A federal judge is interested in the nature of the government’s interactions with major technology corporations and has ordered the government to disclose its communications.
Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana recently denied the Biden administration’s motion to dismiss a landmark case alleging a conspiracy between the federal government and Big Tech to censor certain COVID-19-related users.
In Missouri v. Biden, the states of Louisiana and Missouri filed a lawsuit alleging that social media companies censored certain viewpoints and users on their platforms at the direction of members of President Joe Biden’s administration and leaders of federal government agencies.
The lawsuit claims that social media companies improperly labeled information as “misinformation” and “disinformation” in violation of the First Amendment, and that the federal government exceeded its authority and the Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security violated the Administrative Procedure Act.
“The Court finds that the Complaint alleges significant encouragement and coercion that converts the otherwise private conduct of censorship on social media platforms into state action, and is unpersuaded by Defendants’ arguments to the contrary,” Doughty wrote in his ruling. “Further, while the Government may certainly select the messages it wishes to convey, this freedom is limited by the more fundamental principle that a government entity may not employ threats to limit the free speech of private citizens.”
The situation heated up when Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey tweeted that Americans should be horrified of the reasoning Biden’s attorneys presented to the judge in support of some censorship.
The judge asked the feds if they had ever read George Orwell’s 1984, pointing out the similarities between the case and the book.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) June 1, 2023
The judge also asked them if the First Amendment applied to Americans' right to say that the 2020 election was stolen.
Their answer?
It depends.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) June 1, 2023
The judge also pointed out that it seemed to be only conservatives who are targeted for their speech, asking the feds if they could provide one example of a liberal who was censored due to "misinformation."
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) June 1, 2023
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Court asked the feds why he should believe them when they say they claim censorship has stopped and won’t happen again.
And that is exactly why we are asking the Court for a preliminary injunction to halt this vast censorship enterprise.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) June 1, 2023
A professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, Jay Bhattacharya, issued a similar warning about the administration’s court arguments.
The Missouri v. Biden case has revealed the Biden administration's shocking disregard for the free speech rights of its political opponents and scientific dissidents. The judge hearing the case referred to it as a Ministry of Truth. This thread by @akheriaty is absolute fire. https://t.co/VusWB5rCNy
— Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) May 28, 2023
More on this story via Conservative Brief:
Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt accused the Biden administration of leading “the largest speech censorship operation in recent American history,” which he uncovered during his role as Missouri attorney general. CONTINUE READING…
