A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against government efforts to silence the COVID-19 debate, to take effect after a historic Supreme Court ruling.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his fellow plaintiffs received a partial legal victory on Feb. 14 in their suit against the Biden administration’s collusion with Big Tech to censor Americans. Louisiana District Court Judge Terry Doughty granted part of the plaintiff’s requested preliminary injunction in his ruling for Kennedy v. Biden. He ordered that certain government agencies halt their anti-First Amendment collusion with Big Tech.
Doughty ordered “that the White House Defendants, Surgeon General Defendants, CDC Defendants, FBI Defendants, and CISA Defendants, and their employees and agents, shall take no actions, formal or informal, directly or indirectly, to coerce or significantly encourage social-media companies to remove, delete, suppress or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech.”
The judge previously issued a similar injunction for Murthy v. Missouri (formerly Missouri v. Biden), which has been consolidated with Kennedy v. Biden. Because the two cases will be decided together, the new Kennedy v. Biden injunction will not go into effect until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on Murthy v. Missouri.
The “Kennedy Plaintiffs” had accused the government defendants, including Joe Biden and members of his administration, of violating the “Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”
Doughty’s ruling agreed that the plaintiffs provided evidence that “not only have the Defendants shown willingness to coerce and/or to give significant encouragement to social-media platforms to suppress free speech with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic and national elections, but they have also shown a willingness to do it with regard to other issues.” These include the climate, abortion, and critiques of Biden.
Indeed, an MRC Free Speech America study, cited in Missouri v. Biden, revealed that social media platforms censored public criticism of Biden 646 times between March 10, 2020, and March 10, 2022. Another MRC study, based on data from the unique CensorTrack.org database, found over 800 cases of COVID-19 censorship as of February 2022.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency and an equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
