Judge Terry Doughty Praised After Biden's Social Media Ban: 'Big Win'

Conservatives have been celebrating on social media after a Louisiana district court judge ruled the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment by encouraging social media companies to censor "political speech" during the coronavirus pandemic.

Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, accused the federal government of having "assumed a role similar to an Orwellian 'Ministry of Truth'" with "targeted suppression of conservative ideas."

He issued an injunction banning a range of federal agencies and officials, including the FBI and the Justice Department, from contacting social media companies with the aim of removing speech protected by the First Amendment.

During the COVID-19 pandemic prominent social media companies targeted what they deemed to be dangerous misinformation, sparking debates about free speech. In July 2021 then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki described people "dying around the country because they are getting misinformation" about coronavirus vaccines as "our biggest concern."

In his 155-page opinion released on Tuesday, in response to a case brought by the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, Doughty commented: "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.'"

In George Orwell's novel 1984, the Ministry of Truth was responsible for propaganda and rewriting history.

Doughty ruled that officials had overstepped their constitutional remit by asking social media firms to suppress coronavirus vaccine "disinformation."

He claimed speech was suppressed on a range of topics including the effectiveness of lockdown, masking and the coronavirus vaccines, the lab-leak theory for COVID-19's origin, the validity of the 2020 presidential election result and stories concerning Hunter Biden's laptop ahead of the poll.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a non-profit group which claims to "protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the administrative state," joined the suit, representing a number of groups and individuals who claimed to have been censored on social media.

In a statement sent to Newsweek, NCLA president Mark Chenoweth said: "Judge Doughty's ruling in the Missouri v. Biden case reinforces what the New Civil Liberties Alliance has been saying from the start of this case. The federal government has been deliberately censoring speech protected by the First Amendment. Its conduct has not merely threatened free speech; our government has actively suppressed free speech in an orchestrated, unprecedented and entirely unlawful manner.

"The Biden Administration's outrageous assault on the Constitution and on the civil liberties of Americans must end. Judge Doughty's preliminary injunction will help immensely."

The ruling was welcomed by conservative figures on Twitter, with Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt commenting: "A Federal Judge in Missouri v. Biden just granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the FBI, DOJ, DHS & other agencies from working with Big Tech to censor on social media.

"Big win for the First Amendment on this Independence Day. I'm proud to have led the fight."

Benjamin Weingarten, a conservative writer and editor at large for news website Real Clear Investigations, described the decision as "this major ruling in defense of free speech and against America's mass public-private surveillance and censorship regime."

Writer and activist Michael Shellenberger called the ruling "a devastating indictment of US government censorship, and a frightening peek into how close we have come to totalitarianism."

In a statement released on Tuesday, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry called the ruling a "historic injunction" which prevents the Biden administration "from censoring the core political speech of ordinary Americans on social media."

However, the decision was criticized by MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin, who said: "This is a truly astonishing ruling that will compromise the health, safety, and yes, liberty of some so others can spread false, harmful information in the name of free speech."

She later added: "Remember: No district court judge issues a 155-page opinion on a federal holiday (much less July 4th) unless he intends to make a career-altering statement and craves major media attention."

The ruling can be appealed at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, according to Politico.

Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment by email.

Twitter said previously that, as of September 2022, it had suspended 11,230 accounts for spreading misinformation about COVID, including one run by Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. This account was later restored, after Elon Musk completed his takeover of Twitter in October.

Update 7/6/23 3:20 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with comment from the New Civil Liberties Alliance.