Judge Terry Doughty refused to pause his July 4 federal injunction, as well as an alternative request for a seven-day pause while the U.S. petitions the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to a report in Zero Hedge. Doughty issued an order last week which bans federal agencies from communicating with social media companies, based on his 155-page opinion that the government likely violated the First Amendment in exerting sway over internet and social media companies to shape information flows, by preventing the spread of what government agencies have called “misinformation, disinformation and malinformation (MDM).”
Bloomberg reports that in asking for a reprieve, government attorneys argued the judge’s order was too broad, unclear and would interfere with the ability of federal agencies to work with tech companies “on initiatives to prevent grave harm to the American people and our democratic processes.”
In his Monday ruling, on July 10, Doughty defended his order against the DOJ’s claims that it’s overly broad and unclear in terms of what types of communications are no longer allowed, according to Zero Hedge. Doughty wrote that the government isn’t entitled to a delay in enforcing his order because they were likely to lose on the merits of the case, and slammed the DOJ for failing to identify a specific example of activity that would be hurt in the meantime.
