Ashcroft

At a hearing in the Old Bailey in London on Friday, defence barrister Clare Ashcroft indicated that the former Wales MEP intended to enter not guilty pleas.

Remarkably, the 5th Circuit refused to follow binding precedent, claiming that the Supreme Court was simply wrong to apply strict scrutiny in Ashcroft.

In past cases like Ashcroft, the Supreme Court rejected this censorship-first approach, warning against the perils of censoring protected expression in the name of protecting kids.

“It’s been 20 years since Ashcroft,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett told Shaffer.

Justice Clarence Thomas added that “we’re in an entirely different world” from Ashcroft, which “was a world of dial-up internet.”