbs were warranted because government officials had unconstitutionally coerced platforms into taking down posts about the pandemic and the 2020 election.

Writing for the court, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the challengers – two states and five of their residents – lacked legal standing to press their lawsuit against the federal government.

"We begin — and end — with standing. At this stage, neither the individual nor the state plaintiffs have established standing to seek an injunction against any defendant. We therefore lack jurisdiction to reach the merits of the dispute," she wrote.

The plaintiffs, without any concrete link between their injuries and the defendants' conduct, ask us to conduct a review of the years-long communications between dozens of federal officials, across different agencies, with different social-media platforms, about different topics," she wrote.

Three conservative justices — Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — dissented.

Although the ruling gives the administration a freer hand to talk to social media companies, it's not clear how active the government will be as the November election approaches. Even after the Supreme Court temporarily lifted the restrictions in October, the administration remained cautious and wasn't in touch with platforms about election-related matters, an official who works on those issues said in March.

At issue was how much power the government has to tackle falsehoods without running afoul of the Constitution's free speech clause. Missouri, Louisiana and five of their residents sued over what they called a "sprawling federal Censorship Enterprise" involving dozens of officials and at least 11 federal agencies.

A federal trial judge agreed and issued a sweeping injunction restricting contacts by hundreds of thousands of government workers. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals narrowed the injunction but left it intact against the White House, the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The Supreme Court put the 5th Circuit ruling on hold in October.

The case is Murthy v. Missouri, 23-411.