Supreme Court Closes Elon Musk's X Appeal to Reveal When Government Requests User Information

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge brought by Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, against the government's “unconstitutional” censorship of its Transparency Report.

The company presented its lawsuit in 2014 after the FBI said it could not release a report revealing how many times the government sought user information for national security investigations. In a nutshell order On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected without explanation the company's appeal against a decision supporting the government's restriction.

“If this Court does not intervene, different standards will apply in different circuits when entities like Twitter want to disclose how and how often the Government has demanded information from them,” X wrote in his request in the Supreme Court. “History shows that the surveillance of electronic communications is both fertile ground for government abuse and a political lightning rod issue of great public concern.”

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Found in March that “the government's redactions of the Twitter Transparency Report were narrowly tailored to support the government's compelling national security interest,” affirming a lower court ruling.

“In the context of explicit illustrations set forth in the classified materials of the threats that exist and the ways in which the government can better protect its intelligence assets, the panel could appreciate why the proposed disclosure via Twitter would risk making foreign adversaries aware of what is being monitored and what is not being monitored, at the very least,” the court ruled.

Court documents released in August revealed that special counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for former President Donald Trump's Twitter account in January 2023. The company, which fought a confidentiality order that prevented it from notifying anyone about the warrant because of of the First Amendment, was fined $350,000 for delaying compliance. and not submit the required information until three days after the court deadline.

The warrant granted Smith access to Trump's direct messages, draft tweets, location data and search history, along with other information, seconds to an unsealed court document.

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