WASHINGTON—Today, the U.S. Supreme Court unfortunately denied NetChoice’s emergency application to temporarily halt Mississippi’s I.D.-for-Speech law, HB 1126, while our case moves through the legal system.
“Although we’re disappointed with the Court’s decision, Justice Kavanaugh’s concurrence makes clear that NetChoice will ultimately succeed in defending the First Amendment—not just in this case but across all NetChoice’s ID-for-Speech lawsuits. This is merely an unfortunate procedural delay,” said Paul Taske, Co-Director of the NetChoice Litigation Center.
Taske continued: “As always, NetChoice will consider all its options to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights.”
As NetChoice has argued, Mississippi’s I.D.-for-Speech violates First Amendment rights while manufacturing a cybersecurity nightmare for Americans and their families that want to use digital services. Every Mississippian—adults and minors alike—will be forced to surrender their personal information to access online speech that is lawful for all and expose them to unprecedented privacy risks.
NetChoice remains confident we will succeed at ultimately striking down Mississippi’s law. As Justice Kavanaugh writes in his concurrence:
“To be clear, NetChoice has, in my view, demonstrated that it is likely to succeed on the merits—namely, that enforcement of the Mississippi law would likely violate its members’ First Amendment rights under this Court’s precedents…In short, under this Court’s case law as it currently stands, the Mississippi law is likely unconstitutional.”
You can read the Supreme Court’s decision here. Find case resources for NetChoice v. Fitch here.
Please contact press@netchoice.org with inquiries.