Supreme Court Returns Challenges of Florida, Texas Content-Moderation Laws to 11th, Fifth Circuits

Both cases arc still at the pretrial stage, with the Supreme Court reviewing lower courts' rulings on whether to grant preliminary injunctions to stop enforcement of the state laws while they undergo judicial review. In the Florida case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit (Atlanta) had generally upheld a lower court's findings that most provisions of the Florida's social media law were likely unconstitutional. In the Texas case, the Fifth Circuit (New Orleans) overturned a preliminary injunction by a federal district court against enforcement of Texas's 2021 social media law. Justice Thomas argued that because the Constitution limited the authority of Article III courts to cases and controversies, they have no power to declare a statute facially unconstitutional.