In hearing a case on the First Amendment and censuring fellow politicians, the Supreme Court is leaning toward a narrow decision in deciding if elected bodies can censure a member for certain speech. As Justice Brett Kavanaugh said, the issue the court may choose to decide is simply whether a censure can trigger a lawsuit, that is, does a censure stymie the free speech of a member? (The New York Times, November 2, 2021, by Adam Liptak)
The justices want to avoid a decision that would embroil the courts in legislative deliberations so they are unlikely to provide guidelines for legislative bodies to police their members. The case was filed by a former Houston Community College board member who sued the board for censuring him for speech critical of the board. The board also limited his legislative privileges. (Bloomberg Law, November 2, 2021, by Kimberley Strawbridge Robinson)