A federal judge has ruled that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can proceed with a lawsuit against the Biden administration, alleging social media censorship of his organization, Children’s Health Defense, which raises concerns about vaccine safety.
“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,” U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana said in his ruling.
The lawsuit asserts that the government exerted pressure on social media giants like Facebook, X, and YouTube to censor content it deemed as misinformation. The Children’s Health Defense, which was founded by Kennedy, says its mission is “ending childhood health epidemics by eliminating toxic exposure.”
Critics label the charity as “anti-vaccine,” while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains that vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine, are “safe and effective,” according to Fox News.
“Judge Terry Doughty carefully and clearly analyzed the law and facts and applied the framework from the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Murthy v. Missouri regarding standing,” CHD general counsel Kim Rosenberg said after the ruling, referring to a similar case brought against the government. “The court also firmly found in plaintiffs’ favor that plaintiffs had not waived — and indeed had affirmatively raised — direct censorship claims in addition to listener claims.”
The Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana filed Murthy v. Missouri, alleging that the Biden administration had pressured social media companies to censor particular content.
A Louisiana court had imposed a ban on communication between the government and these companies. However, in a 6-3 decision in June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs lacked sufficient evidence to demonstrate direct injury and found no direct connection between the government and the censorship. The nation’s highest court also affirmed that companies have the right to moderate their own content.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the decision that “the evidence indicates that the platforms had independent incentives to moderate content and often exercised their own judgment.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson also ruled against the plaintiffs.
In the Kennedy case, though, Doughty ruled that there is direct evidence the charity’s censorship had been linked to the government.
RFK Jr. is part of a trio of notable former Democrats who are poised to help former President Donald Trump build a much broader “unity party” that he will lead to victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the fall.
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, and — as of Friday — Kennedy, all of whom once belonged to and supported the Democratic Party, have all aligned with former President Donald Trump this election cycle, and should help him draw in more disaffected Democratic voters.
“I attended my first Democratic Convention at the age of six in 1960,” Kennedy recalled on Friday of the era when his uncle John and father Robert Sr. ruled the Democratic establishment. “Back then, the Democrats were the champions of the Constitution and of civil rights. The Democrats stood against authoritarianism, against censorship, against colonialism, imperialism, and unjust wars.”
“We were the party of labor, of the working class,” he added. “The Democrats were the party of government transparency and the champion of the environment. Our party was the bulwark against big money interests and corporate power. True to its name, it was the party of democracy,” he said during a nationally televised press conference Friday, announcing he was suspending his independent presidential campaign and backing Trump.