TALLAHASSEE — The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hear a First Amendment case challenging a 2021 Florida law that imposed restrictions on major social media companies.
The Supreme Court said it would hear a case involving Florida’s law and a similar measure in Texas. Both sides in the Florida lawsuit had asked the judge, along with the U.S. attorney general, to take up the issue.
Industry groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association have challenged the constitutionality of a Florida law imposing restrictions on large social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter (now known as was made a priority. Twitter and Facebook blocked former President Donald Trump from their platforms after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a preliminary injunction against the measure, calling it “full of inaccuracies and ambiguities.” The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year upheld most of the preliminary injunction, but said parts of the law could go into effect.
“We are pleased that the Supreme Court agreed to hear our landmark case,” NetChoice Litigation Director Chris Marchese said in a prepared statement Friday. “Online services have a well-established First Amendment right to host, curate, and share content as they see fit. It must be free from censorship. We are confident the courts will agree.”
But in a Supreme Court filing last year, Florida lawyers said the 11th Circuit’s decision was “critical to the government, state, and federal authority to protect the public’s access to information in the modern world.” It was a devastating blow.” square. “
“The Eleventh Circuit’s reasoning suggests that social media giants have no right to disrupt modern city squares for any reason, even if they don’t follow their own rules or act maliciously.” “We have a First Amendment right to remove people from the United States,” the filing states. Said. “This ruling strips states of their historic authority to protect the public’s access to information and concerns an issue of national importance.”
The Supreme Court’s order said the justices would review two parts of the Florida law that the 11th Circuit had blocked. U.S. Attorney General Elizabeth Preloger and other Justice Department lawyers asked the court in August to consider these issues and uphold the injunction.
One of them would place limits on the control social media companies have over content. For example, the law would prohibit platforms from banning political candidates from their sites and require companies to publish and consistently apply standards on issues.
In contrast to the Eleventh Circuit, the Fifth Circuit upheld a similar limitation in Texas law.
“When a social media platform selects, edits, organizes and presents third party speech to the public, it engages in activities protected by the First Amendment,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in a brief. It will happen,” he said. “That activity, and the business practices of platforms more generally, are not immune to regulation. But here, the state is under any First Amendment scrutiny that may apply. They have not articulated an interest that justifies the burden imposed by content moderation restrictions.”
In its brief, the Justice Department also asked the Supreme Court to take up another part of Florida law that “requires platforms to provide users with a personalized explanation when removing or altering a user’s posting.” Similar to the contrast on content moderation issues, the Fifth Circuit upheld a similar requirement in Texas law.
The Supreme Court has said it will focus on those two issues, but it is unlikely to go ahead with tech industry groups’ hopes of blocking the entire Florida law. It was unclear Friday when the Supreme Court would hear arguments.