Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-411_3dq3.pdf
Page Number: 55

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

21 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

Commerce, 588 U. S., at 768. 

Here, it is reasonable to infer (indeed, the inference leaps
out from the record) that the efforts of the federal officials 
affected  at  least  some  of  Facebook’s  decisions  to  censor 
Hines.  All  of  Facebook’s  demotion,  content-removal,  and 
deplatforming decisions are governed by its policies.16  So 
when the White House pressured Facebook to amend some
of  the  policies  related  to  speech  in  which  Hines  engaged, 
those  amendments  necessarily  impacted  some  of  Face-
book’s censorship decisions.  Nothing more is needed.  What 
the Court seems to want are a series of ironclad links—from 
a particular coercive communication to a particular change 
in Facebook’s rules or practice and then to a particular ad-
verse action against Hines.  No such chain was required in 
the Department of Commerce case, and neither should one 
be demanded here. 

In addition to this heightened linkage requirement, the
Court argues that Hines lacks standing because the threat 
of  future  injury  dissipated  at  some  point  during  summer 
2022  when  the  officials’  pressure  campaign  tapered  off. 
Ante,  at  25,  n. 10.    But  this  argument  errs  in  two  critical 
respects.  First,  the  effects  of  the  changes  the  officials  co-
erced persisted.  Those changes controlled censorship deci-
sions before and after Hines sued. 

Second, the White House threats did not come with expi-
ration  dates,  and  it  would  be  silly  to  assume  that  the
threats  lost  their  force  merely  because  White  House  offi-
cials opted not to renew them on a regular basis.  Indeed, 
the record suggests that Facebook did not feel free to chart 
its own course when Hines sued; rather, the platform had
promised to continue reporting to the White House and re-
main responsive to its concerns for as long as the officials 
requested.  Supra, at 14. 

—————— 

16 See  Meta,  Policies,  https://transparency.meta.com/policies  (last  ac-

cessed June 19, 2024).