Government appeals ruling that restricts feds from contacting social media firms

The Biden administration is appealing a court ruling sharply limiting the ability of federal officials to interact with social media companies about the content contained on their platforms.

In addition, a Justice Department official said Wednesday night that attorneys there plan to act “expeditiously” to seek a stay of the unusual injunction issued on July 4 by U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty in response to a lawsuit filed by Louisiana and Missouri last year.

The suit claims that President Joe Biden’s White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and officials at other agencies committed censorship in violation of the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to remove or limit access to anti-vaccine posts and to take down the accounts of certain users.

Social media companies, like other private businesses, don’t generally have to observe First Amendment standards, and they aren’t named as defendants in the suit. But the lawsuit argues that the Biden administration actions to limit public discussion of the COVID-19-related content – as well as election-related disinformation and issues like Hunter Biden’s laptop – made the companies an extension of the government.

Doughty, who is based in Monroe, Louisiana, and was appointed by former President Donald Trump, called the government’s pressure on the firms “Orwellian.” But other legal experts said his ruling did not give adequate weight to the rights of Biden and others to cajole the companies to limit their publication of content that the officials considered objectionable.

The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Wednesday evening that will send Doughty’s opinion and the accompanying injunction to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals for review. That court is considered one of the most conservative federal appeals courts in the nation, but previously ruled against Doughty on a couple of disputes about demands for depositions of federal officials in the same litigation.

Doughty’s order limiting interaction between certain federal officials and agencies and the social media firms kicked in immediately when the judge issued it on Tuesday. The Justice Department is expected to ask him shortly to issue a stay of his order to allow for appeal. If he declines, DOJ lawyers are likely to go to the 5th Circuit to ask for such a reprieve.