On March 26, 2025, the Institute for Free Speech filed an amicus brief (known as a “memorandum of amicus curiae” in local parlance) in State of Washington v. Meta Platforms, Inc., (formerly doing business as Facebook, Inc.) in the Supreme Court of the State of Washington. The Institute subsequently filed a second amicus brief on the merits on September 12, 2025.
The briefs urge the Washington Supreme Court to review and invalidate the state’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, arguing that the Act imposes excessive and duplicative disclosure requirements on platforms that host political advertising, despite advertisers already being required to disclose the same information. These burdens have forced major platforms like Meta to stop hosting political ads in Washington, chilling core political speech and disproportionately harming grassroots campaigns and outsider candidates who rely on digital advertising to communicate with voters.
The liability on intermediaries created by the act has a chilling effect by incentivizing them to self-censor or eliminate politically sensitive content altogether. It also not only undermines the First Amendment rights of speakers but disproportionately harms political candidates who lack the resources to navigate such constraints, thereby diminishing the quality of public discourse.
Read our March 2025 brief in support of Meta Platforms, Inc., and calling for judicial review here. Read our September 2025 brief on the merits of the case and calling for reversal of the disclosure measures here.
