During the height of pandemic-era social and political disagreements about almost everything, two states (Florida and Texas) passed laws prohibiting social media companies from enforcing certain content policies against users. The states claimed that the social media giants' policies discriminated against conservative views and tended to “deplatform” conservative users. Two US federal appellate courts reviewed and considered the laws in the face of First Amendment challenges, and reached opposite conclusions, one upholding the laws and one overturning them. The Supreme Court has vacated both decisions on somewhat technical grounds unrelated to the First Amendment. The effect is to reinstate trial court-level injunctions that prohibited the laws from taking effect. Both laws will go back to the trial courts for further consideration.
WHY IT MATTERS
The Supreme Court decision does not rest on First Amendment grounds, but the groups challenging the laws touted it that way. The reality is that these laws are likely to come back to the Supreme Court specifically for First Amendment consideration after the current round of decisions and appeals is complete. Historically, the Court has been extremely deferential to First Amendment claims and tends to view content-based laws very skeptically.
NetChoice and CCIA challenged the laws as a violation of the private social media companies' First Amendment rights, arguing that governments can't dictate how they weigh which speech to host.
The need for Supreme Court review grew more dire when federal appeals courts reached opposite conclusions on the matter. A panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit judges sided the tech groups, upholding a block on major provisions of the Florida law, while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit aligned with Texas, saying the First Amendment doesn't provide corporations an “unenumerated right to muzzle speech.”
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