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Amicus Briefs

Eugene Volokh, et al. v. Letitia James, Att’y-General, in her Official Capacity

CASE SUMMARY

A New York state law would force social media companies to create and display a policy on their websites detailing how they will respond to “hate speech” on their platforms. NCLA filed an amicus curiae brief calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to uphold a lower court’s decision prohibiting the enforcement of this law.

Passed in 2022, N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 394-CCC requires social media networks—who operate platforms that allow users to publicly share content—to develop a mechanism for flagging “hateful conduct” and a procedure for how they will respond to complaints of such activity. The Framers carefully designed the First Amendment to protect against any abridgement of the freedom of speech, and New York’s law does just that. In fact, the statute violates the First Amendment by compelling social media networks to endorse the State’s beliefs, mandating that they publish a “hate speech” policy in line with the New York government’s specific definition of “hateful conduct.”

OUR TEAM

Kaitlyn Schiraldi
Staff Attorney

RELEVANT MATERIALS

NCLA FILINGS

Brief of the New Civil Liberties Alliance as Amicus Curiae in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellees

September 26, 2023 | Read More

PRESS RELEASES

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks Appeals Court to Nix NY Law Dictating Social Media Sites’ Speech Policies

September 27, 2023 | Read More

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks Appeals Court to Nix NY Law Dictating Social Media Sites’ Speech Policies

September 27, 2023 | Read More

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