First Amendment in Peril It is appalling that the Supreme Court failed to rein in the intelligence and law-enforcement agencies’ abuse of individual First Amendment rights in the Murthy v. Missouri case [with the decision announced on June 26]. The contorted logic that those in the federal government who abused their power with the worst […]
First Amendment in Peril
It is appalling that the Supreme Court failed to rein in the intelligence and law-enforcement agencies’ abuse of individual First Amendment rights in the
Murthy v. Missouri case [with the decision announced on June 26]. The contorted logic that those in the federal government who abused their power with the worst censorship operation in U.S. history should be protected under the guise that they did not voluntarily release enough details of their abuse for the plaintiffs to achieve standing, gives jet fuel to these agencies’ unchecked power to continue abusing the Constitution.
Under former President Donald Trump, resisters in these same departments and agencies refused to release materials that the president ordered released via declassification with dire consequences.
As it relates to the facts of this case, Trump, should he win the election, should order the release of all pertinent materials that enable will plaintiffs to incontrovertibly prove their censorship occurred, and if the agencies refuse, fire everyone involved. Additionally, the House of Representatives should subpoena all involved government parties and compel them to provide further documentation and testimony under oath. We agree with Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent which noted that the record had sufficient evidence to uphold the injunction, and that ‘The Court... shirks that duty and thus permits the successful campaign of coercion in this case to stand as an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear, and think.’
The Supreme Court’s cowardice in the face of a direct assault by the federal government on First Amendment rights using Silicon Valley cutouts is a black mark on an institution that the left is seeking to destroy. We can only hope that when the case continues in the lower courts, the record can be further established as to be uncontestable.
Rick Manning is president of Americans for Limited Government. This article is drawn from a statement Manning issued on June 26 in response to the Supreme Court decision in the Murthy v. Missouri
case. The justices, by a 6-3 majority, ruled that the plaintiffs had no standing to bring the case against the Biden Administration, alleging that its communications with social-media companies to remove certain posts about COVID-19 violated the First Amendment and amounted to censorship.
Rick Manning
