An appeals court on Friday agreed to halt an injunction temporarily that blocked dozens of Biden administration officials and federal agencies from contacting social media companies.
A panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a stay on a lower court order that barred numerous officials from flagging misinformation found on social media websites. The decision also expedited oral arguments over the matter, and a panel of judges will be assigned later to decide whether to grant a more long-term stay at the Justice Department’s request.
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The action stems from a Fourth of July decision by U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty that prevented agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the DOJ, the FBI, and many more, from “urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing” social media companies to remove or restrict content covered by the First Amendment’s free speech protections.
Also affected by Doughty’s order are a range of Big Tech companies, including “Facebook/Meta, Twitter, YouTube/Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok,” and other online platforms.
DOJ attorneys appealed after Doughty refused on Monday to pause his order from taking effect.
The challengers who brought the case are the Republican state attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, along with people who said they were harmed by the government’s actions. Those plaintiffs had opposed pausing Doughty’s injunction while it moved forward through the appeals process.
Doughty, a Trump appointee, wrote in the preliminary injunction that the Republican plaintiffs will likely be successful in their case “on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition.”
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But attorneys for the DOJ told Doughty in a July 6 filing that the “sweeping substantive scope” of his decision would “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 Washington Examiner contacted attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana for their response.
