Saturday, February 24, 2024

AG Moody heads to DC for SCOTUS tech case Monday

A.G. Gancarski

February 24

Florida's chief legal officer will be in Washington, D.C. Monday, as a Supreme Court case she is involved in will have legal arguments.

Ashley Moody plans to talk to reporters in the Nation's Capital that day about the Moody v. NetChoice case, which will have oral arguments earlier in the morning.

The case revolves around Florida law passed in 2021's SB 7072 "that attempts to prevent social-media companies from abusing their enormous power to censor speech."

The state of Florida seeks guidance on whether "the First Amendment prohibits a State from requiring that social-media companies host third-party communications, and from regulating the time, place, and manner in which they do so" and whether "the First Amendment prohibits a State from requiring social-media companies to notify and provide an explanation to their users when they censor the user's speech."

Moody filed an appeal in 2022 asking the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which in May ruled Florida's law unconstitutional on the basis that the First Amendment likely protects a social media company's right to moderate the content on its platform. Contemporaneously, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a conflicting ruling over a similar Texas law.

In her appeal, Moody wrote that the 11th Circuit ruling "strips states of their historic power to protect their citizens' access to information, implicating questions of nationwide importance."

Gov. Ron DeSantis named the bill a priority ahead of the 2021 Legislative Session after Twitter and other prominent social media companies banished then-President Donald Trump and other conservatives from their platforms following the U.S. Capitol riot. Proponents have likened Big Tech's handling of users' content to censorship.

DeSantis unveiled the proposal days after Trump left office and moved to Florida full-time. Ironically, Trump's use of social media was one of the things that helped to sink DeSantis' presidential campaign thereafter.

Renzo Downey contributed reporting.