Mark Changizi, Michael Senger, and Daniel Kotzin became active Twitter users in March 2020, focusing on criticism of government pandemic policy and rapidly gaining large followings. Many of their more-controversial contentions—for instance, that lockdowns and mandates for masks and vaccines would be ineffective at curbing viral spread while having deleterious societal effects—have turned out to be true.

In the spring of 2021, federal officials began making public statements threatening tech companies with regulatory sanctions if they failed to police “misinformation.” Coincidentally, beginning around April 2021, Changizi, Senger, and Kotzin began experiencing censorship, including temporary suspensions, shadow bans, and even permanent loss of their accounts. Then, in March 2022, the surgeon general issued a “request for information” (RFI), demanding that tech companies turn over the identities of “misinformers” on a wide variety of platforms.

The three men sued the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that, by coercing social-media companies to censor so-called misinformation, the federal government violated their First Amendment rights. They also argued that the RFI: (1) had a chilling effect on speech; (2) constituted an unlawful search in violation of the Fourth Amendment; and (3) lay beyond the administrative authority granted the surgeon general.