Supreme Court shortcomings could now add the Bill of Rights to basic biology after Monday’s oral arguments in a landmark case.
Infamously stymied when asked to define the word “woman” during her Senate confirmation hearing, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson raised eyebrows anew when she appeared to struggle over the function of the First Amendment.
Previously Missouri v. Biden, Monday the high court heard arguments in Murthy v. Missouri, a case that originated with a lawsuit from then-Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt who had alleged that President Joe Biden’s administration worked with Big Tech companies to censor and suppress content on COVID-19, election integrity and other topics in order to maintain a preferred narrative.
When given the chance to question Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguiñaga, Jackson’s query prompted “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host Will Cain to exclaim, “Hamstringing the government is THE POINT of the First Amendment!”
“My biggest concern,” the jurist had begun, “is that your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways in the most important time periods.”
Hamstringing the government is THE POINT of the First Amendment! https://t.co/17LVsNUc62
— Will Cain (@willcain) March 18, 2024
“And so I guess some might say that the government actually has a duty to take steps to protect the citizens of this country, and you seem to be suggesting that that duty cannot manifest itself in the government encouraging or even pressuring platforms to take down harmful information,” she continued. “So can you help me? Because I’m really — I’m really worried about that because you’ve got the First Amendment operating in an environment of threatening circumstances from the government’s perspective, and you’re saying that the government can’t interact with the source of those problems.”
Perhaps the justice was merely too far removed from elementary civics to recall that the U.S. Constitution was meant to limit the government’s power over the people and not the other way around — a reality punctuated by the language of the First Amendment that read:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Leaning into that point, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey told Fox News Digital, “It is hamstringing, and it’s supposed to. The whole purpose of the Constitution is to protect us from the government, and the government exists to protect our rights. But here, the federal government is ignoring our First Amendment protections and weaponizing the federal government to silence our voices.”
“And she’s right,” he added. “It limits what the federal government can and can’t do. And that’s a good thing.”
As the Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether or not the government’s communications with Big Tech platforms on permitted content amounted to state action, as well as whether or not to uphold an injunction barring communications with those platforms regarding censorship and suppression of content, others reacted to Jackson’s First Amendment struggle with varying degrees of derision.
Social media had a lot to say about the justice’s interpretation of the First Amendment: (** Language warning)
Has she read the Constitution?
— Frysmo (@gfrysmo) March 19, 2024
It’s literally one of the first things you learn in elementary Civics. Additionally, Constitutional Law is a 1L Class at every law school in the land. Those pesky amendments – yikes.
— William Hull (@WillTheThrilled) March 19, 2024
It was unbelievable when I heard it. I came unglued!! This is supposed to be the best legal minds. SMH
— JulesM (@HeyJules1957) March 18, 2024
I’m seeing people referring to Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as a “diversity hire.” She’s not that. She’s worse. She’s a post-George Floyd restorative justice appointee. That’s precisely what she is. Jackson’s appointment to the Supreme Court was merely the fruit of…
— Darrell B. Harrison* (@D_B_Harrison) March 18, 2024
Biden supporters hate free speech
— Philip Anderson (@VoteBidenOut) March 18, 2024
WHOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHHHH…….. that is the sound of the FUCKING POINT OF THE FUCKING FIRST FUCKING AMENDMENT SAILING THE FUCK OVER JUSTICE FUCKING JACKSON’S FUCKING HEAD. https://t.co/l9KDZkiuZD
— Marc J. Randazza (@marcorandazza) March 18, 2024
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Author: Kevin Haggerty
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