Louisiana federal appeals court rules against Biden in Facebook, Twitter censorship case
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A federal appeals court in Louisiana has upheld a district judge's order banning much of the Biden administration from communicating with social media companies like Facebook about controversial online posts.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling prevents the White House, surgeon general, FBI and Centers for Disease Control from influencing a platform's content moderation decisions.
Biden's attorneys are expected to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Louisiana U.S. Judge Terry Doughty issued the temporary injunction on July 4 while he considers a lawsuit accusing government officials of colluding with Facebook, YouTube and X, formerly Twitter, to suppress conservative voices about the COVID pandemic and Hunter Biden's laptop.
The 5th Circuit did narrow Doughty's ruling by removing the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency and the State Department from the order.
Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri's former attorney general and now U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt filed the lawsuit.
Landry called the ruling "a major win against censorship, totalitarianism, and Biden" in a tweet.
Biden's attorneys argued in their appeal that Doughty's temporary injunction could cause "grave harm" by preventing the government from “engaging in a vast range of lawful and responsible conduct.”
“These immediate and ongoing harms to the Government outweigh any risk of injury to Plaintiffs if a stay is granted,” the attorneys said.
In his ruling, Doughty said the litigants “produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.”
Doughty's ruling made exceptions for national security threats and criminal activity.
He said the plaintiffs were likely to win their ongoing lawsuit and his injunction blocked much of the executive branch from "encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”
Doughty, 64, a Republican nominated by Trump in 2017, was confirmed by the Senate in 2018 on a 98-0 vote.
More: What we know about Judge Terry Doughty, who blocked Biden's COVID vaccine mandate and drilling ban
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1
This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Louisiana appeals court rules against Biden in Facebook censorship case
