NIH Violated Constitutional Rights of Animal Activists, Federal Court Rules

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) violated the constitutional rights of animal activists by automatically filtering comments containing certain words such as “animal,” a federal appeals court has ruled. The NIH’s filtering “is not reasonable … and is therefore unconstitutional under the First Amendment,” U.S. Circuit Judge Bradley Garcia wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals group, known as PETA, sued government officials in 2021 after the NIH blocked a number of comments on its social media accounts. “The NIH routinely hides Plaintiffs’ comments from public view by using keyword blocking tools to prevent certain words and phrases associated with disfavored viewpoints, content, or speakers—like “PETA” and “#stopanimaltesting”—from appearing on its social media pages,” the complaint stated....