USCA11 Case: 21-12355
21-12355
Date Filed: 05/23/2022
Opinion of the Court
Page: 17 of 67
17
(2) irreparable injury will be suffered unless the injunction issues;
(3) the threatened injury to the movant outweighs whatever damage the proposed injunction may cause the opposing party; and
(4) if issued, the injunction would not be adverse to the public interest.” Siegel v. LePore, 234 F.3d 1163, 1176 (11th Cir. 2000) (en
banc). Likelihood of success on the merits “is generally the most
important” factor. Gonzalez, 978 F.3d at 1271 n.12 (quotation
marks omitted).
* * *
We will train our attention on the question whether
NetChoice has shown a substantial likelihood of success on the
merits of its First Amendment challenge to Fla. Stat. §§ 106.072 and
501.2041. Because we conclude that the Act’s content-moderation
restrictions are substantially likely to violate the First Amendment,
and because that conclusion fully disposes of the appeal, we
needn’t reach the merits of the plaintiffs’ preemption challenge. 4
4 The only provisions that NetChoice challenges as preempted are, for reasons
we’ll explain, also substantially likely to violate the First Amendment. Of
course, federal courts should generally “avoid reaching constitutional questions if there are other grounds upon which a case can be decided,” but that
rule applies only when “a dispositive nonconstitutional ground is available.”
Otto v. City of Boca Raton, 981 F.3d 854, 871 (11th Cir. 2020) (quotation marks
and emphasis omitted). Here, whether or not the preemption ground is “dispositive,” but cf. id., it isn’t “nonconstitutional” because federal preemption is
rooted in the Supremacy Clause of Article VI. See La. Pub. Serv. Comm’n v.
FCC, 476 U.S. 355, 368 (1986).
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