Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-411_3dq3.pdf
Page Number: 28.0

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

23 

Opinion of the Court 

ture  posts  (presumably  about  the  2024  Presidential  elec-
tion)  must  contain  content  that  falls  within  a  misinfor-
mation trend that the FBI has identified or will identify in 
the future.  The FBI must pressure the platforms to remove 
content within that category.  The platform must then sup-
press  Hoft’s  post,  and  it  must  do  so  at  least  partly  in  re-
sponse to the FBI, rather than in keeping with its own con-
tent-moderation policy.  Hoft cannot satisfy his burden with 
such conjecture.  CISA, meanwhile, stopped switchboarding
in mid-2022, and the Government has represented that it 
will not resume operations for the 2024 election.  Especially
in light of his poor showing of traceability in the past, Hoft 
has failed to demonstrate likely future injury at the hands 
of the FBI or CISA—so the injunction against those entities
cannot survive. 

The  doctors  and  the  state  plaintiffs,  who  focus  on
COVID–19 content, have a similarly uphill battle vis-à-vis 
the  White  House,  the  Surgeon  General’s  Office,  and  the
CDC.  Hines, with her superior showing on past harm, is in
a slightly better position to demonstrate likely future harm
at the hands of these defendants.  Still, she has not shown 
enough.

Starting with the White House and Surgeon General’s Of-
fice,  the  vast  majority  of  their  public  and  private  engage-
ment with the platforms occurred in 2021, when the pan-
demic was still in full swing.  By August 2022, when Hines 
joined  the  case,  the  officials’  communications  about 
COVID–19  misinformation  had  slowed  to  a  trickle.    Pub-
licly,  the  White  House  Press  Secretary  made  two  state-
ments in February and April 2022.  First, she said that the 
platforms  should  continue  “call[ing]  out  misinformation 
and disinformation.”  3 Record 758.  Two months later, she 
spoke  generally  about  §230  and  antitrust  reform,  but  did
not  mention  content  moderation  or  COVID–19  misinfor-
mation.  In March 2022, the Surgeon General issued a vol-
untary “Request for Information” from the platforms about