BREAKING: Kennedy Scores Major Free Speech Victory

by Adam Garrie, Breaking News Reporter, The Kennedy Beacon

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the health advocacy non-profit, Children’s Health Defense (CHD), secured a legal victory that re-opens the door for a subsequent ruling that could save online speech from ongoing, rigorous censorship at the behest of the Biden administration. 

The lawsuit, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. et. al. v. Joseph R. Biden Jr. et. al, which has been consolidated into the state of Missouri’s lawsuit against the White House, alleges that the Biden administration, and federal agencies under its control, coerced social media companies into mass censorship of constitutionally protected speech. 

The legal victory centers on the issue of ‘standing’. This refers to a litigant being able to file or join a lawsuit because the litigant alleges direct harm from the defendant(s). In this case, the court found that both Kennedy and the CHD had standing because both can show they were harmed by social media censorship that was permitted and encouraged by the Biden administration. Both plaintiffs are now likely to be able to prove there will be substantial risk of future censorship.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty stated unequivocally, “There is not much dispute that both Kennedy and CHD were specifically targeted by the White House, the Office of Surgeon General, and CISA, and the content of Kennedy and CHD were suppressed. Therefore, Kennedy must now show a substantial risk that in the near future, at least one platform will restrict the speech of Kennedy in response to the actions of one Government Defendant.”

In noting that evidence presented to the Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri showed direct censorship of Kennedy by the Biden/Harris White House, Doughty wrote, “The Court finds that Kennedy is likely to succeed on his claim that suppression of content posted was caused by actions of Government Defendants, and there is a substantial risk that he will suffer similar injury in the near future.” This means that according to Judge Doughty’s decision, Kennedy is likely to continue suffering censorship due to the ongoing actions of the Biden administration.

The court makes reference to the RFK v. Meta case in which Kennedy-supporting super PAC, AV24, is a party in a lawsuit against ongoing censorship for the short film, Who is Bobby Kennedy? In light of that action in California, the court found that there is future risk of injury given Kennedy is a 2024 presidential candidate.

The latest ruling is not only significant for Kennedy but for the future of online speech. In June of this year, the Supreme Court ruled that the state attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana did not have standing to bring their case on government directed mass censorship. Now that Kennedy and the CHD have been found to have standing in the matter, the Supreme Court will likely have an opportunity to judge the issue on its merits rather than on a technicality as it did when making its standing ruling on an injunction in June. 

If Kennedy and his co-plaintiffs are able to demonstrate to judges that the Biden administration’s intrusion into the actions of major social media companies resulted in censorship, the country will be one step closer to a major legal ruling guaranteeing freedom to speak online without the censorious interference of the federal government.