The Fifth Circuit continues to debase itself.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday reinstated a Republican-backed Texas law that prohibits large social media companies from banning users over their political viewpoints.
The decision hands a win to Republicans who have long criticized social media platforms such as Twitter for what they call anti-conservative bias — disapproval that was amplified when President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter for violating the platform’s rules on inciting violence during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The order did not evaluate the law on its constitutionality but instead allows the law to go back into effect while the case proceeds in district court, according to a statement from one of the plaintiff groups. The ruling came from a three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — which is often considered the most conservative appeals court in the country — and was not accompanied by a written opinion explaining the decision at the time of publication.
Two large industry trade groups that represent companies such as Google and Twitter sued to block the law last fall.
In December, a federal district court judge ruled in favor of the groups and blocked the law while the lawsuit continues, reasoning that the First Amendment protects a company’s right to moderate content and called parts of the law “prohibitively vague.” As a result, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the district judge’s decision to the circuit court.
Passed during a special session last year, House Bill 20 also requires social media platforms with more than 50 million monthly users to publicly disclose information about content removal and account suspensions.
“HB 20 is an assault on the First Amendment, and it’s constitutionally rotten from top to bottom,” Chris Marchese, counsel for the NetChoice industry trade group, tweeted after the ruling. “So of course we’re going to appeal today’s unprecedented, unexplained, and unfortunate order by a split 2-1 panel.”
See here, here, and here for the background. I’ve been beaten down by the constant flow of atrocities from this outlaw court, so I’m going to hand it off to one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys:
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2b) It’s unprecedented because the panel issued no written explanation, and gave us no time to seek relief. Ordinarily, they’d write an opinion and we’d have at least 10 days to appeal.
3) Instead, HB 20 is now fully in effect.— Chris Marchese (@ChrisMarchese9) 6:57 PM – 11 May 2021
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6) We’re assessing our next steps, but obviously we’re going to appeal the decision.— Chris Marchese (@ChrisMarchese9) 6:57 PM – 11 May 2021
Which means we have to hope there are still a few people on that bench who understand what the First Amendment says. I don’t have any faith, but what are you gonna do? Slate and Reform Austin have more.
I’m old enough to remember when most Americans supported free speech. Remember that famous saying, “I disagree with what you say but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it?”
“4) What that means is … unclear. Covered businesses must confer with their legal teams and spend a ridiculous amount of time discerning what’s what in this uncharted territory.”
Seems like it would be easier to just stop banning and censoring people, but that’s just me. As an example, remember when the Hunter laptop was verboten to talk about, because it was most certainly Russian disinformation? 51 ‘intelligence professionals’ signed a letter stating that it was fake, including Clapper? Turns out it was real, and true. No one was permitted to talk about that.
All unmoderated platforms become toxic waste pits.
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