By SRH, The Supreme Court heard arguments today on whether the Biden administration violated the First Amendment by pressing social media companies to remove posts about COVID-19 and the 2020 election that authorities deemed false. The court sounded skeptical of the respondents’ arguments that the White House is barred by the Constitution from recommending to social media companies that they remove material it deemed damaging, even if the proposals themselves did not constitute “coercion.” Brian Fletcher, Deputy Solicitor General for the United States, claimed that the White House’s discussions with news media and social media businesses about the information promoted on their platforms do not constitute state “coercion,” as barred by the Constitution. Instead, the government was just using its “bully pulpit” to “persuade” private parties, in this case social media corporations, to do what they are “lawfully allowed to