Biden Administration Appeals Social Media Contact Ban in Censorship Lawsuit.

The Biden Administration Appeals Landmark Ruling on Social Media Censorship

The Biden administration has filed an appeal asking the court to overturn a historic ruling that blocks government agencies from censoring posts on social media or working with big tech companies to do so.

Attorneys acting on behalf of President Joe Biden and federal agencies have filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana, seeking to overturn a landmark ruling in a censorship-by-proxy lawsuit brought by Louisiana and Missouri.

Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri sued Mr. Biden and several government agencies, accusing them of pushing social media companies to censor posts and take down accounts in what they allege is one of the “greatest assaults” on freedom of speech in America’s history.

In a preliminary injunction on July 4, Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana sided with the plaintiffs. He ruled that various government agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Justice (DOJ), are prohibited from communicating with social media companies about censoring content.

The Biden administration was widely expected to appeal the ruling, and DOJ officials anticipate a quick decision by the appeals court to block the prohibitions that the plaintiffs had hailed as a win for free speech.

The plaintiffs, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, have both pledged to fight the appeal.

Mr. Landry said in a statement that he expected the appeal and vowed to “aggressively defend it,” adding that he believes the case will eventually be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We’re not done yet,” Mr. Bailey wrote in a post on social media. “We’re just getting started.”

‘Shocking, Appalling, and Concerning’

Judge Terry A. Doughty, a Trump appointee, wrote in Wednesday’s decision that the Republican attorneys general who sued the Biden administration “have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.”

The judge ruled that the agencies named in the lawsuit, along with their staff members, are prohibited from engaging in any communication with social media companies urging or pressuring them to remove or suppress content containing protected free speech.

The agencies are also barred from flagging content on social media platforms and forwarding them to the companies with requests for action.

Encouraging social media companies to change their guidelines for the removal or suppression of content containing protected free speech is also forbidden.

While the judge’s ruling isn’t final, the preliminary injunction was seen as a win by the Republican attorneys general, who have accused the Biden administration of pressuring big tech companies to engage in a censorship-by-proxy scheme.

“This could be arguably one of the most important First Amendment cases in modern history,” Mr. Landry told The Epoch Times in an interview following the ruling.

“If you look at the opinion that the judge lays out, he takes from our argument that this is basically one of the most massive undertakings of the federal government to limit American speech in the history of our country. The things that we uncovered, in this case, should be both shocking, appalling, and concerning for all Americans.