Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene responded with fury after the Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling limiting contact between the Biden administration and major social media companies, which she said “may sink the ship” regarding free speech in the United States.
The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to overturn the ruling of a federal appeals court in Louisiana, which concluded that interactions between social media companies and the federal government under President Biden, including requests to remove content, constituted a likely violation of the First Amendment and must be curtailed.
“I’m shocked, Greene said on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast regarding the decision. “I feel our First Amendment has been hit hard. This is a war on our free speech, this is a war on our First Amendment rights, and this was a heavy blow. This was basically one that may sink the ship.”
Newsweek reached out to Greene for comment on Thursday via email outside of usual business hours.
Writing on behalf of the six judges who backed overturning the decision, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, said the Louisiana appeals court had based its verdict on “clearly erroneous” evidence.
Specifically, she said there is no record to suggest the Biden administration had sent a large number of requests to X, formerly Twitter, urging the social media giant to remove content, though it did once request the removal of a fake account impersonating the president’s granddaughter.
Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas disagreed with this decision, with the former writing: “For months, high-ranking Government officials placed unrelenting pressure on Facebook to suppress Americans’ free speech.
“Because the court unjustifiably refuses to address this serious threat to the First Amendment, I respectfully dissent.”
Bill Pugliano/GETTY
During the podcast appearance, Greene suggested the Biden administration had put pressure on social media companies to censor COVID-related views, including the value of taking the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin.
“Here’s my concern: millions of Americans died because of COVID-19, children are still behind in school, suicide rates increased, millions of small businesses went out of business, the American dream completely died—it got slaughtered,” the Georgia Republican said.
“People were told that they could not take Ivermectin, that it was dangerous, natural immunity all of a sudden became dangerous, and people were murdered on the ventilators in hospitals, and our Supreme Court just sided with censorship of people’s ideas.”
Greene’s claim that the coronavirus pandemic increased the number of suicides is contested. A report from the Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust concluded suicides fell 3 percent across the U.S. in 2020, while the National Institute of Mental Health said suicide rates for young people were higher than previously predicted during the pandemic.
Greene also didn’t provide any evidence to support her claim that’s that people were “murdered” in the hospital while being treated for coronavirus.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, the available evidence does not show “that Ivermectin is effective against COVID-19 in humans,” and several patients have required hospital treatment after self-medicating with the product.
Later, Greene said that the House Select Subcommittee looking into the coronavirus pandemic is “pro-vaccine, pro-big pharma.”
When Bannon pointed out that it is Republican-controlled, she replied: “That’s the problem, Steve; I’m very cynical these days about the Republican Party.”
On Tuesday, Greene clashed with an Australian television host after being asked whether she’d accept the result of the 2024 presidential election if Trump is defeated.
During the Australian Broadcasting Corporation appearance, she replied: “What network is that? What is this ABC in Australia? Is she getting her marching orders from the Democrat Party? Is this what you decided to come up with today?”
Greene is a prominent supporter of Trump’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him, a view that has been dismissed repeatedly in court and by independent election experts.
Bannon has been convicted of two charges of contempt after he ignored a subpoena issued to him by the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of Trump supporters. He has been ordered to surrender to authorities by July 1 but has said he is willing to go “all the way to the Supreme Court” to challenge this decision.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
