I blogged in February about the decision by Judge Andrew L. Carter (S.D.N.Y.) in this case, which came out in our favor; to briefly quote Judge Carter (though you can read more in that post):
With the well-intentioned goal of providing the public with clear policies and mechanisms to facilitate reporting hate speech on social media, the New York State legislature enacted N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 394-ccc ("the Hateful Conduct Law" or "the law"). Yet, the First Amendment protects from state regulation speech that may be deemed "hateful" and generally disfavors regulation of speech based on its content unless it is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest. The Hateful Conduct Law both compels social media networks to speak about the contours of hate speech and chills the constitutionally protected speech of social media users, without articulating a compelling governmental interest or ensuring that the law is narrowly tailored to that goal. In the face of our national commitment to the free expression of speech, even where that speech is offensive or repugnant, Plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction, prohibiting enforcement of the law, is GRANTED….
The New York Attorney General's office has appealed the case to the Second Circuit. My pro bono lawyers at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression have filed their brief on behalf of me and platforms Rumble and Locals (all of us are plaintiffs challenging the law), and in the last several days we've gotten ten other briefs supporting us. Here's a post on the subject from one of my FIRE lawyers, Daniel Ortner:
