In a decision Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices ruled that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit failed to “conduct a proper analysis of the First Amendment challenges” to a Texas law that regulates content posted on large internet platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube.
The Supreme Court vacated and remanded NetChoice v. Paxton — a case in which the Fifth Circuit upheld a Texas law prohibiting websites and social media outlets from editing or deleting posts deemed to be false or harmful.
“Contrary to what the Fifth Circuit thought, the current record indicates that the Texas law does regulate speech when applied in the way the parties focused on below — when applied, that is, to prevent Facebook (or YouTube) from using its content-moderation standards to remove, alter, organize, prioritize, or disclaim posts in its News Feed (or homepage),” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the decision. “The law then prevents exactly the kind of editorial judgments this Court has previously held to receive First Amendment protection. It prevents a platform from compiling the third-party speech it wants in the way it wants, and thus from offering the expressive product that most reflects its own views and priorities.”
“Still more, the law — again, in that specific application — is unlikely to withstand First Amendment scrutiny. Texas has thus far justified the law as necessary to balance the mix of speech on Facebook’s News Feed and similar platforms; and the record reflects that Texas officials passed it because they thought those feeds skewed against politically conservative voices,” Justice Kagan wrote. “But this Court has many times held, in many contexts, that it is no job for government to decide what counts as the right balance of private expression — to “un-bias” what it thinks biased, rather than to leave such judgments to speakers and their audiences. That principle works for social-media platforms as it does for others.”
“In sum, there is much work to do below on both these cases, given the facial nature of NetChoice’s challenges. But that work must be done consistent with the First Amendment, which does not go on leave when social media are involved.”
In the same opinion, the justices also vacated and remanded a decision by the 11th Circuit that upheld an injunction against a Florida law placing similar regulations on social media companies. The decision to vacate and remand the two circuit court decisions was unanimous, but the reasons for doing so varied among the justices.
The Supreme Court reviewed 10 cases from the Fifth Circuit during the 2023-24 term and it reversed or vacated seven of them. Click the chart below for a detailed look at the cases.