The Supreme Court must protect the First Amendment in Murthy v. Missouri – Washington Examiner

The Founding Fathers believed that freedom of expression is essential to a free and fair nation. Thats precisely why the protection of free speech finds its place as the First Amendment to our Constitution. Safeguarding the First Amendment should be the goal of all Americans.

After all, its our pressure release valve. Unfortunately, as discovered in the lawsuit I filed when I was Missouris attorney general, formerlyMissouri v. Bidenand nowMurthy v. Missouri, the Biden administration built a censorship leviathan that encompassed numerous agencies and officials. Through a chilling, concerted effort, these agencies and officials colluded with and coerced social media companies to censor speech online. Speech, that is, which didnt fit the approved narrative.

This case is particularly important because free speech should be protected in both the town square and digital town square. Thiscase could set an important precedent.

When I filed the lawsuit with Louisiana in 2022, we took the unique step of fighting to get discovery at the beginning stages of the lawsuit. This effort uncovered more than I could ever have imagined. The lengths and depths that the Biden administration went to censor what it deemed as misinformation or disinformation, including topics that were later to be proven as true, should shock every American.

This lawsuit exposed an unprecedented censorship enterprise in which Biden White House officials relentlessly pressured social media companies to remove posts or accounts and more strictly censor speech related to certain topics. Court documents unveiled a coordinated effort by executive branch employees, most notably Dr. Anthony Fauci, to discredit the lab-leak theory that the origins of COVID-19 stemmed from gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China.After Faucis extensive efforts to discredit and suppress that theory, Facebook expanded its content moderation to censor posts suggesting COVID-19 might have been man-made. Documents obtained by the House Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government paint an even clearer picture.

In July 2021, Facebooks head of Global Affairs asked his colleagues why the company had been censoring this theory. Unsurprisingly, they answered, Because we were under pressure from the [Biden] administration. The more we look into the Biden administrations actions to silence Americans, the worse it gets. Of note, the FBI now assesses that the lab-leak theory is the most likely explanation for the origin of COVID-19.

This censorship regime didnt stop at suppressing the lab-leak theory. These officials colluded with social media companies to censor posts regarding the Hunter Biden laptop story, mask and vaccine efficacy, and more. The court found the platforms bowed down to the pressure and even sent steady reports on their moderation activities to the officials. Previous rulings noted that from the beginning, the social media companies cooperated with the White House officials demands, and one platform even made an employee available on a regular basis. Another platform gave the government officials access to a Partner Support Portal to ensure that their requests were prioritized automatically.

Social media sites aggressively censored the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation. Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said officials were flagging posts for social media companies, and the surgeon general accused social media companies of killing people.A federal judge even noted that the social media platforms responses to White House pressure often bordered on capitulation. This shouldnt be happening in the United States.

Last year, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction, appropriately issued on Independence Day, banning any coordination between the federal government and social media companies to censor citizens viewpoints online. That injunction has since been put on hold. The fight to put it back in place continues Monday when the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments inMurthy v. Missouri.

Make no mistake about it: This is a defining free speech case for America. The Biden administration brazenly colluded with some of the largest companies in the history of the world to effect an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment. The most frightening thing about this censorship enterprise is that these officials are actually fighting in court to be able to continue silencing people.

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The federal judge who issued the preliminary injunction on Independence Day perhaps said it best, The evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.

If we want to protect the sacred values on which this nation was founded, we must confront this fundamentally un-American censorship regime. The Supreme Court should side with Missouri and Louisiana and prevent this censorship in the future.

Eric Schmittis a United States senator from Missouri.

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The Supreme Court must protect the First Amendment in Murthy v. Missouri - Washington Examiner