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The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday heard arguments addressing a request for a temporary restraining order filed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. against YouTube and its parent company, Google.
Kennedy a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president and chairman on leave of Children’s Health Defense, is asking the court to temporarily bar the defendants from using either their “vaccine misinformation policy” or their “COVID-19 medical misinformation policy” to remove videos of Kennedy from YouTube.
Kennedy filed the request on Aug. 9, a week after he sued the tech giants, alleging YouTube violated his First Amendment rights by engaging in a “censorship campaign,” which included removing videos of his speech at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire and interviews he did with clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson and podcaster Joe Rogan.
The request for an emergency temporary restraining order also asks the defendants “to show cause” as to why the court should not issue a preliminary injunction, while Kennedy “is a candidate for president of the United States and pending a trial on the merits in this action.”
Monday’s arguments, heard by District Judge Trina L. Thompson, lasted nearly an hour and a half. Thompson did not issue a ruling, which remains pending as of this writing.
According to Bloomberg Law, Kennedy’s arguments “ran into a doubtful U.S. judge who questioned whether [Kennedy] met the legal prerequisites for such a ruling.”
Commenting on Monday’s hearing, Kennedy’s attorney, Scott J. Street, told The Defender:
“We strongly believe that Google violates the First Amendment when it works with government agencies to censor the government’s critics. The Supreme Court has made clear that, in the political process, more speech is better than enforced silence.
“Regardless of how Judge Thompson rules on this request for emergency relief, we will continue fighting for those principles in this case and we hope that Google reverts to its founding principles of promoting free speech on matters of public concern.”
Though no ruling was issued Monday, several hearing dates were scheduled. Jury selection and trial were set for March 17, 2025. Hearings for Kennedy’s motion for a preliminary injunction and the defendant’s motion to dismiss were scheduled for Nov. 7.
Counsel for the defendants told the court they will file their dismissal motion by Aug. 30.
Prior to Monday’s hearing, Street told Fox News, “Google will not suffer any harm from being ordered not to censor Mr. Kennedy during his campaign. But society will suffer if the censorship continues.”
An Aug. 14 statement from Kennedy’s campaign read:
“YouTube has become an important platform for political discourse in America, a digital town square that voters trust as a place to get news and opinions about the issues of the day, a place where people can communicate about matters of public concern.
“Nonetheless, Google has censored countless Americans for views that run counter to the narratives of the U.S. government. Kennedy is just the most high-profile victim of this censorship campaign. This degree of censorship of a major presidential candidate is unprecedented in American history.”
In a declaration Kennedy filed on Aug. 9 accompanying his request for a temporary restraining order, he said:
“I have spoken regularly about the safety and efficacy of vaccines over the past decade. Videos of my comments were often posted on YouTube. To my knowledge, none of those videos were removed from YouTube until the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Indeed, to my knowledge, I was not censored on YouTube until 2021, after Joe Biden took office and after Google adopted a new policy, dubbed the ‘vaccine misinformation policy.’ That is the policy that Google has cited most frequently during the past two years when removing videos of my speech on matters of public concern.”
Kennedy said that while “Facebook and Twitter stopped censoring me after I declared my presidential candidacy … Google did not.”
“Google’s actions have created a chilling effect surrounding my campaign,” which has “created hurdles for my campaign,” Kennedy said. He added:
“Those hurdles would be great under ordinary circumstances, but they are even greater given that I am challenging an incumbent president whose administration, according to evidence gathered in other cases, targeted me specifically.
“I believe this censorship will increase as the primaries get closer and that injunctive relief is the only thing that will prevent voters from having an unfettered chance to hear my views before they cast their ballots.”
Attorney Jonathan Blavin, who represented Google at Monday’s hearing, said, “Forcing Google to carry medical and vaccine misinformation on YouTube is absolutely against the public interest,” according to Bloomberg Law.
In a motion opposing the request for a temporary restraining order filed Aug. 16, Google argued that Kennedy has a “profound misunderstanding of bedrock First Amendment law.”
“Far from requiring Google to disseminate misinformation, the First Amendment protects Google’s judgment that it will not help spread dangerous anti-vaxx propaganda,” Google’s motion stated.
In a separate declaration accompanying the request for a temporary restraining order, Street said, “Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly asked Google to stop applying its misinformation policies to censor him during the presidential campaign. It has refused. That led to the filing of this case.”
In a statement shared with Fox News on Aug. 15, Google spokesperson José Castañeda said, “YouTube applies its Community Guidelines independently, transparently, and consistently, regardless of political viewpoint. … These claims are meritless, and we look forward to refuting them.”
On Aug. 15, YouTube announced its new “medical misinformation” policy. Under the policy, YouTube “will streamline dozens of our existing medical misinformation guidelines to fall under three categories — Prevention, Treatment, and Denial.” The new policy continues to address alleged COVID-19 and vaccine-related “misinformation.”
The Defender on occasion posts content related to Children’s Health Defense’s nonprofit mission that features Mr. Kennedy’s views on the issues CHD and The Defender regularly cover. In keeping with Federal Election Commission rules, this content does not represent an endorsement of Mr. Kennedy who is on leave from CHD and is seeking the Democratic nomination for president of the U.S.
