“A central dimension of presidential power is the use of the office’s bully pulpit to seek to persuade Americans — and American companies — to act in ways that the president believes would advance the public interest,” she wrote.
In response, the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, both Republicans, along with people who said their speech had been censored, wrote that the administration had crossed a constitutional line.
“The bully pulpit,” they wrote, “is not a pulpit to bully.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled last month that officials from the White House, the surgeon general’s office, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the F.B.I. had most likely violated the First Amendment in their bid to persuade companies to remove posts about the coronavirus pandemic, claims of election fraud and Hunter Biden’s laptop.
The panel, in an unsigned opinion, said the officials had become excessively entangled with the platforms or used threats to spur them to act. The panel entered an injunction forbidding many officials to coerce or significantly encourage social media companies to remove content protected by the First Amendment.
Ms. Prelogar wrote that the panel had made a fundamental error, as the platforms were private entities that ultimately made…