U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said Monday that he is concerned that the First Amendment is “significantly holding back the government at its most critical time.”
Jackson wrote a letter to Louisiana Attorney General Benjamin Aguignaga accusing the state, along with Missouri, of attempting to censor speech on social media platforms during the coronavirus pandemic, ostensibly for public health reasons. sued the federal government.
Mr Jackson previously presented a hypothetical situation in which social media platforms were allowing a dangerous trend to flourish, encouraging children to jump out of windows “at higher altitudes”. She asked whether government officials could not “encourage social media platforms to remove information that is causing this problem.”
Aguignaga suggested that the government can use its “bully pulpit” to push back against the content of information, but cannot encourage or force social media platforms to remove information. .
Mr Jackson objected that simply saying the government could post its own speeches was not enough. She suggested that there are circumstances in which the government may “encourage or require this type of censorship” where it is necessary for public safety.
Conservatives have objected to the White House’s calls for social media companies to suppress information such as skepticism about vaccines and political speech about election integrity.
The case is Marcy v. State of MissouriU.S. Supreme Court No. 23A243.
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. He is the author of a new biography, Rhoda: “Comrade Cadderly, you are abnormal.”. He is also the author of a recently published e-book. Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 US Presidential Election. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
