SCOTUS, With Alito Dissenting, Denies RFK Jr. Motion to Intervene in WH Injunction Review

The U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Samuel Alito dissenting, denied the motion of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to intervene in Murthy et al v. Missouri et al (docket 23-511), the SCOTUS review of the injunction that bars officials from the White House and four federal agencies from coercing or significantly encouraging social media to moderate their content. The injunction is stayed, pending the court’s resolution of its review.

The government petitioners, and the petition's respondents, including the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, all opposed Kennedy’s motion to intervene, partly on the argument that the motion was time-barred, but also on the basis that SCOTUS rarely grants motions to intervene.

Alito earlier dissented from the SCOTUS decision granting the government’s cert petition to review the injunction. In his dissent Monday, Alioto said that allowing intervention wouldn’t “unduly prejudice” the parties, but the denial of intervention may cause Kennedy “irreparable harm.”