The senator then “asked” Amazon to explain itself and “asked” for “within 14 days… [it provide] a plan to modify these algorithms” so they no longer are “directing consumers to books and other products containing COVID19 misinformation.” Warren’s letter even threatened Amazon with legal consequences, suggesting that its practices constituted “an unethical, unacceptable, and potentially unlawful course of action from one of the nation’s largest retailers.”

Kennedy sued Warren over this, alleging that her pressure campaign against Amazon constituted “jawboning,” which is an established legal standard that refers to government coercion of private speech suppression, and that has been deemed unconstitutional. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled that Warren does not need to retract the letter and that, due to a variety of factors, her actions do not constitute “coercion” but are rather an attempt at “persuasion.”

I’ll leave it to the lawyers to haggle over the precedent—and this decision might be appealed to the Supreme Court—but regardless, this outcome is deeply disappointing. Senator Warren’s actions are at the very least contrary to the spirit of the First Amendment.

[I’d guess that the Ninth Circuit didn’t take the alleged threat that Warren posed very seriously. It’s worth watching if it gets to SCOTUS, but I don’t think Amazon would feel a need to appease Warren on matters of inventory. Brad’s correct that Warren’s attempt at it was inappropriate; I’m just not sure it’s justiciable. — Ed]