Americans fed up with the federal government’s censorship scheme may soon be able to file civil lawsuits against the bureaucrats stifling their free speech online, a newly introduced bill stipulates.
The bill, named the Standing to Challenge Government Censorship Act, would prohibit federal workers and contractors from using their positions to instruct Big Tech platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech online. Bureaucrats who break the law would face civil lawsuits from affected Americans.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Reps. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) and Dan Bishop (R-NC) introduced the bill on Wednesday in response to the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Murthy v. Missouri. The Court ruled that the pro-free speech plaintiffs did not have standing to sue the federal government over its censorship collusion with Big Tech.
The court ruled that the states of Missouri and Louisiana and other plaintiffs did not sufficiently prove that government-Big Tech collusion posed ongoing harm that the court should halt. However, it did not exclude opportunities for Americans to sue the government for damages caused by Big Tech censorship. This legislation would provide a pathway for victims of Big Tech censorship to do that.
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell hailed the proposed fix as a “no-brainer” in a joint statement with Republican lawmakers. “Let the people sue government officials who are working on the taxpayer dime to censor everyday Americans. Senator Paul is valiantly defending our Constitutional free speech rights,” Bozell said.
Echoing Bozell’s remarks, Paul highlighted the Framer’s recognition of the First Amendment’s importance. “Our Founding Fathers enshrined the First Amendment to protect our God-given right to free expression, recognizing its fundamental importance to a free society,” Paul said.
The senator stated that the bill would “strip away the barriers preventing judicial review of coercive government tactics that silence dissenting voices.”
Hageman, a staunch free speech defender, said that the government “cannot do by proxy what it is prohibited from doing directly,” adding, “This is exactly what happened with the Biden Administration pressuring social media companies to suppress the free speech of American citizens.”
Concluding, Bishop stated, “Malicious actors within government should never be allowed to silence and censor Americans, and Americans targeted by the Censorship Industrial Complex deserve their day in court. This legislation will ensure just that by removing barriers for judicial review and cracking down on those who aim to trample on the First Amendment.”
Other organizations endorsing the legislation include the Institute for Free Speech, Heritage Action, Frontiers of Freedom Institute, Americans for Limited Government, Ginn Economic Consulting, Consumer Choice Center, and American Commitment, NetChoice and America Matters.
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
