![]() ![]() That is what is so pernicious about it,” he said.ĭeputy Solicitor General Brian Fletcher defended the administration’s actions. But several justices didn’t seem to find that distinction meaningful because news outlets often carry op-ed pieces and essays that don’t reflect the outlet’s view.Īguiñaga also said the users often had no idea they were being impacted by the federal effort to prod the platforms to take down content. Louisiana state Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga tried to pivot away from the mainstream press examples by saying that the speech the platforms were suppressing wasn’t their own but those of third parties. “I have no experience coercing anybody,” Chief Justice John Roberts chimed in, also prompting laughter. “This happens literally thousands of times a day in the federal government.” “Like Justice Kavanaugh, I have had some experience encouraging press to suppress their own speech,” Kagan said as Kavanaugh and others in the courtroom chuckled. “I had assumed, thought, experienced–government press people throughout the federal government who regularly call up the media and berate them,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said, while acknowledging that some of the government messages to the platforms referring to them as partners were probably not common in dealings with traditional media. At least two of his colleagues suggested that he was wrong because officials across the government often badger journalists and editors about content the officials find objectionable or wrong. Would you do that to the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal or the Associated Press or any other big newspaper or wire service?”Īlito’s comments quickly surfaced a divide on the court that seems critical to the outcome of the case. “It is treating Facebook and these other platforms like they’re subordinates. If you did that to them, what do you think the reaction would be?” Alito asked as he gestured to the press corps seated along the side of the courtroom. “I cannot imagine federal officials talking like that to the print media. Justice Samuel Alito appeared to be in a small minority on the court who thought the barrage of emails from the White House and others to the social media companies may have met the legal standard for coercion.Īlito said it was completely unfathomable that officials would be so crude in dealings with the traditional press as they were in emails exchanged with the tech firms.
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