Noah Feldman, Columnist

Supreme Court Doesn't Care What You Say on the Internet

Two free-speech rulings combine to make clear that any social media regulation will have to come from the companies themselves.

June 19, 2017 at 3:20 PM EDT

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Keep it 100, First Amendment.
Photographer: David Becker/Getty Images

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It was a big day for free speech at the U.S. Supreme Court. In two consequential decisions, the justices set the terms for the First Amendment in the era of Donald Trump and the internet. In one, the court struck a blow against political correctness, saying the Patent and Trademark Office could not refuse to register an offensive trademark. In the other, the court declared social media to be the vast public forum for nearly all expressions.

The cases display the free speech absolutism that has become judicial orthodoxy in recent years. In tandem, they frame the future of speech on social media. The government isn’t going to do the regulating itself, and the rule of civility, if any, is going to have to come from the private media companies.

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