The last two years have exposed a “vast censorship enterprise” between the federal government and social media companies to trample Americans’ constitutional right to free speech. Now the Biden administration has filed a request to stay a new injunction that considerably limits the government’s ability to coordinate censorship. Why is the administration acutely distressed at a court order that simply makes them obey the law? Just why is the death of free speech so essential to this authoritarian administration?
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana granted the 155-page injunction. It’s a response to an ongoing lawsuit from the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana. The “United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth,’” Doughty wrote, noting that the overwhelming majority of the censored speech was conservative.
Based on the evidence Missouri and Louisiana uncovered, Doughty warned of potentially “the most massive attack against free speech” in America’s history. It is the “function of free speech” to “invite dispute,” the judge insisted. Meanwhile, Missouri AG Andrew Bailey rejoiced at the perfect timing of the injunction happening on July 4, Independence Day.
The Justice Department’s (DOJ) Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Brian M. Boynton, and his fellow lawyers griped, “The Court’s July 4 preliminary injunction is both sweeping in scope and vague in its terms.” The Washington Post, which reported on the request to stay the court order, said Doughty had ruled that the states were likely to succeed in a trial. He also told the federal government to stop communicating with Big Tech about censoring content, though exceptions were provided.
”The potential breadth of the entities and employees covered by the injunction combined with the injunction’s sweeping substantive scope will chill a wide range of lawful government conduct relating to Defendants’ law enforcement responsibilities, obligations to protect the national security, and prerogative to speak on matters of public concern,” the Biden DOJ fear-mongered. No worries about chilling free speech, of course.
The question is, why is the Biden administration practically panicked at being required to follow the Constitution? I think the request to stay Doughty’s injunction shows with crystal clarity just how anti-American and dictatorial the Biden administration is.
The Democrat Party has been deliberately undermining the Constitution in one way or another for over 100 years now, but this administration has been particularly shocking in its weaponization of the federal government. We somehow reached the point in America where the administration in charge of the federal government argues in total seriousness that it has to be able to violate Americans’ most fundamental rights to function. It is key to note that if the rights of the First Amendment (religion, press, assembly, and speech) are violated, all other rights will follow. If free speech is not sacred in America, nothing is sacred.
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Indeed, it seems certain now that the Biden administration intends to destroy the last vestiges of our Republic for total top-down control. Why else would the Biden DOJ, which also of course has a track record of egregious political bias, be demanding that it have the ability to pressure tech companies to censor? This is about far more than just our ability to discuss COVID origins on Twitter. This is about the difference between a democratic republic and a totalitarian state.
Founding Father George Washington observed in 1783, “For if Men are to be precluded from offering their Sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of Speech may be taken away, and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.” God bless Judge Doughty and the Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general. They are taking action to prevent that awful fate from befalling us.
