Judge rejects Justice Department's request to pause order limiting Biden administration's contact with social media companies

Washington — A federal judge on Monday turned down a Justice Department request to temporarily pause an order that blocks top Biden administration officials and several agencies from contacting social media companies, rejecting the government's claims that the injunction was too broad and threatened to chill lawful conduct.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, appointed to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump, reiterated in a 13-page ruling denying the Justice Department's request for a stay that Missouri and Louisiana were likely to succeed on the merits of their case against the Biden administration.

"Although this Preliminary Injunction involves numerous agencies, it is not as broad as it appears," Doughty wrote. "It only prohibits something the Defendants have no legal right to do — contacting social media companies for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner, the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms."