In a majority decision, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett slapped down the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in a decision Wednesday.
Red states and conservatives sued President Joe Biden's administration for coordinating with social media companies to help tamp down misinformation about the pandemic in 2021.
According to the Supreme Court majority in the Murthy v. Missouri case, the parties didn't have standing to sue.
It reverses the conservative Fifth Circuit, which said communications between governmental officials and social media platforms meant that the government officials were regulating content-moderation decisions for the platform.
"The Fifth Circuit was wrong to do so," wrote Barrett.
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According to SCOTUS Blog reporter Amy Howe, "The challengers contend that the restrictions that they experienced in the past on social media platforms could be attributed to the defendants and that the platforms will continue to censor their speech."
The Supreme Court rejected the idea, writing that the "platforms had independent incentives to moderate content and often exercised their own judgment. To be sure, the record reflects that the Government defendants played a role in at least some of the platforms' moderation choices. But the Fifth Circuit, by attributing every platform decision at least in part to the defendants, glossed over complexities in the evidence."
