The federal judge who issued a July 4 preliminary injunction blocking the Biden regime from colluding with Big Tech to censor Americans denied the administration’s motion to stay on Monday.
Less than one week after he agreed the federal government appeared to lead “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history” and is “alleged to have blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech,” Judge Terry Doughty of Lousiana’s Western District Court ruled against the Biden administration’s assertion that agencies “face irreparable harm with each day the injunction remains in effect.”
“Although this Preliminary Injunction involves numerous agencies, it is not as broad as it appears,” Doughty wrote in his 13-page ruling. “It only prohibits something the Defendants have no legal right to do — contacting social-media companies for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner, the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms.”
The federal government claimed it can no longer participate in a “vast range of lawful and responsible conduct, including speaking on matters of public concern, and working with social-media companies on initiatives to prevent grave harm to the American people and the Country’s various democratic processes.”
Doughty, however, said that under his preliminary injunction, agencies like the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House, and the State Department are allowed to use Big Tech lawfully. The only thing the Biden regime is barred from doing is continuing to silence Americans.
“Defendants cite no specific action that would be prohibited by this Preliminary Injunction
that would provide grave harm to the American people or over democratic processes. In fact, in
opposition to the Motion for Preliminary Injunction, Defendants submitted five Declarations that addressed Defendants’ concerns. Every one of these concerns was addressed in the Preliminary Injunction exceptions,” Doughty wrote.
Plaintiffs celebrated the denial as another win for Americans’ rights to protected speech.
“Today is another big win for free speech and our efforts to fight back against big tech and government censorship,” Sen. Eric Schmitt — who filed the case while working in the Missouri Attorney General’s office — said in a statement. “The federal judge that granted the injunction in Missouri v. Biden just similarly denied both of the federal government’s motions to stay that injunction, keeping it in place. This is yet another victory for freedom of speech, and another crushing defeat for censorship. And while this is a big win, the case will continue on in higher courts and our efforts to finally end this ‘censorship enterprise’ once and for all continue on as well – stay tuned.”
