July 4th was a good day for freedom as word spread that U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Louisiana Hon. Terry A. Doughty granted the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction in Missouri, et al. v Biden, et al., Dkt. 3:22-cv-01213 at (July 4, 2023). Injunctive relief was ordered, in part, because Judge Doughty determined the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits or, as he put it, “[the plaintiffs] can likely prove that White House defendants engaged in coercion to induce social-media companies to suppress free speech.” With the order, Judge Doughty laid out his reasoning and directives in a 155-page memorandum.
“The Court has granted our motion to BLOCK top officials in the federal government from violating the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans. What a way to celebrate Independence Day,” tweeted Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who, along with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and five individuals, sued the federal government for violating the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
For many years now, conservative voices on social media platforms have been censored, suppressed, and silenced. Those are known facts, proven and underscored by the reporting of journalists given access to Twitter’s archive files by Twitter owner, Elon Musk. As the plaintiffs’ discovery process moved along in this case, more and more evidence of government violations of First Amendment rights came to light regarding suppression of conservative-leaning voices about the Hunter Biden laptop story, Covid-19’s “origin…efficiency of masks and lockdown,” the 2020 election, and other issues of public importance.
In granting the injunction, Judge Doughty acknowledges the expansive free speech violations by the government in the ruling, noting that “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.”
Thus far, “the Court is only examining it in terms of Plaintiffs’ likelihood of success on the merits, the evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario,” the Judge explained in his memorandum. “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.’” The court’s reference to the “Ministry of Truth” is explained in footnote 721 as “the concept presented in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, ‘1984.’ In the novel, the Ministry of Truth is a governmental institution responsible for altering historical records and disseminating propaganda to manipulate and control public perception.”
The plaintiffs’ initiated this lawsuit on May 5, 2022. To access free court filings from the docket in this case, click here. Yesterday, July 5, 2023, the Department of Justice filed a Notice of Appeal, however, the Judge’s order “shall remain in effect pending the final resolution of this case or until further orders issue from this Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, or the Supreme Court of the United States.”
America’s Future urges readers to pay close attention to this case and speak up against those who violate citizens’ First Amendment rights. As George Washington said, and Judge Doughty quotes in his ruling, “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the free acts of speech.”
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