Justices Use Hypotheticals to Test Bounds of Free Speech Online

The justices leaned heavily on hypotheticals to determine when public officials run afoul of free speech protections during more than three hours of arguments.

In a pair of cases argued back-to-back, the justices considered Tuesday whether the First Amendment protects individuals from being blocked by public officials on social media like Facebook and X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

As they’ve often done in other cases, the justices used hypothetical situations to assess varying tests offered by advocates and lower courts and get to an outcome that could reach beyond the cases in front of them to provide guidance ...