Biden Administration Set to Challenge First Amendment Ruling on Social Media Censorship
The Biden administration is reportedly gearing up to challenge a federal court ruling that found government collusion with social media companies to censor speech likely violated the First Amendment. The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday in the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the administration disagrees with the judge’s decision but would not elaborate further on the scathing ruling against censorship aimed at conservatives.
On Tuesday, Louisiana Judge Terry A. Doughty, a Donald Trump appointee, issued a 155-page injunction in response to the lawsuit by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri. The lawsuit alleged that the White House had coerced or “significantly encouraged” tech companies to suppress free speech during the COVID pandemic.
The ruling held that “the censorship alleged in this case almost exclusively targeted conservative speech” but emphasized that the issues raised by the case transcend “beyond party lines.” The Biden administration argued that it took “necessary and responsible actions to protect public health, safety, and security.”
Judge Doughty wrote:
… evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’
The lawsuit alleged that the administration exploited the threat of favorable or targeted regulatory actions to strong-arm and coerce social media platforms into suppressing content it deemed as misinformation, particularly regarding masks and vaccines during the COVID pandemic. Other allegations included the censorship of speech about election integrity and that the administration stamped down the circulation of new stories about Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop.
Astonishingly, the administration attempted to absolve itself of responsibility with the claim that social media companies should determine what qualifies as misinformation and how they should combat it without consideration for its role in pressure campaigns. In an ironic argument, they claimed that the lawsuit was an attempt to “suppress the speech of federal government officials under the guise of protecting the speech rights of others.”
The administration’s May 3 court filing argued that the proposed injunction by the plaintiffs would significantly impede the government’s ability to tackle foreign malign influence campaigns, prosecute crimes, ensure national security, and provide accurate information to the public on matters like healthcare and elections. The injunction includes exemptions that allow the government to contact companies regarding criminal activity, including matters related to elections, national security issues, and threats to public safety or security.
The administration’s arguments demonstrate a willingness to prioritize its own narrative in order to control public discourse and aim at the censorship of protected speech rather than upholding the fundamental rights they are bound to under the Constitution. The judge wrote that the court “is not persuaded by Defendants’ arguments.”
The ruling prohibits specific federal officials and agencies, including members of Biden’s Cabinet like Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and Jean-Pierre herself, from engaging in meetings aimed at suppressing speech with social media companies. The prohibited contact is specifically for government actors engaging in contact with “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech” under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. The lawsuit named Google, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Twitter as parties to the suit.
According to a person familiar with the case, the DOJ is also planning to ask the court to put the judge’s order on hold during the appeal process. If lower courts do not grant a stay on the injunction during the appeal process, there is a possibility that the case could quickly reach the US Supreme Court.
Elon Musk revealed many government communications and requests for censorship in public releases known as the Twitter Files. The government’s backdoor requests for censorship of speech were uncovered after he purchased the Twitter platform in 2022.
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