{"id":2239603,"date":"2024-05-07T20:22:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T00:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-slaps-down-biden-administrations-attempt-to-dismiss-daily-wire-censorship-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2024-05-07T20:27:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T00:27:23","slug":"federal-judge-slaps-down-biden-administrations-attempt-to-dismiss-daily-wire-censorship-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-slaps-down-biden-administrations-attempt-to-dismiss-daily-wire-censorship-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Rejects Biden Administration&#8217;s Bid to Dismiss Daily Wire Censorship Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederal-judge-slaps-down-biden-administrations-attempt-to-dismiss-daily-wire-censorship-lawsuit%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2239603&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-81-election-fraud-cases-brought-to-courts-30-active-cases\/\" title=\"Report: 81 election fraud cases brought to courts, 30 active cases\">recent court order<\/a>, a U.S. District judge denied the Biden State Department&#8217;s motion\u200c to dismiss\u200b a censorship lawsuit filed by\u200d The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and Texas. The lawsuit, challenging the\u2063 State Department&#8217;s involvement in censorship technology targeting media outlets, \u2063seeks to\u200c declare such actions illegal and protect American free\u2064 speech rights. Furthermore, the judge emphasized the importance of the First Amendment in\u200b the ruling.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a court order Tuesday, a U.S. District judge rejected the Biden State Department\u2019s attempts to dismiss a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/five-takeaways-from-twitter-fbi-agents-deposition-in-censorship-lawsuit-brought-by-conservative-states\/\" title=\"Five Takeaways From Twitter FBI Agent\u2019s Deposition In Censorship Lawsuit Brought By Conservative States\">censorship lawsuit brought<\/a> by The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and the State of Texas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Daily Wire <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2023\/12\/DailyWire-v-State-final.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">lawsuit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, filed jointly by the New Civil Liberties Alliance with The Federalist and Texas in December of 2023 to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleges that the U.S. State Department is engaging with and promoting censorship technology designed to bankrupt domestic media outlets with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/daily-wire-and-the-federalist-sue-biden-state-department-over-censorship-effort\/\" title=\"Daily Wire and The Federalist file lawsuit against Biden State Department for censorship attempt\">disfavored political opinions<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lawsuit, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">which also names Secretary of State Antony Blinken and five other officials as defendants, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">asks the court to declare the State Department\u2019s attempt to interfere with domestic speech illegal and to permanently bar it from developing, promoting, or encouraging others to use technology to de-amplify, shadow ban, or restrict \u201cthe lawful speech of the American press and Americans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The State Department\u2019s scheme, the complaint states, is \u201cone of the most audacious, manipulative, secretive, and gravest abuses of power and infringements of First Amendment rights by the federal government in American history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In response, the U.S. State Department filed two motions, one to dismiss the case and another to transfer the venue of the case from Texas to D.C. However, U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle denied in large part both of the State Department\u2019s motions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In an order issued Tuesday, Judge Kernodle ruled that the plaintiffs \u201chave satisfied their burden to demonstrate standing at this stage in the case,\u201d denying the State Department\u2019s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, dismissing only one count of the five-count complaint. Kernodle also ruled that the \u201cvenue is proper in the Eastern District of Texas,\u201d fully denying the State Department\u2019s motion to transfer the venue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Judge Kernodle\u2019s ruling begins by quoting directly from the First Amendment and previous rulings reinforcing the amendment\u2019s centrality to the Constitution. \u201cCongress shall make no law \u2026 abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,\u201d the order begins. \u201cThis provision enshrines \u2018[o]ur profound national commitment to the free exchange of ideas.\u2019 \u2026 Indeed \u2018[i]f there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Judge Kernodle goes on to shoot down the State Department\u2019s arguments for dismissal and change of venue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As The Daily Wire <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/daily-wire-and-the-federalist-sue-biden-state-department-over-censorship-effort\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">reported<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  in December, GEC was founded in 2011 as the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications and tasked with countering the propaganda of foreign terrorists like Al Qaeda. In 2016, it was renamed, but kept the same counterterrorism mission. Congress has made clear that \u201cnone of the funds authorized\u201d for the entity \u201cshall be used for purposes other than countering foreign propaganda.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nonetheless, GEC turned its focus on Americans, the complaint alleges, using taxpayer funds to finance the development and promotion of censorship organizations such as NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which regularly target conservative media outlets such as The Daily Wire and The Federalist with the stated goal of limiting ad revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New Civil Liberties Alliance\u2019s Mark Chenoweth, who is representing the outlets, said \u201cthe federal government cannot do indirectly what the First Amendment forbids it from doing directly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">GDI\u2019s main product is a \u201cDynamic Exclusion List\u201d of media outlets that it says present a \u201chigh risk for disinformation.\u201d It licenses the list to advertisers, who adopt it as a convenient way to avoid boycotts from the Left. That playbook was deployed last month against Elon Musk, when blue-chip advertisers were persuaded to stop advertising on the platform because the Left-wing Media Matters group claimed that big companies\u2019 ads occasionally appeared near objectionable content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">GDI says it aims to destroy \u201cthe incentive to create [disinformation] for the purpose of garnering advertising revenues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">GDI keeps its main blacklist secret, but publicly published its top 10 \u201criskiest\u201d outlets, which was essentially a list of America\u2019s most prominent and mainstream conservative media publications, including both The Daily Wire and The Federalist, as well as the New York Post, and Reason Magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">GDI \u201cwas funded and promoted by State Department Defendants,\u201d the lawsuit states. \u201cState Department Defendants\u2019 active intervention in the news media market to make disfavored media unprofitable thus had devastating consequences to Media Plaintiffs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also funded by the State Department is for-profit company called <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/newsguard-runs-cover-for-terrorists-in-fact-check-of-ben-shapiro\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NewsGuard<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which said it aimed to \u201ccut off revenues to fake news sites\u201d by coming up with a whitelist that purported to name every legitimate news site. NewsGuard ranks The Federalist as \u201cunreliable\u201d and The Daily Wire as \u201ccredible with significant exceptions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">GEC funded GDI in 2021 through its U.S.-Paris Tech Challenge, in which GDI was awarded $100,000. The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/technology\/disinformation-inc-state-department-silent-on-if-it-will-ties-global-disinformation-index\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Washington Examiner<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  reported that the State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy\u00a0 apparently funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars more to GDI. The National Endowment for Democracy later acknowledged its \u201cmandate is to work around the world and not in the United States,\u201d and thus would no longer fund GDI.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The State Department also co-sponsored a \u201cCOVID-19 misinformation and disinformation\u201d tech challenge that gave a prize to NewsGuard. NewsGuard said in a press release that it planned to \u201chelp\u201d the State Department by flagging COVID \u201choaxes.\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the \u201choaxes\u201d flagged by NewsGuard was that COVID might have come from a Chinese lab, a scenario now viewed by U.S. agencies to be likely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lawsuit says that the government used tools developed to be used against foreign nations against political opponents at home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cState Department disinformation tools were developed\u2026 as tools of warfare\u2026 in the context of national security\u201d and \u201cforeign relations,\u201d then \u201cmisdirected to be used at home against domestic political opponents,\u201d it said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he is \u201cproud to lead the fight to save Americans\u2019 precious constitutional rights from Joe Biden\u2019s tyrannical federal government.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe State Department\u2019s mission to obliterate the First Amendment is completely un-American,\u201d Paxton said. \u201cThis agency will not get away with their illegal campaign to silence citizens and publications they disagree with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The lawsuit argues that Paxton\u2019s ability to enforce Texas\u2019 anti-censorship laws were infringed by the State Department\u2019s funding of censorship tools.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe Biden administration is illegally funding organizations with the stated goal of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-state-department-censorship-tool-under-spotlight-in-new-conservative-media-lawsuit\/\" title=\"Conservative media lawsuit highlights former State Department 'censorship' tool\">financially crippling media outlets<\/a> whose coverage does not walk in lockstep with the government\u2019s ideological agenda,\u201d The Daily Wire said in a statement on the lawsuit. \u201cWe sued the Biden administration before over its unconstitutional vaccine mandate, and we won. This time, we\u2019re suing for our rights, all news organizations\u2019 rights, and the constitutional guarantee of a free press that all Americans deserve.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Daily Wire and The Federalist are represented by Margot Cleveland, Margaret Little, and Casey Norman at the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A U.S. District judge on Tuesday denied the Biden State Department&#8217;s motion to dismiss a censorship lawsuit by The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and Texas. The lawsuit, filed in December 2023 by the New Civil Liberties Alliance on behalf of the three parties, challenges censorship efforts by the Biden administration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":2239604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1712266125-scaled-e1697991219593.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2239603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2023\/10\/GettyImages-1712266125-scaled-e1697991219593.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2239603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2239604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2239603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2239603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2239603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}