Supreme Court turns away online censorship claim by RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine group against Meta

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away without comment a claim brought by the group formerly run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alleging that its anti-vaccine speech was censored by the social media company Meta Platforms.

Kennedy, now the Health and Human Services secretary in the Trump administration, founded and was chairman of the group, Children's Health Defense, that sued Meta, the operator of sites such as Facebook and Instagram.

The justices left in place lower court rulings that tossed out the lawsuit, which claimed that Facebook, starting in 2019, colluded with the federal government to restrict access to its content. The issue came to a head during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Facebook removing the group's page in 2022.

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Children's Health Defense brought claims under the Constitution's First and Fifth Amendments as well as other laws.

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Lower courts, including the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled in favor of Meta, saying there was no evidence of coordination with the government, meaning it was not a "state actor" bound by the First Amendment.

As a private entity, Meta was therefore free to decide for itself what content to platform, the courts ruled.