Judge Recuses Himself in Trump’s Censorship Lawsuit Against YouTube

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White for Northern California in Oakland recused himself from presiding over former President Donald Trump’s free speech lawsuit against YouTube, said the judge’s signed order Monday (docket 4:21-cv-08009). White, a President George W. Bush appointee, gave no reason in the order for his recusal, except to say he found himself “disqualified” to serve on the case. Trump sued YouTube in July 2021, saying it “increasingly engaged in impermissible censorship” resulting from threatened legislative action, a “misguided reliance” on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and “and willful participation in joint activity with federal actors.” YouTube’s status “thus rises beyond that of a private company to that of a state actor,” said the lawsuit. YouTube “is constrained by the First Amendment right to free speech in the censorship decisions” it makes regarding its users, it said.