Twitter lawsuit against Texas over Trump ban dismissed.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit by Twitter accusing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of retaliating for the social media giant's ban of former President Donald Trump. The procedural ruling Wednesday allows the continuation of an investigation by Texas into Twitter's expulsion of Trump last year, the Washington Times reported.
Twitter sued in response to Paxton's issuance of a civil investigative demand for information about Twitter's content moderation policies.
“While Twitter could suffer hardship from withholding court consideration, adjudicating this case now would require determining whether Twitter has violated Texas’s unfair trade practices law before [Texas’ attorney general] has a chance to complete its investigation,” wrote Judge Ryan D. Nelson in the court’s opinion.
“Any hardship to Twitter from the alleged chill of its First Amendment rights was insufficient to overcome the uncertainty of the legal issue presented in the case in its current posture,” Judge Nelson wrote.
