Case Categories: Internet and Social Media

• Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2002, 2004)

  Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2004) struck down a law designed to protect children from Internet pornography on grounds it violated the First...

• Bell v. Itawamba County School Board (5th Cir.) (2015)

  In Bell v. Itawamba County School Board (2012), the court ruled that school officials did not violate the First Amendment by punishing a student for posting a...

• Beussink v. Woodland School District (E.D. Mo.) (1998)

  Beussink v. Woodland School District (1998) used the First Amendment to protect the rights of a student who maintained a website that was critical of his school...

• Elonis v. United States (2015)

  Elonis v. United States (2015) reversed a conviction of a man convicted of making threats via Facebook posts. True threats are not protected by the First...

• Gonzalez v. Google (2023)

  The U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzalez v. Google (2023) declined to rule on whether targeted recommendations by a social media company’s algorithms would fall...

• Gonzalez v. Google, Taamneh v. Twitter (9th Circuit) (2021)

  In Gonzalez v. Google and Taamneh v. Twitter, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 addressed the liability of social media platforms for allowing the...

• Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021)

  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. that school officials violated the First Amendment when it disciplined a cheerleader for...

• NetChoice v. Attorney General of Florida (11th Circuit) (2022)

  The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022 upheld an injunction against a Florida law, the "Stop Social Media Censorship Act," saying it likely violated the...

• NetChoice v. Paxton (5th Circuit) (2022)

  The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in NetChoice v. Paxton upheld a Texas law barring social media companies from censoring users based on their viewpoints...

• Packingham v. North Carolina (2017)

  Packingham v. North Carolina (2017) invalidated a state law prohibiting sex offenders from accessing social media. The court said the law barred First Amendment...

• Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997)

  Reno v. ACLU (1997) said provisions of the Communications Decency Act that regulated Internet speech were too restrictive and violated the First Amendment...

• Twitter v. Taamneh (2023)

  The Supreme Court ruled in Twitter v. Taamneh that social media companies did not "aid and abet" an ISIS terrorist attack simply because their algorithms...

• United States v. American Library Association (2003)

  US v. American Library Association (2003) struck down a First Amendment challenge against a law restricting funding to libraries that did not install Internet...