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Judge Doughty's July 4 Injunction: 'Most Massive Attack Against Free Speech'

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana granted a preliminary injunction in Missouri v. Biden, finding the states likely to prove that federal officials pressured platforms including Facebook to suppress protected speech. Higher courts later narrowed and then vacated the case on standing, and the Supreme Court majority called many of his factual findings 'clearly erroneous.'

Jul 4, 2023
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Whose side it served: Democrats

Found the Biden administration likely used its power to suppress mostly conservative speech.

What the record shows

The ruling barred covered officials from contacting platforms 'for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion' of protected speech. It named agencies including the Department of Justice, State Department, HHS, the CDC, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and CISA Director Jen Easterly, with carve-outs for criminal activity and national security threats. Doughty wrote that the case may involve 'the most massive attack against free speech in United States history' and that the government seemed to assume a role like an 'Orwellian Ministry of Truth.' He also wrote that the alleged censorship 'almost exclusively targeted conservative speech.' He declined to certify a class.

In their words

“The most massive attack against free speech in United States history”— Judge Terry A. Doughty, W.D. La. (as quoted by Jonathan Turley) · source
The other side

In Murthy v. Missouri, Justice Barrett wrote that many of the district court's findings 'appear to be clearly erroneous' and that much of its evidence was 'inapposite.' The injunction never took lasting effect: it was narrowed by the Fifth Circuit and the Supreme Court reversed for lack of standing.

Sources

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