Supreme Court sounds reluctant to curb US social media outreach

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court appeared ready Monday to allow Biden administration officials to communicate with social media companies, as multiple justices sounded skeptical that the government violated free speech rights when it encouraged the removal of posts with misinformation.

The justices heard oral arguments over a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that, if allowed to go into effect, would sharply limit the government’s ability to communicate with internet giants like Meta, Google and X, the company formerly known as Twitter.

That lower court injunction, in a lawsuit brought by the states of Missouri and Louisiana along with a handful of social media users, would block government agencies from engaging in “coercion” or “significant encouragement” of social media platforms to censor views the government disfavored.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett was among several justices who questioned the unintended fallout of such an injunction would be on public safety and other issues.

—CQ-Roll Call

2,000 pages of 'confidential' Dominion emails dumped on social media

DETROIT — A new social media account using the name and photo of Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf released Sunday more than 2,100 pages of emails from employees of Dominion Voting Systems as the company maintained Leaf got improper access to internal messages through the breach of a court order.

An account on the website X with the handle @SheriffLeaf sent out links to the Dominion emails, which were marked "confidential." Leaf didn't immediately respond Monday to a request from The Detroit News asking whether he was personally operating the account.

However, for years, Leaf has investigated the 2020 presidential election and worked with Stefanie Lambert, a Michigan lawyer who's now representing Patrick Byrne, former chief executive officer of Overstock.

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