SCOTUS Distributes for Nov. 17 Conference RFK Jr.’s Motion to Intervene in Missouri v. Biden

The U.S. Supreme Court distributed for the justices’ Nov. 17 conference the Oct. 26 motion of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his two co-plaintiffs in Kennedy v. Biden to intervene in the SCOTUS review of the injunction imposed in Missouri v. Biden against officials from the White House and four federal agencies (see 2310270001), said a text-only docket entry Wednesday (docket 23-411). Though the respondent plaintiffs in Missouri v. Biden, including the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, plus five individual social media users, “primarily assert their claims as censored speakers,” the plaintiffs in Kennedy v. Biden “assert the First Amendment claims of social media viewers and listeners all over the country,” said their motion to intervene. The Kennedy plaintiffs also seek leave to file a brief in opposition to the government’s effort to defeat the injunction. SCOTUS on Oct. 20 granted the government’s request for a full stay of the injunction pending the resolution of its review (see 2310230003). The injunction, should it take effect, bars officials from the White House, the surgeon general’s office, the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency from coercing or significantly encouraging the social media companies to moderate their content. FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate oversight hearing Tuesday that his agency was “having some interaction with social media companies, but all of those interactions have changed fundamentally in the wake of the court’s rules” in the injunction handed down July 4 (see 2310310047). The FBI made those changes out of “an abundance of caution, in order to make sure we don’t run afoul of any court ruling,” said Wray. He added that FBI officials have never tried to influence any social media platform decisions over constitutionally protected speech.