Court Thinks Senator Warren’s Attempt To “Persuade” Amazon To Ban Books Doesn’t Violate First Amendment

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Senator Elizabeth Warren’s letter to Amazon demanding the censorship of a book due to COVID-19 “misinformation” did not violate the First Amendment. In September 2021, Warren sent a letter to Amazon to censor the book “The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal.” According to her, the book by Ronnie Cummins and Joseph Mercola contained “misinformation.” The authors sued Warren seeking a preliminary injunction requiring her to publicly retract the letter and remove it from her website. The court said that the letter caused the authors “reputational harm,” because it “disparaged the book by claiming that the book perpetuated dangerous falsehoods that have led to countless deaths” and “directly impugned the professional integrity of one of the authors.” However, the court did not side with the authors. “Senator Warren’s letter did not cross the constitutional line between persuasion and coercion,” the court said. In his opinion, Judge Pal Watford wrote: “Elizabeth Warren, as a single Senator, had no unilateral power to penalize Amazon for promoting the book. This absence of authority influenced how a reasonable person would read her letter.” From the opinion: “The crux of plaintiffs’ case was that Senator Warren engaged in conduct prohibited under Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan, 372 U.S. 58 (1963), by attempting to coerce Amazon into stifling their protected speech. Following Bantam Books, lower courts have drawn a sharp line wherein a government official’s attempt to persuade…Court Thinks Senator Warren’s Attempt To “Persuade” Amazon To Ban Books Doesn’t Violate First Amendment