Freedom Not To Speak

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In the case of Langdon v. Google, et al, the plaintiff sued Google, Microsoft and Yahoo for their failure to run advertisements. These related to the plaintiff's Web sites, which purportedly exposed fraud perpetrated by North Carolina government officials and reported atrocities supposedly committed by the Chinese government. The plaintiff argued that the refusal of the defendants violated his First Amendment and other legal rights. What's more, the plaintiff claimed that even though Internet search engines are maintained by private companies, they essentially are public forums, like malls and shopping centers, and so are subject to the First Amendment. The judge blew that argument out of the water, holding that the plaintiff failed to properly state a claim for violation of his free speech rights under the First Amendment, precisely because the defendants "are private, for-profit companies, not subject to constitutional free speech guarantees." The court deemed "specious" the plaintiff's argument that somehow the defendants were governmental "state actors" who were required to protect the plaintiff's freedom of speech.