Moody v. NetChoice, LLC

On July 1, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Moody v. NetChoice, LLC, consolidating challenges to Florida's S.B. 7072 and Texas's H.B. 20. These laws restricted large social media platforms' ability to moderate user content and required detailed disclosure of content-moderation policies. NetChoice, LLC and the Computer & Communications Industry Association sued, arguing the laws violated the First Amendment. In an opinion by Justice Elena Kagan, the Supreme Court held that the lower courts had not properly analyzed the laws' applications to all covered platform functions, including non-expressive activities like direct messaging and data processing. The Court vacated the Eleventh and Fifth Circuit decisions and remanded for further proceedings, without definitively ruling on the core First Amendment question.

The Supreme Court vacated the lower court decisions and remanded for further analysis, holding that neither court adequately considered the full scope of the laws' applications to both expressive and non-expressive platform activities. The laws remain blocked pending further litigation.

Whether Florida's and Texas's social media laws violate the First Amendment by compelling platforms to host content against their editorial policies and by restricting their content-moderation practices, and whether lower courts properly assessed the laws' constitutionality across all platform functions.

The decision left the central First Amendment question unresolved but clarified the analytical framework, likely prolonging legal battles over state-level social media regulation and influencing future legislative efforts across the United States.