Judge
Doughty stated, “Opposition to COVID-19 vaccines; opposition to COVID-19
masking and lockdowns; opposition to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19;
opposition to the validity of the 2020 election; opposition to President
Biden’s policies; statements that the Hunter Biden laptop story was
true; and opposition to policies of the government officials in power.
All were suppressed.”
Judge Doughty noted the evidence presented in the case “depicts an almost dystopian scenario.”
“During the
COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread
doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have
assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth,’” Judge
Doughty wrote.
“If the
allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably
involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’
history. In their attempts to suppress alleged disinformation, the
Federal Government, and particularly the Defendants named here, are
alleged to have blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free
speech,” wrote Judge Doughty.
The
injunction also bars the U.S. State Department, Department of Homeland
Security, Department of Health and Human Services, Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
and at least 40 cabinet members and federal officials from engaging with
social media companies, except when dealing with criminal activity and
national security threats.
According to
the injunction, the government used “meetings, emails, phone calls,
follow-up meetings, and the power of the government” to influence public
narratives. Therefore, Judge Doughty specifically prohibited government
entities agencies from “engaging in any communication of any kind with
social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in
any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content
containing protected free speech,” said the injunction.
The injunction takes effect immediately.
Liberty
Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The Biden
administration’s shameful and unprecedented censorship of protected
speech violates our most fundamental liberty. This is the worst
censorship in history and it harmed people by preventing the
dissemination of life-saving information. What the U.S. Constitution
directly prevents, government officials cannot do indirectly through
private actors. The federal government’s lawlessness must be stopped.”
