NATIONAL NEWS – Supreme Court lets Mississippi social media law stand, Justice Kavanaugh temporarily votes against First Amendment rights

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief order Thursday allowing Mississippi’s law restricting minors’ access to social media to remain in effect for now, despite signals from Justice Brett Kavanaugh that the measure likely violates the First Amendment. In Netchoice v. Fitch, Kavanaugh wrote separately to explain that while the law probably infringes on free speech rights, the plaintiff trade group had not shown that the immediate harms justified blocking it under the Court’s Nken v. Holder standard for emergency relief. The law, which requires parental consent for minors to open social media accounts, has seen little evidence of actual enforcement since its passage.

Kavanaugh’s opinion stands out for reaffirming the traditional shadow docket rules in most cases, contrasting with the Court’s more lenient approach when handling emergency requests from the Trump administration. Critics, including Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, have pointed out that in cases like Social Security Administration v. AFSCME, the Court has sidestepped Nken entirely to grant Trump favorable rulings, even without proof of irreparable harm.

The decision offers two takeaways: Kavanaugh’s remarks suggest the Court is unlikely to broadly erode First Amendment protections beyond its 2024 ruling on age verification for adult sites, and that the Nken framework still applies for most litigants, unless, critics note, the petitioner is Donald Trump. While Mississippi’s law remains in place for now, its constitutional fate will likely be decided in the months ahead.