{"id":1501571,"date":"2024-11-11T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1501571"},"modified":"2024-11-11T02:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T07:00:00","slug":"federal-judge-gives-states-in-censorship-lawsuit-against-us-govt-chance-to-make-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/federal-judge-gives-states-in-censorship-lawsuit-against-us-govt-chance-to-make-case\/1501571\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Gives States In Censorship Lawsuit Against US Govt Chance To Make Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federal Judge Gives States In Censorship Lawsuit Against US Govt Chance To Make Case<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A federal judge kept alive a lawsuit accusing the federal government of encouraging social media platforms to censor users\u2019 views.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The judge ruled that the two states that filed the lawsuit can continue their discovery, a pretrial phase that allows litigants to gather evidence for trial and can consist of examinations under oath and requests for documents.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe, Louisiana, issued the new order<\/a> on Nov. 8 after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 26 threw out the request by Missouri and Louisiana to prevent the Biden administration from communicating with social media companies about public health issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The states sued the federal government for censorship because it allegedly pressured social media companies to suppress certain content.<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a public statement encouraging the social media platforms to prevent information about COVID-19 that had been deemed misinformation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention \u201cfrom taking hold.\u201d The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency also communicated with the platforms about election-related misinformation in advance of the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 congressional elections.<\/p>\n

Supreme Court justices ruled<\/a> 6\u20133 in June that the states and five social media users challenging the federal government lacked legal standing to seek an injunction because they couldn\u2019t show that they were directly harmed by the government\u2019s efforts to communicate with the platforms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Standing refers to the right of someone to sue in court. The parties must show a strong enough connection to the law or action complained of to justify their participation in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The states argue that the Biden administration strong-armed social media companies into censoring disfavored views on important public issues, such as potential side effects related to COVID-19 vaccines and pandemic lockdowns. They say that applying this kind of pressure violates Americans\u2019 First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

Conservatives and others have complained that social media platforms suppress information about their views on transgender issues, COVID-19, and the 2020 election.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some on the left say removing posts on social media is necessary to prevent the spread of misinformation, and some have complained that social media platforms don\u2019t do enough to combat falsehoods.<\/p>\n

Doughty, whose 2023 ruling blocking the federal government from communicating with the social media companies was overturned by the Supreme Court in June, said in his new order that he considered it appropriate to ask the litigants whether there should be further discovery. The discovery would be related to the issue of standing to help the court evaluate if it has authority to continue with this case, or if the lawsuit should be dismissed.<\/p>\n

The states argued for discovery, while the federal government argued for dismissal, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe currently find ourselves in jurisdictional purgatory\u2014caught between differing standards,\u201d <\/strong><\/em>Doughty said in his new order.<\/p>\n

A \u201cgreater showing of standing\u201d is required for an injunction than is required for the \u201cminimal showing\u201d needed to keep litigation alive.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court was \u201cplainly applying this heightened standard when it reversed,\u201d so this means the high court\u2019s ruling \u201cis not necessarily fatal to [the states\u2019] suit generally.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The states have demonstrated the need for more discovery on the standing issue, the judge said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Doughty denied for the time being the states\u2019 request to amend their complaint in an effort to strengthen their legal standing in the case.<\/p>\n

The fact that President Joe Biden, whose administration is being sued, will be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump in a little more than two months doesn\u2019t justify throwing out the lawsuit, he said.<\/p>\n

Even though \u201cregime change is imminent,\u201d it would be \u201cquintessentially speculative\u201d to dismiss the case based on that fact alone, the judge said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Epoch Times reached out to the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana and the U.S. Department of Justice for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSun, 11\/10\/2024 – 21:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/federal-judge-gives-states-censorship-lawsuit-against-us-govt-chance-make-case<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal Judge Gives States In Censorship Lawsuit Against US Govt Chance To Make Case Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, A federal judge…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1501572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1501571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1501571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1501571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1501572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1501571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1501571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1501571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}