Judge orders censorship documents released

 Conservative Brief:

A federal judge has ruled against the Biden administration in a case brought by a pair of Republican state attorneys general.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of the Western District of Louisiana ruled Tuesday that the administration has 21 days to hand over all pertinent emails sent by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Dr. Anthony Fauci to social media behemoths in regards to alleged misinformation and censorship of contested posted on their platforms.

The ruling from Doughty, a Trump appointee, comes as part of a lawsuit filed in May by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the latter of whom is running for the U.S. Senate to replace retiring Sen. Roy Blunt (R).

The suit accuses “the Biden administration of suppressing the constitutionally protected right to free speech on elections, the COVID-19 lab leak theory, coronavirus-related lockdowns and other issues,” Fox News reported.

The outlet notes further:

The Justice Department objected to the handing over of the email correspondence under executive privilege and presidential communications privilege, but Doughty decided, “This Court believes Plaintiffs are entitled to external communications by Jean-Pierre and Dr. Fauci in their capacities as White House Press Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor to the President to third-party social media platforms.”

In their filing, the AGs argued that, “having threatened and cajoled social-media platforms for years to censor viewpoints and speakers disfavored by the Left, senior government officials in the Executive Branch have moved into a phase of open collusion with social-media platforms under the Orwellian guise of halting so-called ‘disinformation,’ ‘misinformation,’ and ‘malinformation.'”

“As a result of these actions, there has been an unprecedented rise of censorship and suppression of free speech – including core political speech – on social media platforms,” the lawsuit said, per Slay News. “Not just fringe views, but perfectly legitimate, responsible viewpoints and speakers have been unlawfully and unconstitutionally threatened in the modern public square.”
...

I suspect there is probably going to be future litigation against the Biden administration for what appears to be an unconstitutional infringement of the right of free speech. The fact that many of the alleged disinformation was actually not disinformation should also weigh against the Biden administration's position.

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