A Delaware court made it clear that search engines are allowed to reject an ad as part of their protected right of free speech, according to law professor Eric Goldman. The Langdon v. Google case was brought by an advertiser whose requests to buy political ads were allegedly rejected or ignored by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft because they attacked other candidates.
Goldman believes the precedent-setting influence of the case is limited, but it should help search engines deflect future cases filed by advertisers that go against their editorial policies.