WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department said it’s appealing a court ruling that would block federal agencies and officials from communicating with social media companies about the content that appears on their platforms, restricting the Biden administration’s efforts to stem the spread of misinformation.
The department filed a notice of appeal in U.S. District Court in Louisiana on Wednesday, signaling its intent to take the fight to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
The DOJ also plans to ask the court to put the judge’s order on hold during the appeal, according to a person familiar with the case. The case could swiftly land before the U.S. Supreme Court if no lower court agrees to pause the injunction while the appeal goes forward.
In a 155-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump, held that federal officials likely violated the First Amendment in how they had communicated with Twitter, Meta, and other tech giants about removing or restricting certain content related to the pandemic, the 2020 election, and other political subjects.
The administration argued it had pursued “necessary and responsible actions to protect public health, safety, and security” amid a deadly pandemic and threats to election integrity. The challengers — the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana and individual social media users — alleged a government-orchestrated censorship campaign directed at conservative-leaning speech.
Doughty’s injunction barred a broad array of federal actors from communicating with any social media company “for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing” companies to remove or suppress speech. The judge included exceptions if the government needed to contact companies about criminal activity — including related to elections — national security concerns, or other threats to “public safety or security.”
