A young Osama Bin Laden made multiple appearances during the arguments of Twitter v. Taamneh
Arguments in the Twitter case largely involved parsing through specific elements of text which meant justices and lawyers on both sides relied heavily on metaphors and hypotheticals to make their point. Osama bin Laden, possibly the world’s most famous terrorist, was invoked multiple times.
First, Kagan asked U.S. Solicitor General Edwin Kneedle if he thought a bank could be held liable for aiding terrorist activity if they agreed to provide financial services to bin Laden. The answer, according to Kneedle, was probably, leading Kagan to suggest that the same connection could apply to Twitter.
Later, Kavanaugh asked Schnapper if he thought CNN could be held legally liable after it agreed to air an interview with the Al Qaeda leader where he declared war against the United States.
