How many First Amendment lawsuits were filed against the Biden administration 2021 2024?
Executive summary
There is no single, authoritative tally in the provided reporting for how many First Amendment lawsuits were filed against the Biden administration between 2021 and 2024; the record in sources centers on a handful of high‑profile challenges — most notably the Murthy v. Missouri litigation that reached the Supreme Court — rather than a comprehensive count [1] [2] [3]. Reporting documents multiple major suits and related appeals that alleged the administration coerced or encouraged social‑media companies to moderate speech about COVID and elections, but the sources do not enumerate every First Amendment lawsuit filed nationwide during that period [4] [5] [6].
1. The headline case: Murthy v. Missouri and its path to the Supreme Court
The marquee litigation began as Missouri v. Biden (later styled Murthy v. Missouri), a suit by Republican attorneys general and private plaintiffs alleging that Biden administration officials coerced social‑media platforms to suppress speech about COVID‑19 and elections; the case produced a district‑court injunction, a Fifth Circuit ruling that government actions likely violated the First Amendment, and ultimately review by the Supreme Court, which in June 2024 declined to leave the broad limits the lower courts imposed in place for now [1] [4] [3].
2. Other major challenges and who brought them
Beyond the state‑led suit, related cases and motions were brought by conservative website owners, individual social‑media users, and civil‑liberties groups alleging similar First Amendment injuries — for example the May 2022 suit by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry together with other plaintiffs, which asserted over 1,400 instances of coercion or collusion and sought a sweeping injunction against many federal officials [7] [6]. Courts of appeals and news outlets documented these suits and their preliminary rulings, but reporting focuses on legal arguments and remedies rather than compiling a complete list of distinct First Amendment filings against the administration [8] [5].
3. What existing reporting can and cannot answer about the total number
The available sources highlight a cluster of prominent First Amendment lawsuits — especially those targeting the administration’s social‑media outreach regarding misinformation — but none present a definitive count of all First Amendment suits filed from 2021–2024 against the Biden administration; one Wikipedia entry cites that Missouri’s AG had filed 26 suits by October 2022, but that figure refers to the total number of suits filed by that AG against the administration on varied topics (oil and gas, student loans, masks, etc.), not exclusively First Amendment claims [1]. Therefore, using only the supplied reporting it is not possible to credibly state a single numeric total of First Amendment suits in that window [1].
4. Competing narratives, agendas, and why counting is hard
Conservative plaintiffs and state attorneys general framed these lawsuits as defenses of free speech and federalism, portraying the cases as checks on alleged censorship [1] [7], while the administration and its supporters argued that officials were legitimately trying to curb dangerous misinformation and that robust interaction with platforms is essential to public health and national security [9] [4]. Media outlets and advocacy groups often emphasize different subsets of litigation depending on political and institutional leanings, which creates an uneven public record and complicates any effort to compile a complete roster of First Amendment claims without systematic court‑by‑court research beyond the provided sources [5] [10].
5. Practical next steps for a verifiable count
A reliable numeric answer would require searching federal and state court dockets for First Amendment claims naming the Biden administration or specific federal officials from January 2021 through 2024, or consulting a tracker maintained by a legal research project (none of which are included in the supplied reporting); the sources here document the major, precedent‑setting suits and appellate rulings but stop short of delivering the comprehensive filing tally being asked for [7] [2].