RFK Jr. Moves to Intervene in Government’s SCOTUS Challenge of Social Media Injunction

The Kennedy plaintiffs in the First Amendment lawsuit that was consolidated with Missouri v. Biden in U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Monroe seek to intervene as respondents in the government’s U.S. Supreme Court challenge of the social media injunction against the White House and four federal agencies, said their motion Thursday (docket 23-411). The government's petition was granted cert review Oct. 20. The plaintiffs are Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Children’s Health Defense nonprofit and Louisiana resident Connie Sampognaro, described in the motion as “an avid consumer of online health information.”

The Kennedy plaintiffs moved for an injunction against the same government defendants named in the injunction imposed July 4 by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, but Doughty held that motion in abeyance pending the appeal in Missouri v. Biden, said the motion. The Kennedy plaintiffs thus “were left with no appealable order,” it said. They weren’t before the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and couldn’t seek cert in the Supreme Court.

The Kennedy plaintiffs “remain stranded in the district court,” even though their rights will be “as fully adjudicated” by SCOTUS as those of the Missouri v. Biden plaintiffs, said the motion. “Intervention is warranted for that reason alone,” it said. The government petitioners and respondents all "have stated that they do not consent to this motion to intervene," it said.