NIH Violated Constitutional Rights of Animal Activists, Federal Court Rules

The National Institutes of Health used keyword filters to automatically block comments.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., on May 30, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) violated the constitutional rights of animal activists by automatically filtering comments containing certain words such as “animal,” a federal appeals court has ruled.

The NIH’s filtering “is not reasonable ... and is therefore unconstitutional under the First Amendment,” U.S. Circuit Judge Bradley Garcia wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.