The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression recently posted a video from a podcast on which legal scholar Brad Smith (who is also president of the Institute for Free Speech) and I discussed the recent Fifth Circuit ruling upholding the constitutionality of Texas social media law, which prohibits major social media platforms to engage in most forms of content moderation.
In the podcast, I criticized the Fifth Circuit decisiondeveloped on a publication explaining why Texas is a threat to free speech, addressed the “common carrier” logic for Texas law, and also briefly summarized why the law violates the taking clause of the Fifth Amendment (a matter that has yet to come to court). Brad has extensively defended the constitutionality of the Texas law. But it should be noted that he was unwilling to agree with some of the main arguments made by the majority of the Fifth Circuit and by other defenders of the law. We both agree that this issue will likely go to the Supreme Court (partly because the Eleventh Circuit has reached a contrary decision in a decision on similar Florida law). In my opinion, the Court has already reported that a majority of justices believe the Texas law is unconstitutional, when it overturned a previous Fifth Circuit ruling lifting a trial court injunction against enforcement.
I would like to thank FIRE for organizing this event, and Brad Smith for his insightful contribution to the discussion.