A federal judge Wednesday scheduled a trial next year in a battle about a 2021 Florida law that placed restrictions on social-media platforms.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued an order scheduling the trial during a two-week period that will start June 16. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday sent the case back to Hinkle, who in 2021 issued a preliminary injunction to block the law on First Amendment grounds.
The Atlanta-based appeals court in 2022 upheld most of Hinkle’s decision. But on July 1, the Supreme Court vacated the appeals-court ruling and said the lawsuit needed further consideration. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature approved the law after Facebook and Twitter, now known as X, blocked former President Donald Trump from their platforms after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The law, for example, prevented platforms from banning political candidates from their sites and required companies to publish — and apply consistently — standards about issues such as banning users or blocking their content. The law applied to social-media platforms that have annual gross revenue of over $100 million or more than 100 million monthly active users.
Companies could face steep penalties for violating the restrictions. The industry groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association challenged the constitutionality of the law.
In its July ruling, the Supreme Court did not resolve the constitutional issues but said the 11th Circuit and another appeals court in a similar Texas case did not properly consider the “facial nature” of challenges to the laws, a critical element in deciding whether they met constitutional muster.