Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested Monday that the government has a right to censor American citizens for their own good. In the Murthy v. Missouri case, the Supreme Court probed allegations that the Biden government had violated the First Amendment by colluding with social media platforms to suppress Americans’ freedom of speech. Justice Jackson expressed concern for scenarios wherein she believes the government has the right to limit speech.
“My biggest concern is that your view is that you have the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways in the most important time periods,” she stated.
This assertion aligns with the Biden government’s stance that they can suppress online speech that contradicts their chosen narrative. The government’s attorney, Brian Fletcher, maintained that it has the legal flexibility to persuade private entities like social media companies to act in ways they perceive as lawful. Fletcher further equated the role of the government to that of a “bully pulpit” with the power to elevate or suppress ideas.
The legal representative for Missouri, Benjamin Aguiñaga, countered that the government intended to constrain speech, indirectly doing what it was constitutionally forbidden from doing directly. He highlighted the secretive nature of the government’s dealings with social media platforms, suggesting knowledge of censorship.
Missouri Attorney Andrew Bailey claimed that the litigation uncovered thorough censorship pushed by the Biden government in collaboration with social media platforms, leading to direct suppression of Americans online. This case has led to an injunction issued against the Biden government by a lower court, halting any communication with social media companies.
The Supreme Court, however, granted an emergency ruling against the injunction, and the case is now awaiting a final decision from the high court.
This isn’t the first time Justice Jackson has positioned herself far to the court’s political left. In her dissent from the majority opinion striking down US universities’ affirmative action policies, Jackson accused her colleagues of being akin to ostriches striking their heads in the sand. The liberal justice went on to claim that ending government racial discrimination would not end racism.
“The best that can be said of the majority’s perspective is that it proceeds (ostrich-like) from the hope that preventing consideration of race will end racism. But if that is its motivation, the majority proceeds in vain,” she wrote in her dissent.
Jackson was nominated to the court by Joe Biden in February 2022 and narrowly confirmed by the Senate in April 2022 by a margin of just six votes. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Jackson was noted for her extreme leniency towards child sex offenders.
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