A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can sue the Biden administration over alleged social media censorship of his charity, Children's Health Defense, which has questioned the safety of vaccines.
“The Court finds that Mr. Kennedy's claims that the suppression of his posted content was caused by the government defendants' conduct are likely to succeed and that there is a substantial risk of similar harm in the near future,” U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana wrote in his ruling.
The lawsuit alleges that the government pressured social media giants like Facebook, X and YouTube to censor content it deemed misinformation.
Children's Health Defense, founded by Kennedy, says its mission is “to end the childhood health epidemic by eliminating toxic exposures.”
RFK Jr. denounces media censorship as presidential campaign ends
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can sue the Biden administration for alleged censorship of Children's Health Defense, which has questioned the safety of vaccines on social media. (Getty)
Critics of the charity have called it “anti-vaccine.” The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccine, are “safe and effective.”
“Judge Terry Doughty carefully and clearly analyzed the law and facts and applied the framework from the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on eligibility in Murthy v. Missouri,” CHD General Counsel Kim Rosenberg said after the ruling, referring to a similar lawsuit against the government.
“The Court also ruled in favor of Plaintiffs, finding that they had not abandoned but rather affirmatively asserted direct censorship claims in addition to their listener claims.”
The lawsuit, Mursi v. Missouri, was recently filed by the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, who accused the Biden administration of pressuring social media companies to censor certain content.
A Louisiana court had banned contact between the government and the companies, but the US Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling in June, said the plaintiffs had not shown enough evidence to prove direct harm and could not find a direct link between censorship and the government, adding that companies have the right to moderate their own content.
Kennedy's charity, Children's Health Defense, has questioned the safety of the vaccine, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has called “safe and effective.” (Jeff Kowalski/AFP via Getty Images)
Members of the Kennedy family denounced RFK Jr.'s decision to support Trump as a “betrayal of our values.”
“The evidence shows that platforms have independent incentives to moderate content and often exercise their own judgment,” Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in her ruling.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson also dissented.
The decision came just days before Kennedy ended his struggling presidential campaign and endorsed former President Trump. (Reuters/Tsuyoshi Nakamura)
In the Kennedy case, there is direct evidence that the censorship of charities was linked to the government, Doughty said.
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The case will be sent back to a lower court to reconsider the injunction, according to the Washington Examiner.
The decision came just days before Kennedy ended his struggling presidential campaign and endorsed former President Trump.
