United States Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch said the quiet part out loud–the United States operated like an “autocratic” government during the COVID-19 pandemic and colluded with social media companies to silence free speech.
In a statement commenting on a recent Title 42 U.S. Supreme Court case, Gorsuch reflected on the COVID-19 era lockdowns and how easily the U.S. government wrongfully deprived Americans of their civil liberties. He noted that "federal officials may have pressured social-media companies to suppress information about pandemic policies with which they disagreed" and that a censored debate led to poor decision-making that harmed the American people.
The justice wrote that he hopes the surveillance and censorship Americans faced during the pandemic is a lesson for all Americans. “One lesson might be this: Fear and the desire for safety are powerful forces. They can lead to a clamor for action—almost any action—as long as someone does something to address a perceived threat,” Gorsuch wrote. “A leader or an expert who claims he can fix everything, if only we do exactly as he says, can prove an irresistible force.”
He later continued: “Along the way, we will accede to the loss of many cherished civil liberties—the right to worship freely, to debate public policy without censorship, to gather with friends and family, or simply to leave our homes.”
The Supreme Court justice also examined the sobering results of censorship. “Decisions produced by those who indulge no criticism are rarely as good as those produced after robust and uncensored debate,” said Gorsuch. “Decisions made by a few often yield unintended consequences that may be avoided when more are consulted. Autocracies have always suffered these defects.”
Indeed, Gorsuch even suggested that the pandemic could have caused the most egregious civil liberties violations in modern history.
“Make no mistake—decisive executive action is sometimes necessary and appropriate,” Gorsuch said “But if emergency decrees promise to solve some problems, they threaten to generate others. And rule by indefinite emergency edict risks leaving all of us with a shell of a democracy and civil liberties just as hollow,” he concluded.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
