Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and an organization he leads have standing to sue the Biden administration, a federal court ruled this week, Blaze reported.
The decision gives Kennedy and Children's Health Defense the go-ahead to revive a lawsuit that aimed to hold the administration accountable for censorship efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June, the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Murthy v. Missouri found that the states of Missouri and Louisiana, along with other plaintiffs, lacked standing to sue the administration. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Louisiana gave Kennedy the green light to go forward with the matter in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty wrote: "The Court finds that Kennedy is likely to succeed on his claim that suppression of content posted was caused by actions of Government Defendants, and there is a substantial risk that he will suffer similar injury in the near future."
Doughty in February granted Kennedy an injunction that blocked government agencies, including the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from pressuring social media companies to suppress or censor free speech content. The injunction was put on hold while the Supreme Court weighed the Murthy case.
After the Supreme Court's June 26 ruling, the 5th Circuit sent the case back to the district court to determine whether Kennedy had standing in the matter.
Doughty wrote in his decision that there was "ample evidence" that Kennedy had been "directly censored" over views "contrary to Government positions on COVID-19, including mask mandates, vaccine mandates, vaccine injuries, lockdowns, etc." Doughty said that Kennedy was "identified as a member of the so-called 'Disinformation Dozen,' which was made up of twelve individuals that the Government specifically targeted for spreading alleged disinformation regarding COVID-19."
"Therefore," Doughty wrote, "Kennedy has more than satisfied the first element for Article III standing, that is, he suffered an injury-in-fact when he was censored."
After the decision, Children's Health Defense posted on X, "This means the Biden-Harris Administration may finally be held accountable for its censorship of us via #BigTech."