| John,
I hope this email finds you well.
Today, I am reaching out to share some important news regarding our ongoing efforts to protect Americans against government censorship.
Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) has filed amicus briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in two crucial cases for freedom of speech and association: Murthy v. Missouri (formerly Missouri v. Biden) and NRA v. Vullo. These cases show the disturbing trend of government bureaucrats using intermediaries to censor speech.
That’s a clear violation of our constitutional rights.
In Murthy v. Missouri, government agencies pressured, coerced, and intimidated social media platforms to censor speech that the administration didn’t like on topics such as Covid-19, vaccinations, and elections.
Similarly, in NRA v. Vullo, the Superintendent of New York’s Department of Financial Services couldn’t directly silence the National Rifle Association (NRA), so state bureaucrats attempted to indirectly censor them by pressuring insurance companies to cut ties with them due to their advocacy for the Second Amendment.
We firmly believe that censorship by proxy is still censorship. Government officials cannot evade First Amendment speech protections by using private intermediaries to do their bidding. That violation of our fundamental rights threatens the core principles of our democracy.
We are, in both cases, asking the Court to reaffirm its previous holding in Bantam Books v. Sullivan. First Amendment speech protection cannot be evaded by using a private party intermediary to launder government censorship regardless of how casual or broad-ranging the requests may be.
Find one of our full briefs here.
Thank you for your commitment to freedom and liberty. We’ll never stop protecting our rights to speech and to association in the face of government overreach. Until next time, Casey Mattox
Vice President for Legal and Judicial Strategy
Americans for Prosperity | 
