Justice Kavanaugh Defends Biden Admin

Justice Brett Kavanaugh defended President Joe Biden’s administration during oral arguments in a major social media censorship case.

On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by two Republican attorneys general from Louisiana and Missouri, as well as five social media users, who accused the Biden administration of going too far in putting pressure on social media platforms to take down misinformation. The plaintiffs argued the moderation of content amounted to censorship that violated their First Amendment rights.

But justices across the ideological spectrum appeared highly skeptical about the claims that the Biden administration crossed the line and coerced private companies into removing problematic content. Kavanaugh, a conservative on the court, was among those who voiced doubts.

When Justice Samuel Alito expressed shock at the angry tone in emails that Biden officials sent to Facebook and other tech companies, Kavanaugh pushed back on Alito questioning the way White House staffers castigated the platforms.

Kavanaugh, who served in the White House counsel’s office during the George W. Bush administration, explained to his colleague that the tone seen in the emails is typical of government officials and that it wasn’t a First Amendment violation.

Shortly after Alito told Justice Department attorney Brian Fletcher, “Maybe I’m naive, maybe that goes on behind the scenes, but it struck me,” Kavanaugh jumped in to tell the court, “On the anger point… I’ve assumed, thought, experienced government press people, throughout the federal government, who regularly call up the media and berate them.”

“You said the anger here was unusual, I wasn’t entirely clear on that from my own experience,” Kavanaugh told Fletcher.

Justice Elena Kagan, who served as counsel for the Bill Clinton White House and was the former solicitor general during the Barack Obama administration, later added, “Like Justice Kavanaugh, I’ve had some experience encouraging press to suppress their own speech.

“This happens thousands of times a day in the federal government,” she said to laughter in the courtroom.

The lawsuit makes various claims relating to events that occurred in 2020 and before, including the pandemic and the presidential election, but the district court ruling—which has imposed an injunction limiting contact between government officials and social media companies—focuses on actions taken by federal officials after Biden was sworn into office in January 2021.

On Monday, Kavanaugh suggested that it could be problematic to limit those interactions, using a hypothetical example where national security came into play.

“[It is] not uncommon for government officials to protest an upcoming [news] story on surveillance or detention policy and say, you know, ‘If you run that, it’s going to harm the war effort and put Americans at risk,'” the justice said.

The court also raised questions about what harm was suffered by the plaintiffs in the case, suggesting that prohibiting interactions between the federal government and social media companies was not an appropriate remedy.