Justices Deny Review of Meta, RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaccine Group Case

The US Supreme Court won’t weigh in on a censorship case brought by a Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-founded anti-vaccine group that challenged Meta Platforms Inc.’s decision to pull its Facebook posts.

The Justices denied Monday to review a case filed by the Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy before he became US health secretary for the Trump administration, that argued its First Amendment rights were violated when Facebook restricted the group’s posts.

The order comes after the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in August 2024 that Meta as a private business can censor posts on its platform, and only in “exceptional circumstances” can it be treated as a state actor subject to constitutional restrictions.

The Children’s Health Defense failed to adequately allege that Meta’s content moderation policies for vaccine misinformation were based on an agreement between the platform and the government, the Ninth Circuit’s opinion said.

The Children’s Health Defense did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The case is Children’s Health Defense v. Meta Platforms Inc., U.S., No. 24-732, cert denied 6/30/25.