George Orwell - Public Domain

By CHRISTINE DOLAN

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over the Fifth Circuit’s grant of a preliminary injunction in Missouri v. Biden. 

This injunction bars officials from the White House, Center for Disease Control (CDC), Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and U.S. Surgeon General’s office from coercing or significantly encouraging social media platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech. 

New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA)  joined the lawsuit, State of Missouri ex rel. Schmitt, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., et al., representing renowned epidemiologists and co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, Drs. Jayanta Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, as well as Dr. Aaron Kheriaty and Jill Hines.

“NCLA is thrilled to have the opportunity to vindicate the First Amendment rights of our clients, and all Americans, in the nation’s highest court. We are confident that after a thorough review of the disturbing facts in this important case—which involves unprecedented government-imposed, viewpoint-based censorship—the Court will recognize the grievous, unconstitutional nature of the government’s conduct and enjoin it,” said
Jenin Younes, Litigation Counsel, NCLA.

The Fifth Circuit panel of judges last month upheld the key components of U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty’s July 4 preliminary injunction order, prohibiting named federal officials from coercing or significantly encouraging social media companies to suppress legal speech. 

That decision validated claims that Americans were blacklisted, shadow-banned, de-boosted, de-platformed, and suspended on social media as part of the government’s years-long censorship at the direction of, and participation with U.S. federal government officials.

“If anything, the Fifth Circuit’s decision did not go far enough in enjoining the reprehensible conduct exposed in this case. The facts of this case show government agencies censored speech in a deliberate effort to control the narrative on several controversial topics ahead of the last election.,” said Mark Chenoweth, President, NCLA.

“The First Amendment forbids such censorship, and the Supreme Court must never allow such mischief again, if we are to keep our democracy,” he emphasized. 

The Biden Administration’s censorship successfully suppressed perspectives contradicting government-approved views on topics such as whether natural immunity to covid exists, Covid-19 shots’ safety and efficacy, Covid-19’s origin, and mask mandate efficacy. 

But, beyond the topic of covid, documents obtained through discovery in this case have now raised even more alarming evidence and questions of a lack of ethics across the Biden Administration that should be very alarming to every American no matter their political positions.  

The documents obtained clearly demonstrate that the Biden’s federal government officials were also censoring critiques of its foreign and monetary policies, election infrastructure, abortion, and gender ideology.

All heated topics that still exist today. 

The evidence demonstrate a massive shift to not just cover up, but to smash freedom of speech and Biden government officials’ distain for contrary viewpoints. 

The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily stayed the Fifth Circuit’s injunction until they make a final ruling. 

“We are disappointed Americans’ First Amendment rights will be vulnerable to government infringement until this case is decided. But we are confident this Court, as strong as it is on First Amendment issues, will rule against the government and uphold our clients’ rights and liberties,” said John Vecchione, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA.

The Fifth Circuit recognized that the Plaintiffs did “not challenge the social-media platforms’ content-moderation policies.” Rather, Plaintiffs challenged the government’s unlawful efforts to influence “enforcement of those policies.” The government gravely harmed the ability of Americans to convey their views to the public, and it deprived Americans of their right to hear differing opinions from the government’s.

 Judge Doughty did not mince words when describing the Biden Administration’s conduct as “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history” and “akin to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.”