On July 4, 2023, in a case one of the attorneys called “the most important free speech case in a generation,” a federal judge granted an injunction against the Biden administration sought by Attorneys General for Missouri and Louisiana, and by some private individuals including Jim Hoft, owner of The Gateway Pundit, and Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya. After exhaustively listing impermissible communications between government and social media companies primarily aimed at limiting what he called “conservative” views, district judge Terry Doughty ordered the executive branch defendants to cease colluding with Big Tech to censor dissenting voices. The media entities involved, such as Facebook and Twitter, were not named defendants since the First Amendment no-censorship obligation does not technically apply to them.

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Besides the White House, restrained agencies include the FBI, Department of Justice, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Treasury, and the CDC. Because the injunction only finds a likelihood of success by the plaintiffs, defendants can appeal this ruling.

Yet the evidentiary basis for it is firm. Over 80 pages of the Court’s ruling are packed with documentary and transcript evidence: names and dates of written and oral communications almost “Orwellian” in nature, with the government pressuring, cajoling, and bullying social media executives to censor speech.

The Court concluded that most defendants both openly and privately “significantly encouraged,” “threatened,” and even “coerced” social media companies to curtail speech that contributed to “vaccine hesitancy” or questioned the processes or results of federal elections.

Judge Doughty, a Trump nominee, rejected the Plaintiffs’ request to certify the case as a class action, saying the class was too “vast,” making joinder of all victims “impossible.”

But regarding the substance of the case, he cited “the Founding Fathers’ thoughts” such as these by George Washington and Ben Franklin, respectively:

“For if men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use to us; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.”

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the free acts of speech.”

Christians can thank God that the words of our Founding Fathers were echoed on Independence Day 2023 by this judge in Louisiana.  Let’s pray Psalm 80’s repeated petition for God to shine an exposing and cleansing light on any efforts by government to infringe the right of free speech.

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Leah Farish is an award-winning attorney and host of the Conversation Balloons podcast on major platforms. LeahFarish.com. Photo Credit: Getty.