A federal appeals court on Aug. 26 declined to block Google from removing Robert F. Kennedy’s videos, ruling that Kennedy has not shown that the California-based company was a state actor when taking down the videos.
Kennedy’s lawyers said in a request for a preliminary injunction that Google was acting on advice from government officials when it removed multiple videos for allegedly violating the company’s medical misinformation policy. The lawyers requested an injunction blocking Google from removing additional videos from Kennedy’s YouTube page.
“Americans may agree with Mr. Kennedy’s views. They may disagree with them. They may vote for Kennedy or reject him at the ballot box. Whatever the case, our Constitution requires that voters have an unfettered chance to hear Mr. Kennedy speak. That is the only way they can make an educated decision when exercising their right to vote,” they said in their motion.
Google said it was merely applying its own policy and urged the court to deny the request.
U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in 2023 sided with Google, finding that Kennedy had not established Google as a state actor and, therefore, rights from the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment have not been implicated. Private entities can be treated as a state actor if shown to have acted under “coercive power” or “significant encouragement” from government officials, under court precedent.
“Google asserts that it is a private entity with its own First Amendment rights and that it removed Kennedy’s videos on its own volition pursuant to its own misinformation policy and not at the behest of the federal government. Kennedy has not rebutted Google’s claim that it exercised its independent editorial choice in removing his videos,” a three-judge panel said in the unanimous decision.
“Nor has Kennedy identified any specific communications from a federal official to Google concerning the removed Kennedy videos, or identified any threatening or coercive communication, veiled or otherwise, from a federal official to Google concerning Kennedy. As Kennedy has not shown that Google acted as a state actor in removing his videos, his invocation of First Amendment rights is misplaced,” the judges added.
U.S. Circuit Judges Consuelo M. Callahan and Gabriel P. Sanchez were part of the panel with U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt, who was sitting by designation.
Google did not respond to a request for comment.
A lawyer representing Kennedy said the ruling fell short.
“This unpublished opinion leaves much to be desired. It contains no analysis, much less meaningful discussion of the important First Amendment issues raised in the case,” Scott James Street told The Epoch Times in an email. “Given the lack of meaningful analysis, we plan to move the case forward, both in the trial court and, if necessary, in the Supreme Court.”
Kennedy, an independent, suspended his campaign this month and announced his support for former President Donald Trump.
