Supreme Court keeps DeSantis social media law offline for now

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' signature law challenging social media companies will remain wrapped up in the courts for the foreseeable future.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — One of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature legislative wins designed to rein in tech companies will remain in limbo for the upcoming election season.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped a legal challenge against Florida and Texas lawsdealing with social media platforms, although parts of the ruling supported by a majority of justices signaled an ongoing deep skepticism about whether the laws are constitutional. Instead, the court sent the litigation back to lower courts.

The bottom line, however, is that a preliminary injunction blocking Florida’s law will continue to remain in place while the legal fight continues. That law could have subjected tech companies to substantial fines if they removed a political candidate from a social media platform.

DeSantis touted the legislation when he signed it into law more than three years ago, branding it as a strike against Silicon Valley “elites” who were censoring information. He also acknowledged the measure would apply to former President Donald Trump, who at the time had been removed from several platforms after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol.

“I think it’s a monumental day,” DeSantis said during the bill signing ceremony in May 2021.

DeSantis would later hail the legislation on the campaign trail both for his 2022 reelection and his failed presidential bid, and mentioned the effort in his 2023 memoir, where he said that he pushed the law "knowing these represented novel legal issues that would eventually be decided by the US Supreme Court."

The governor’s office, however, had no immediate reaction to the Monday ruling that keeps the law on hold. During an early morning press conference DeSantis held in Pensacola, he effusively praised last Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision to wipe out a legal doctrine that protected many federal regulations from legal challenges, but did not mention this case, which was decided at roughly the same time the press event ended.

Both sides involved in the lengthy litigation over the case tried to portray the decision as a “victory.”

On her official social media account on X, Attorney General Ashley Moody — whose office defended the law — contended that the Supreme Court had unanimously “rejected the lower court’s flawed reasoning” invalidating the Florida law. “While there are aspects of the decision we disagree with, we look forward to continuing to defend state law,” the social post stated.

Chris Marchese, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, a trade group of tech companies that challenged the law, contended "the Supreme Court agreed with all our First Amendment arguments," adding that "we are gratified to see the Supreme Court acknowledge the Constitution’s unparalleled protections for free speech, including the world’s most important communications tool, the internet.”

The ruling is another chapter in what has become a fixture for DeSantis: A big push in the Florida Legislature followed by years of litigation in the courts. Over his five years as governor, DeSantis championed bill after bill only to watch many get tied up in court. DeSantis has triumphed in some of those legal battles, but only a handful have made it all the way through to the U.S. Supreme Court.