A man walks in front of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on January 7, 2015 in New Orleans.
Jonathan Bachman / AP
hide captions
switch captions
Jonathan Bachman / AP
A man walks in front of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on January 7, 2015 in New Orleans.
Jonathan Bachman / AP
NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily suspended a lower court order restricting executive branch officials from communicating with social media companies about controversial online posts. .
Attorneys for the Biden administration have asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to uphold the preliminary order issued by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty on July 4. Doughty himself denied the request. Pause your order pending an appeal.
Friday’s brief 5th round order halts Doughty’s order “until further court order.” It calls for case debates to be scheduled on an expedited basis.
Filed last year, the lawsuit claims the administration censored free speech by discussing possible legal action the government could take while pressuring companies to remove what they perceive to be misinformation. The COVID-19 vaccine, legal issues involving Hunter, the son of President Joe Biden, and allegations of election fraud were among the hot topics in the lawsuit.
Doughty, nominated to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump, issued the Independence Day order and accompanying reasons for more than 160 pages. He said the plaintiffs are likely to win their ongoing lawsuit. His order blocked the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, and many other government agencies and administrative officials from “encouraging, pressuring, or instigating in any way to remove, delete, suppress or reduce content that contains protected free speech.”
Administration lawyers said the order was too broad and vague, raising questions about what officials might say in conversations with social media companies or in public statements. They said Doughty’s order posed a threat of “serious” harm to the public by cooling law enforcement efforts to combat misinformation online.
Doughty rejected the administration’s request for an adjournment on Monday, writing: “The defendants argued that the ban should be upheld as it could impede the Government’s ability to continue working with social media companies. opportunity to censor core American political speech on the basis of opinion. In other words, the Government sought to delay the ban so it could continue to violate the First Amendment.”
In their request that the 5th Circuit make the decision to stay, administration attorneys said there was no evidence of threats by the administration. “The district court has not identified any evidence to suggest that a threat accompanies any request to remove content. Indeed, the denial of stay order – perhaps highlighting the clearest evidence is the strongest. – refers to ‘a series of statements in the mass media’,” the administration said.
Friday’s “administrative stay” was issued without comment by a panel of three Circuit 5 judges: Carl Stewart, nominated to the court by former President Bill Clinton; James Graves, nominated by former President Barack Obama; and Andrew Oldham, nominated by Trump. Another panel drawn from the court, which has 17 active members, will hear arguments over longer stays.
