A far-right lawsuit accusing President Joe Biden's administration of coordinating with social media companies to help tamp down COVID-19 misinformation proved too much even for the right-leaning Supreme Court — but as anexpert put it, a conservative justice's dissenting opinion was simply out of this world.
In a majority decision, Justice Amy Coney Barrett slapped down the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday in the Murthy v. Missouri case, finding the right-wing parties had no standing to sue. The high court's decision reversed the conservative Fifth Circuit, which said communications between government 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.
“To establish standing, the plaintiffs must demonstrate a substantial risk that, in the near future, they will suffer an injury that is traceable to a Government defendant and redressable by the injunction they seek,” Barrett wrote. She added: “because no plaintiff has carried that burden, none has standing to seek a preliminary injunction.”
The Fifth Circuit's decision hinged on many factual findings that "unfortunately appear to be clearly erroneous," she wrote.
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But conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a pithy dissent that “for months, high-ranking government officials placed unrelenting pressure on Facebook to suppress Americans’ free speech."
"Because the Court unjustifiably refuses to address this serious threat to the First Amendment, I respectfully dissent," he said.
Writing for MSNBC on Wednesday, former Manhattan prosecutor Jordan Rubin said it appeared Alito's dissenting opinion was "seemingly written from another planet."
"Wednesday’s ruling continues one theme of this term in the high court needing to check the rogue circuit, which sometimes goes too far, even for this court," he said. "Still, the three-justice dissent shows that, with additional Republican appointees, the Supreme Court could become more like the 5th Circuit."
