SCOTUS blocks order that said Biden admin can’t “coerce” social media firms

Enlarge / US President Joe Biden during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

The Supreme Court has blocked an injunction that would prevent the Biden administration from pressuring social media firms to take down content. Justices agreed to hear the Biden administration's appeal of the injunction, which will be stayed until the high court issues a ruling that could either uphold the injunction or block it permanently.

The decision to grant the stay and hear the administration's appeal was issued in an order Friday. The court previously issued a temporary stay while it considered whether to hear the case, so the injunction has not been enforced.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch dissented, arguing that the stay "allows the defendants to persist in committing the type of First Amendment violations that the lower courts identified. The majority takes this action in the face of the lower courts' detailed findings of fact."