Florida – August 11, 2023 – America’s Future, Inc., a national leader in the fight to preserve individual rights, promote American values and traditions, and protect the nation’s Constitutional Republic, announced that it filed an Amicus brief in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case, Missouri v Biden, 5th Cir. Dkt No. 23-30445, regarding an attempt by “big government” in concert with “big tech” to covertly censor and suppress the free speech rights of Americans. The brief was filed on August 7, 2023, in support of the plaintiffs in the case, the states of Missouri and Louisiana, and five individuals.

As background, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals acquired jurisdiction over the case when the defendants filed an appeal seeking to reverse a July 4, 2023 court order by U.S. Federal District Court Judge, the Hon. Terry A. Doughty, from Louisiana’s Western District, which granted the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction prohibiting the federal government, its departments, agencies, and agents from continuing to violate the First Amendment rights of Americans. The 155-page ruling can be found here.

“America needs more judges like Judge Doughty who are willing to stand up for America, speak truth to power, and decide cases and controversies honestly, without fear or favor,” said Mary O’Neill, America’s Future Executive Director. “We pray that the Fifth Circuit does not disturb the preliminary injunction ordered by the lower court and that the plaintiffs prevail in this action.”

As the brief explains, “[i]n the United States, the government is [without authority to decide] ‘what actions citizens and businesses can and should take to advance the public good,‘ but rather, the People make those decisions for themselves. The government appears to have forgotten what James Madison explained so clearly, that: ‘the censorial power is the people over the government, and not in the government over the people.”

Further, the brief provides well-reasoned important insight to the court and explicates the significance of this case through a historical lens at times, for example, explained in the brief, “[t]he censorial actions taken by the government can neither be ignored, nor excused, for they violate one of the nation’s core principles that has never been better stated than it was by Justice Jackson seven decades ago: ‘If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.’”

To read more details about this filing, along with other briefs filed by America’s Future, please visit our Law & Policy page.