Week In a Nutshell, 7/9/21

July 9, 2021 | Updated Feb 22 2023

Week In a Nutshell, 7/9/21

Former President Donald J. Trump speaks about filing class-action lawsuits targeting Facebook, Google and Twitter during a press conference at the Trump National Golf Club on Wednesday, July 07, 2021 in Bedminster, NJ. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

By Jake Kaplan

Here are some of the legal news stories making headlines this week:

On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump announced that he is suing Facebook, Twitter, and Google, as well as their CEOs, seeking to restore his social media accounts.

Many social media platforms suspended Trump following the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol. Twitter banned Trump permanently, while Facebook has suspended Trump for at least two more years. Data shows that Trump’s social media suspensions have severely hampered his ability to make headlines.
The class action suits allege that the platforms are censoring conservatives through violations of the First Amendment and “a misguided reliance upon Section 230.” Section 230 is a provision of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that shields platforms from liability for content posted by third parties. Trump has repeatedly targeted this law, including attempting to repeal it during his presidency.
Immediately after announcing the lawsuit, Trump started fundraising off of it.

Recently, the House of Representatives voted to create a select committee to investigate the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol.

The measure passed by a vote of 222-190, with only two Republicans joining the entire Democratic caucus to vote in favor of forming the committee — former Republican Conference chair Rep. Liz Cheney (WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL).
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has the authority to appoint eight of the committee’s 13 members. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in consultation with Pelosi, can choose the remaining five seats. So far, Pelosi has named seven Democrats to the committee, including Reps. Bennie Thompson, Adam Schiff, and Jamie Raskin. Pelosi also named Cheney as the first Republican to the committee.
In May, efforts to form a bipartisan commission failed when Senate Republicans blocked the legislation through a filibuster.
In a speech on the House floor last week, Pelosi said that she was “heartbroken” Congress failed to enact the bipartisan commission, but also remarked that “Congress must, in the spirit of bipartisanship and patriotism, establish this commission.”