In a setback for First Amendment free speech rights, the Supreme Court on Wednesday held in Murthy v. Missouri that no plaintiff in the case had established standing to challenge the government’s coordinated censorship of dissenting views on COVID-19 and the 2020 election on social media platforms.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Standing, the issue that comprises the entirety of Barrett’s opinion, is a legal doctrine that limits the power of courts to hear a case. To have standing, a plaintiff must demonstrate that he has suffered a concrete injury, traceable to government action and redressable by a ruling in his favor before he can challenge a government action in court.
Despite a comprehensive record developed in the…
