The Fifth Circuit has upheld the right of the great state of Texas to prevent Big Tech from censoring Texans.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled on the constitutionality of Texas’s H.B. 20, deciding for Texas in NetChoice v. Paxton.
You may remember that the Supreme Court earlier this year blocked enforcement of H.B. 20 while the case worked through the courts.
The ruling is AWESOME, as Texas AG Paxton has been pointing out on Twitter. Which they can’t STOP him from doing.
BREAKING: I just secured a MASSIVE VICTORY for the Constitution & Free Speech in fed court: #BigTech CANNOT censor the political voices of ANY Texan! The 5th Circuit “reject[s] the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say. pic.twitter.com/UijlzYcv7r
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) September 16, 2022
This part is so good. Big Tech can't justify their censorship regime by claiming free speech rights while at the same time also claiming Section 230 protections. You can't be a publisher while also claiming not to be a publisher. Beautiful. https://t.co/nWWR4shQXC https://t.co/UCCGqiMKmX pic.twitter.com/isl7yRZTl5
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) September 16, 2022
I may update this post with more info as the reactions roll in, but the fact that the 5th Circuit correctly understood that the purpose of the First Amendment is to protect speech, not to protect the ability to censor speech.