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The Facebook Files
Confirmed

Supreme Court Tosses Censorship Case on Standing, 6–3

In Murthy v. Missouri, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that neither the states nor the individual plaintiffs had standing to seek an injunction against the federal officials. The Court did not decide whether the government's contacts with Facebook and other platforms violated the First Amendment.

Jun 26, 2024
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Whose side it served: Democrats

Ended the injunction against the Biden administration without a merits ruling.

What the record shows

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh and Jackson. The Court held that no plaintiff had shown a substantial risk of future injury traceable to a government defendant and redressable by an injunction, and stated: 'We therefore lack jurisdiction to reach the merits of the dispute.' Barrett wrote that the platforms 'had independent incentives to moderate content and often exercised their own judgment,' and that they had strengthened their policies before government involvement. Justice Alito, joined by Thomas and Gorsuch, dissented, calling it 'one of the most important free speech cases to reach this Court in years' and arguing plaintiff Jill Hines, whose Facebook content was restricted, 'was indisputably injured.'

In their words

“We therefore lack jurisdiction to reach the merits of the dispute.”— Justice Amy Coney Barrett, majority opinion · source
“one of the most important free speech cases to reach this Court in years”— Justice Samuel Alito, dissent · source
The other side

Supporters of the plaintiffs note the ruling did not clear the government on the merits and left the lower courts' coercion findings unreviewed. The administration and its defenders argue the majority's skepticism of the factual record shows the censorship case was weaker than claimed.

Sources

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