(CBrief) – 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.”
Schmitt addressed the judge’s decision on Twitter.
“In our lawsuit against the Biden Admin for colluding with social media companies to censor speech, the Court just ordered DOJ to produce records from key WH & HHS officials like Dr. Fauci, the WH Press Secretary, and others,” he noted.
“In May, We filed a landmark lawsuit against top ranking Biden Admin. officials for colluding with social media companies to censor free speech. We have already received documents that show their cozy relationship, and now we’re demanding more,” he added. “Here’s what we know so far. DOJ identified 45 federal officials who have interacted with social media companies on misinformation.”
🚨In May, We filed a landmark lawsuit against top ranking Biden Admin. officials for colluding with social media companies to censor free speech. We have already received documents that show their cozy relationship, and now we’re demanding more. 🧵
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022
“Beyond DOJ, Meta identified 32 additional federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, and YouTube identified 11 federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, many of whom were not disclosed by DOJ,” Schmitt added.
Beyond DOJ, Meta identified 32 additional federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, and YouTube identified 11 federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, many of whom were not disclosed by DOJ.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 1, 2022
“This is a vast censorship enterprise, and the American people deserve to see the truth. Here are examples that already prove that federal officials and social media companies are coordinating on censorship, and we’re not close to being done yet,” he continued.
In response to the ruling, an administration official told Fox News that, “as we have said over and over again since the beginning of the administration in our battle against COVID-19, it has been critical for the American people to have access to factual, accurate, science-based information.”
“We believe in and we support freedom of speech, and we also believe it is important for all media platforms, including social media, to represent factual scientific information and combat misinformation and disinformation that can cost lives,” the official added, according to the outlet.
Andy Stone, the communications director for Meta, formerly known as Facebook, noted on a Sept. 1 tweet, before Doughty’s ruling: “This is at least the third major news cycle about our work with the CDC to address harmful misinformation about COVID, and the least informative. We announced that we would be doing this in 2020, during the Trump Administration.”
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