A federal judge issued an injunction on Tuesday that bans numerous top Biden administration officials and agencies from communicating and meeting with social media companies.
The injunction came in response to a lawsuit brought by two Republican attorneys general who “produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content,” said U.S. Judge Terry A. Doughty.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), who filed the lawsuit against the lawsuit while he was still serving as Missouri’s attorney general, responded to the news by calling it a “Big win for the First Amendment on this Independence Day.”
“White House officials, CDC & others are stopped cold. We need to continue the fight to take down the Vast Censorship Enterprise,” he said. “Their view of ‘misinformation’ isn’t an excuse to censor. This is the most important free speech case in a generation. Freedom is on the march.”
White House officials, CDC & others are stopped cold. We need to continue the fight to take down the Vast Censorship Enterprise.
Their view of “misinformation” isn’t an excuse to censor. This is the most important free speech case in a generation.
Freedom is on the march
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) July 4, 2023
The lawsuit, filed by Missouri and Louisiana, accused the Biden administration of pushing social media companies to censor content related to the coronavirus pandemic. The states said in the lawsuit that the Biden administration’s actions were “the most egregious violations of the First Amendment in the history of the United States of America.”
The judge, a Trump nominee, did allow for some exceptions for Biden officials to have contact with social media companies, including informing them of posts involving “criminal activity or criminal conspiracies,” “national security threats, extortion, or other threats,” and crimes related to U.S. elections.
This is a breaking news story; refresh the page for updates.