Chief United States District Judge of the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana Terry Doughty on Tuesday granted an injunction that will block almost all contact between the US government and social media companies.
Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general, both Republicans, sued White House officials in 2022 over the government's alleged collusion with social media companies to censor free speech, especially on topics like the coronavirus pandemic and the opposition to the administration's policies. Although an official ruling still has to be made in the case, the judge wrote in today's decision that the plaintiffs "are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition" and in their "First Amendment free speech claim against the Defendants."
"Targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech," the judge noted, adding that, during the pandemic, the Biden administration "seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian 'Ministry of Truth.'"
