Alito stays ruling barring Biden administration from 'contacting social media firms': report
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday "temporarily paused" a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling barring President Joe Biden's administration from "contacting social media firms" over "online posts that pose a danger to public health or safety," Politico's Josh Gerstein and Rebecca Kern report.
"Alito's action followed an emergency filing from the Justice Department Thursday that asked the court to block an earlier injunction previously set to kick in Monday that would make it difficult for officials at the White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to mitigate digital threats, Politico explains.
"Alito granted an administrative stay pausing the underlying injunction issued by US District Court Judge Terry Doughty from taking effect until September 22," Gerstein and Kern write. "Alito also gave the Republican attorneys general from Louisiana and Missouri — who brought the case against the administration — until Sept. 20 to respond."
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Politico continues, "The Justice Department claims allowing the lower court ruling to stay in effect would 'impose grave and irreparable harms on the government and the public.' It asked the Supreme Court to immediately block the 5th Circuit's injunction placed on the administration while it files a formal petition for the justices to take up the case."
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued in her petition, "Under the injunction, the Surgeon General, the White House Press Secretary, and many other senior presidential aides risk contempt if their public statements on matters of policy cross the ill-defined lines drawn by the Fifth Circuit," adding, "CDC officials run the same risk if they accurately answer platforms’ questions about public health. And FBI agents risk being hauled into court if they flag content posted by terrorists or disinformation disseminated by covert malign foreign actors."
Gerstein and Kern recall, "The GOP-led lawsuit claims the Biden administration violated the First Amendment by pressuring companies like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to remove content falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen, anti-vaccine posts, and topics involving Hunter Biden's laptop. The Missouri- and Louisiana-led lawsuit claimed the administration threatened the platforms with antitrust enforcement and reforms to tech platforms' liability shield, known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, if they didn't comply with the government's takedown requests."
READ MORE: Why Republicans are 'disproportionately credulous about health-related misinformation': analysis
Gerstein's and Kern's analysis is available at this link.
