WASHINGTON — An order by a Louisiana-based federal judge broadly limiting executive branch communications with social media companies could do “serious harm” by preventing the government from “engaging in a broad range of lawful and responsible conduct.” , attorneys for the Biden administration said in a motion filed. Thursday with a federal appeals court.
The request to stay the order was the administration’s first substantive response to a July 4 ruling by US District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe.
Doughty, a conservative federal bench nominee by then-President Donald Trump, issued an injunction Tuesday. blocking of multiple government agencies and administration officials to meet with or contact social media companies in order to “encourage, pressure, or in any way induce the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”
The order also prohibits agencies and officials from pressuring social media companies “in any way” to try to suppress posts, raising questions about what officials might say in public forums.
Doughty’s order bars the administration from taking such steps pending further argument in his court in a lawsuit brought by the Republican attorneys general in Missouri and Louisiana.
In their filing Thursday night in the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, attorneys led by Principal Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton called the order “ambiguous.” They said it could prevent the Biden administration from “speaking out on issues of public interest and working with social media companies on initiatives to prevent serious harm to the American people and our democratic processes.”
They said: “These immediate and continuing damages to the Government outweigh any risk of injury to Plaintiffs if a stay is granted.”
Critics of the ruling say it could hamper attempts to silence misinformation on issues including healthcare and elections. Supporters of the order say it prevents the government from illegally censoring views.
