On Tuesday, the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) announced that it had reached a settlement in Missouri v. Biden, a First Amendment lawsuit challenging the federal government's attempts to suppress "misinformation" on social media. Under the proposed consent decree, which still needs the approval of U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, the surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will be barred from threatening to punish social media companies for declining to remove or reduce the visibility of "content containing protected free speech."
The lawsuit, which resulted in rulings against the government by Doughty and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit before the Supreme Court concluded that the plaintiffs had not shown they had standing to seek injunctive relief, was provoked by the Biden administration's campaign against online speech it viewed as a threat to public health, democracy, or national security. Given President Donald Trump's criticism of his predecessor's social media meddling, it is not surprising that the current administration was willing to settle the case. But that does not mean the Trump administration is prepared to respect the First Amendment right of social media companies to decide which content they want to host or promote, free from the government's coercive influence.
