Appeals Court Stays Order Limiting Feds Contact With Social Media Firms

NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court on Friday afternoon stayed until further notice a lower court ruling that dramatically curbed the Biden administration’s ability to talk to social media companies due to free speech concerns.

The decision by the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came four days after the administration asked the appellate court to grant, at minimum, a 10-day stay to give it time to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee in Louisiana, blocked the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI and multiple other government agencies and administration officials from meeting with or contacting social media companies for the purpose of “encouraging, pressuring or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”

The ruling was a win for the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, as well as a conservative website owner and four individual critics of government COVID-19 policies, who had argued the administration’s communications violated protected speech.

Doughty also rejected an administration motion that he put his own order on hold, leading to the appeal to the normally conservative 5th Circuit.

In their motion, attorneys for the White House argued the decision Doughty rendered over the July Fourth weekend was too broad and could chill government officials’ speech on important matters.

They also argued Doughty failed to show the administration had ever made threats against social media companies to coerce them to take down posts.

“Indeed, the order denying the stay — presumably highlighting the ostensibly strongest evidence — referred to ‘a series of public media statements,’” the administration said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue