Supreme Court Avoids Key Free Speech Question in Social Media Cases
The First Amendment grants you the right to speak. It doesn’t mean anyone has to actually listen.
Dealing with some blockages.
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
There are several major social media cases facing the US Supreme Court this term, all having to do with the First Amendment. The decisions the court issues will effectively create a new legal regime where none existed before. The first major issue, on the constitutionality of public officials blocking other users, shows how hard this is going to be for justices who have not yet fully understood how the architecture of social media platforms can change society.
The first set of cases, O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier and Lindke v. Freed, involves the question of whether a public official using social media can block a user without violating the user’s First Amendment rights. The oral argument found the justices puzzling over a question that arises in every constitutional case: whether the government has actually taken an action that is covered by some provision of the founding document.