In celebration of American Independence, a Louisiana Judge blocked the Feds from colluding with Big Tech to censor Americans on social media. This was meant to stop the FBI, CIA, CDC, and others from pressuring the platforms to remove content at their discretion. Biden Inc. was not amused.
The Biden administration is appealing a court ruling sharply limiting the ability of federal officials to interact with social media companies about the content contained on their platforms.
In addition, a Justice Department official said Wednesday night that attorneys there plan to act “expeditiously” to seek a stay of the unusual injunction issued on July 4 by U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty in response to a lawsuit filed by Louisiana and Missouri last year. …
The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Wednesday evening that will send Doughty’s opinion and the accompanying injunction to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for review. That court is considered one of the most conservative federal appeals courts in the nation, but previously ruled against Doughty on a couple of disputes about demands for depositions of federal officials in the same litigation.
They won’t find much joy at the Fifth Circuit. But as Politico suggests, an order to revisit the breadth of the ban might be possible. The question turns on this. Will the Fifth Circuit view the actions of the government through big Tech proxies as censorship in violation of America’s First Amendment Rights?
The Feds infiltrated and coordinated with private companies to control what people were allowed to publish or share. Censorship rebranded as stopping misinformation or disinformation. Actions that interfered (or meddled) with election communications.
I don’t think the Feds have a leg to stand on, but like Pooh Bear used to say, you never can tell with bees Circuit Court Judges.
