Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey requested a preliminary injunction on Monday to stop high-ranking federal government officials from allegedly working with Big Tech to encroach on First Amendment rights.
The motion request is the most current development in the continuing Missouri v. Biden free speech lawsuit, leading to the attorneys general securing access to thousands of internal papers possessed by the federal government.
Included in the filing is a reference to 1,432 facts revealed by the documents allegedly showing high-ranking officials colluding with social media platforms in order to censor speech they do not like.
“This case involves some of the most egregious First Amendment violations in American history,” the attorneys general stated in the filing. “Federal officials from the White House and multiple agencies use pressure, threats, coercion, cajoling, collusion, demands, and trickery and deceit to induce social-media platforms to censor speakers and viewpoints on social media that the federal officials disfavor.”
🚨In order to protect the Constitution, I filed a motion for preliminary injunction with @AGJeffLandry in our landmark lawsuit, Missouri v. Biden, asking the court to block the Biden administration from coercing and colluding with social media companies to censor free speech.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) March 7, 2023
Bailey appeared on Fox Business’ “The Bottom Line” in Jan. to discuss the lawsuit, arguing the court battle is “the most important First Amendment case in a generation.”
During the same interview, a snippet of a quotation by Landry showed him stating that “when Big Government enters into such a conspiracy with Big Business to violate your rights, it’s also known by another name: fascism.”
Thanks @FoxBusiness for having me on ”The Bottom Line” last night to talk about Missouri v. Biden, our lawsuit targeting the federal government for coercing and colluding with big tech social media companies to censor free speech. pic.twitter.com/wk5qg9hiN9
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) January 25, 2023
As the Daily Caller reported, the motion request featured a 364-page document detailing numerous examples of alleged censorship, such as Center for Disease Control (CDC) officials marking which social-media posts it preferred to be terminated, the FBI “deliberately” introducing fictitious information in an effort to urge online platforms to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story, White House officials compelling platforms to prohibit certain views, and Dr. Anthony Fauci pressuring organizations to censor the Wuhan lab-leak theory. The information came from a news release by Attorney General Landry.
“The overwhelming evidence is clear: the highest levels of our federal government are suppressing the First Amendment rights of Americans who have opposing views,” alleged Attorney General Landry in a statement. “This egregious and unlawful viewpoint censorship by the White House, FBI, CDC, CISA, and other agencies not only chills speech; but it also unjustly inflicts grave and irreparable injuries on citizens and states, whose duty it is to protect their fundamental rights.”
