Setting up potential ruling: If the Supreme Court agrees to take up the appeal, it would mark the first time the highest court will have weighed in on the underlying issues at play in the 11th Circuit case as to whether social media platforms’ handling of user content is protected by the First Amendment.
Florida’s attorney general filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn a May decision by a federal court that had struck down major parts of a Florida law banning social media companies from deplatforming political candidates for violating the First Amendment.
The May decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals conflicts with a ruling last week by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a similar Texas social media law.
Florida — as well as Texas — is controlled by Republicans who enacted and sought to enforce laws that target social media companies for allegedly “censoring” conservative viewpoints and banning politicians like former President Donald Trump for violating policies against the incitement of violence on Jan. 6, 2021.
Florida’s defense: The appeal from Ashley Moody, Florida’s attorney general, defends the constitutionality of the Florida law, S.B. 7072. She said in the appeal that the 11th Circuit ruling “strips States of their historic power to protect their citizens’ access to information, implicating questions of nationwide importance.”