The First Amendment – Isn’t Thaty Its Purpose, Ketanji?????

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Ketanji Brown Jackson ‘Concerned’ First Amendment Is ‘Hamstringing’ Government from Censorship

March 20, 2024 IJR and Washington Examiner 4

Justice Jackson said to the plaintiff, “My biggest concern is that your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways in the most important time periods.” She added, “You seem to be suggesting that duty cannot manifest itself in the government encouraging or even pressuring platforms to take down harmful information. So, can you help me? Because I’m really worried about that because you’ve got the First Amendment operating in an environment of threatening circumstances, from the government’s perspective, and you’re saying that the government can’t interact with the source of those problems.”

 

Commentator Charlie Kirk wrote: You CANNOT outsource censorship and call it constitutional. You CANNOT have the FBI harassing Facebook and not call it coercion. You CANNOT suspend the Constitution because you say COVID is a once in a lifetime event.

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Summary by JW Williams

The Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri filed suit in May 2022 against President Joe Biden and others alleging they were using the federal government’s power to suppress free speech on social media platforms during the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic. The case, Murthy v. Missouri, is now being heard by the the Supreme Court .

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson appeared to be perturbed that the government could not censor social media posts in “the most important time periods.” Here are some examples of government interference in free speech on social media that were taken from a ruling from a judge in Louisiana:

  1.  Two months after President Biden took office, his top digital adviser emailed officials at Facebook urging them to do more to limit the spread of “vaccine hesitancy” on the social media platform.
  2. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials held “weekly sync” meetings with Facebook, once emailing the company 16 “misinformation” posts.
  3. And in the summer of 2021, the surgeon general’s top aide repeatedly urged Google, Facebook and Twitter to do more to combat disinformation.

Justice Jackson said to the Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga:

“My biggest concern is that your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways in the most important time periods.’ She added, “You seem to be suggesting that that duty cannot manifest itself in the government encouraging or even pressuring platforms to take down harmful information. So, can you help me? Because I’m really worried about that because you’ve got the First Amendment operating in an environment of threatening circumstances, from the government’s perspective, and you’re saying that the government can’t interact with the source of those problems.”

Aguiñaga responded that his view was that the government should intervene in certain situations, but it has to do so by following the First Amendment.

Jackson said a “once-in-a-lifetime pandemic” or other emergencies would provide grounds for the government to censor social media posts that are misinformative.

Conservative Justice Alito said that “The government is treating social media platforms like their subordinates.”

Commentator Charlie Kirk wrote: You CANNOT outsource censorship and call it constitutional. You CANNOT have the FBI harassing Facebook and not call it coercion. You CANNOT suspend the Constitution because you say COVID is a once in a lifetime event.

Sources…

IJR:      https://ijr.com/justice-jackson-tells-gop-officials-view-first-amendment-hamstringing-government/

Washington Examiner:        https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/2926698/ketanji-brown-jackson-concerned-first-amendment-is-hamstringing-government-from-censorship

from:    https://needtoknow.news/2024/03/ketanji-brown-jackson-concerned-first-amendment-is-hamstringing-government-from-censorship/