{"id":149319,"date":"2025-08-31T14:10:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldtribune.com\/?p=149242"},"modified":"2025-08-31T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T19:10:06","slug":"court-californias-political-censorship-laws-are-unconstitutional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/court-californias-political-censorship-laws-are-unconstitutional\/","title":{"rendered":"Court: California’s political censorship laws are unconstitutional"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/em><\/span> WorldTribune<\/strong> Staff<\/em><\/span><\/span>, August 31, 2025 <\/em>Real World News<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

A federal district court on Friday\u00a0ruled<\/a><\/span> that\u00a0two California laws which censor online political speech are unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

The Babylon Bee, Rumble, and California attorney and blogger Kelly Chang Rickert prevailed in lawsuits which challenged California law AB 2839, which critics argue prohibits certain forms of online political commentary, including memes and parodies.<\/p>\n

\"\"Law AB 2655 was also challenged on the grounds that it requires large tech companies to act as the government\u2019s enforcers of censorship rules.<\/p>\n

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California found both laws to be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to political expression, the antidote is not prematurely stifling content creation and singling out specific speakers but encouraging counter speech, rigorous fact-checking, and the uninhibited flow of democratic discourse,\u201d the court wrote in its opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is hard enough when our jokes keep coming true, as if they were prophecies,\u201d said The Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon. \u201cBut it becomes significantly more difficult when self-serving politicians abuse their power to try to control public discourse and clamp down on comedy. We\u2019re pleased the court recognized the First Amendment secures our right to tell jokes, even ones the government doesn\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Babylon Bee, Rumble, and Rickert were assisted by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking fun of politicians and criticizing the government is a core First Amendment right. That includes using new technology to create parody campaign ads or satirical memes,\u201d said ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, who argued before the court. \u201cThe court was right to rein in California\u2019s blatant censorship. We can\u2019t trust the government to decide what is true in our online political debates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal blog and social media accounts don\u2019t need Governor Newsom\u2019s stamp of approval,\u201d added Rickert. \u201cThis attempt to silence humor and other content that appeals to me and my audience was a blatant misuse of power to silence dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is alarming to think that government officials could decide which political speech is permitted, silenced, or erased altogether,\u201d said Rumble CEO and Founder Chris Pavlovski. \u201cAt Rumble, we are unwavering in our commitment to free expression and creative freedom, which is why we\u2019re proud to join with ADF in defending the fundamental right to speak openly online.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Support<\/span> Free Press Foundation<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by WorldTribune Staff, August 31, 2025 Real World News A federal district court on Friday\u00a0ruled that\u00a0two California laws which censor online political speech are unconstitutional. The Babylon Bee, Rumble, and California attorney and blogger Kelly Chang Rickert prevailed in lawsuits which challenged California law AB 2839, which critics argue prohibits certain forms of online political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":149243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,133,9,10,30,16],"tags":[592],"class_list":["post-149319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusives","category-freepressfoundation-org","category-rest-of-the-best","category-top-stories","category-u-s-media","category-u-s-politics","tag-court-californias-political-censorship-laws-are-unconstitutional","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldtribune.com\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}