Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Top Democrats in Congress are calling for the FCC chairman to resign in the wake of Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air, and the agency's involvement may be key in any legal challenge.
"The court is going to draw the line," said former Erie County District Attorney John Flynn on Friday morning when talking about the issue with WBEN.
Flynn says often times, First Amendment cases depend heavily on the circumstances, because there is not a clear line where free speech rights begin and end. Those rights are often impacted by language in labor contracts and other factors.
In Kimmel's case, though, there is a precedent that may be on his side.
In Murthy v. Missouri, in 2024, the Court ruled 6-3 that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to sue the federal government over the alleged pressuring of social media companies by the Biden administration to moderate content related to COVID and the 2020 election.
However, in the dissenting opinion, Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch said the White House coerced Facebook into censoring.
"The [Supreme] Court said that government officials may not coerce private entities to suppress speech," Flynn said. "And that was said by one of the more conservative Justices, Justice Alito. You're going to have the conservative Justices on the Supreme Court that clearly are siding with free speech.
"The way I look at this, the votes appear to be in Jimmy Kimmel's favor if it gets to the Supreme Court."
While the debate continues, Kimmel's show remains off the air.