"This constitutional challenge to its restrictions accordingly raises exceptionally important issues about the First Amendment rights of ... Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice members to communicate with their users and the First Amendment rights of those users to access some of the most popular online services operated. Those rights are under threat of immediate harm because the injunction (the industry groups) had obtained to prevent HB 3's enforcement and to safeguard members' and their users' constitutional rights is now stayed."
"U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in June issued a preliminary injunction to block the law (HB 3), agreeing with the industry groups that it likely violated the First Amendment. The state appealed Walker's decision, and a panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court last week approved a stay of the preliminary injunction. The stay effectively allowed the state to begin enforcing the law while the underlying appeal of Walker's decision continues to play out."
NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to expedite oral arguments and a decision on whether Florida's HB 3 violates the First Amendment. A federal judge earlier issued a preliminary injunction blocking HB 3 after finding it likely infringed constitutional protections, and the state appealed. An appeals court panel granted a stay of that injunction, allowing enforcement while the underlying appeal proceeds. The industry groups contend the law restricts constitutionally protected expression and threatens both platform and users' First Amendment rights, creating immediate harm due to the stay.
Read at WUSF
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