A censorship-by-proxy lawsuit brought by attorney generals in Louisiana and Missouri resulted in an injunction against a host of federal agencies and their staffs pressuring corporations to censor protected free speech. Judge Terry A. Doughty of the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in a July 4 ruling banned certain government agencies from “engaging in any communication of any kind with social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” Within days, the Biden Administration filed for a stay, meaning the Biden government wants to continue censoring free speech.
Judge Doughty ruled that the government was prohibited from meeting with social-media companies for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms; specifically flagging content or posts on social-media platforms and/or forwarding such to social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech; and urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner social-media companies to change their guidelines for removing, deleting, suppressing, or reducing content containing protected free speech.
The government also was prohibited from partnering or collaborating with organizations to suppress protected free speech; threatening or coercing social media companies to remove or suppress protected free speech or even notifying them to Be On the Lookout for such actions. In filing its stay of the injunction, the Biden Administration expressed that the injunction will interfere with legitimate government conduct and working with social media companies on initiatives to prevent grave harm to the American people and our democratic processes. The attorney generals in LA and MO wasted no time in filling opposition to Biden’s argument for deliberately censoring Americans.
Their filing stated in part, “But the evidence in this case overwhelmingly shows that the way the Government supposedly “prevent[s] grave harm to the American people and our democratic processes” is to pressure and induce social-media platforms to censor disfavored viewpoints on COVID-19, elections, and other core political speech. The Government’s assertion of “grave harm,” therefore, boils down to the claim that it should be allowed to continue violating the First Amendment. In the end, their position is fundamentally defiant toward the Court’s judgment. It demonstrates that the Government will continue violating First Amendment rights by censoring core political speech on social media as soon as it can get away with it.” Let us ask as in Galatians 4:16, “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” On July 10, Doughty denied Biden’s request.
Sources:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520.294.0.pdf
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520.299.0.pdf
