About two months ago, fittingly on Independence Day, a federal judge based in Louisiana issued an injunction against the Brandon entity from pressuring/colluding with social media companies to implement its robust censorship regime by proxy. “Plaintiffs have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content,” wrote the judge. “Defendants’ alleged suppression has potentially resulted in millions of free speech violations.”
Related: Biden Administration Fights Court Injunction Against Government-Directed Censorship
In a good-news-bad-news update, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has partially upheld the ban on government censorship while substantially limiting the scope of the ban, arguing that it was too all-encompassing to enforce.
On the broad finding by the lower court that the Brandon regime violated the First Amendment with its capricious, ad hoc censorship campaign, particularly around the suppression of “COVID misinformation” (which largely turned out to be actual information), the three-judge panel in the Fifth Circuit found that:
The officials have engaged in a broad pressure campaign designed to coerce social-media companies into suppressing speakers, viewpoints, and content disfavored by the government. The harms that radiate from such conduct extend far beyond just the Plaintiffs; it impacts every social-media user.
But, in the weeds, the judges chiseled away at the originally quite robust blanket ban, which included a huge swathe of government agencies and individuals.
Via Politico (emphasis added):
A federal appeals court Friday significantly whittled down a lower court’s order curbing Biden administration communications with social media companies over controversial content about COVID-19 and other issues.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Friday said the White House, the Surgeon General, the Centers for Disease Control and the FBI cannot “coerce” social media platforms to take down posts the government doesn’t like.
But the court threw out broader language in an order that a Louisiana-based federal judge issued on July 4 that effectively blocked multiple government agencies from contacting platforms such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) to urge that content be taken down.
Even the appeals court’s softened order doesn’t take effect immediately. The administration has 10 days to seek a Supreme Court review.
The ban in its current form, per court decree, no longer applies to DHS, HHS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the State Department, which are now presumably granted license to continue their censorious ways.
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