United States District Court Judge Terry Doughty's July 4th ruling issuing an injunction against the Biden administration and its collaborative censorship endeavors with Big Tech marked a poetic victory for free speech, coming as it did on the 247th anniversary of our nation's independence. September 8th marks another free speech win, albeit with a somewhat narrowed scope. On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its highly anticipated ruling in Missouri v. Biden, the case in which the states of Louisiana and Missouri, along with several individual social media users, challenged the federal government's coercive attempts to squelch speech on social media platforms like Twitter (now "X") and Facebook, asserting it violated their First Amendment Rights. In a nutshell, the appellate court agreed that the government had violated the Constitution, but it pared down the scope of the injunction issued by the district court, both in terms of the defendants to whom it applied and the nature of the prohibited actions. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced news of the win on X. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, one of the named individual plaintiffs in the case, expressed his gratitude for the win, as well. In its 74-page ruling, the Fifth Circuit first set forth the violative conduct of the federal officials, noting the numerous contacts between officials from the White House, CDC, FBI, and, to a lesser extent, CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) and the State Department and platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube. The court then determined that both the individual plaintiffs and the state plaintiffs had standing to pursue their claims. The court then assessed the merits of the claims supporting the injunction, beginning with the likelihood of success:
The court found that both the White House and the Surgeon General violated the First Amendment.
How were those officials coercive?
The court also found the FBI's and CDC's actions violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment rights. However, the court did not find that the NIAID, State Department, and CISA did, so it held that the district court erred in including those agencies/officials in the injunction. The court emphasized it did not take its decision lightly, but added:
While the court found the injunction issued by the district court was warranted, it also found that it was too broad and vague, so limited the scope of it considerably, dispensing with nine of the 10 provisions, but retaining the sixth, while modifying it to read as follows:
The court also excluded the NIAID, State Department, and CISA from the injunction. Nevertheless, it remains in place for the White House, Surgeon General, FBI, and CDC defendants. The court agreed to stay its decision for 10 days to allow the remaining government defendants an opportunity to appeal to the Supreme Court. To sum up: The Fifth Circuit agreed with the district court that White House, Surgeon General, CDC, and FBI officials violated the First Amendment rights of the plaintiffs and they are enjoined from coercing or significantly encouraging social media platforms to remove or suppress protected free speech. The government defendants have 10 days to file an appeal. The question is: Will they? |
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