The Supreme Court today heard arguments from Missouri and Louisiana, two Republican-led states that accused the Biden administration of violating the First Amendment by urging social media platforms to remove content that the government considered misinformation.

The majority of justices appeared to be entirely unconvinced. Many instead suggested that government officials should be able to try to persuade private companies not to publish information, so long as the requests are not backed by coercive threats. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan, both former White House lawyers, said that similar interactions between the government and news outlets, which are not uncommon, are part of a valuable and legal dialogue.

The case arose from a barrage of communications from administration officials urging platforms to take down posts on topics like the coronavirus vaccines and claims of election fraud. A ruling on the case will most likely not arrive until June, when decisions on nearly all of the court’s biggest cases are announced.

In a separate but related case, a majority of the justices embraced arguments by the National Rifle Association that a New York State official violated the First Amendment by trying to dissuade companies from doing business with it after the 2018 Parkland school shooting, in which 17 people were killed.

In other Supreme Court news, my colleague Adam Liptak interviewed Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired in 2022 and wanted to sound the alarm over the court’s current direction.