The president of the Brownstone Institute argued that a crucial upcoming Supreme Court case is so key that it effectively places Americans’ free speech rights on trial.
Brownstone president Jeffrey Tucker wrote in a March 1 column that he “never witnessed anything as crucial to the future of the idea of freedom itself compared with what will transpire on March 18, 2024.” That is the day on which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Murthy v. Missouri’s arguments “concerning whether the government can force or nudge private companies to censor users on behalf of regime priorities.” The legal interpretation of the First Amendment and its freedoms will thus be at stake. MRC Free Speech America’s unique CensorTrack.org research was central to the Murthy v. Missouri suit.
The Supreme Court will be deciding if pre-trial intervention is needed after it previously stayed a lower court’s injunction restricting government censorship efforts, Tucker explained. “A ruling for the defense, which is essentially the government itself, will give license to every federal agency – including those that operate in secret like the FBI and CIA – to threaten every social media and media company in this country to delete any and all content that runs contrary to the approved narrative,” he warned.
Tucker insisted, “Free speech is everything. If we don’t have that, we have nothing and freedom is toast. All other problems pale in comparison.” Ascertaining the truth on any topic requires free speech, he added, and Big Tech companies have already developed an acute obsession with censoring free speech. These tech companies “work in cooperation with government and those tasked by government to do elite bidding,” Tucker wrote. He cited the Twitter Files and the vast network of government Tech censorship collusion they exposed. Anyone who disagrees with the leftist “Great Reset” agenda is silenced, he explained.
Supreme Court justices will be “shocked” by the “trillion-dollar industry” to crush speech, Tucker predicted. “Every federal agency is involved, deeply embedded in the operations of all media companies and digital technology,” affecting everyone’s life, he accused. He compared Big Tech companies to the Soviet propaganda papers of yesteryear. Except now there is a “global industry” of censorship, ensuring only approved opinions can be seen online. And with Big Tech trying to program censorship into algorithms and artificial intelligence, this is a particularly key issue.
The vital liberty that the constitutional framers greatly valued is at stake, Tucker concluded. “As I say, this is surely the most important issue we face. A decision by the Supreme Court to let this go on – seeing no real issue here – will lead straight to our doom and the death of freedom itself.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency and an equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
