Justice Department requests stay in social media case: Decision risks ‘grave harm’ 

The Justice Department on Thursday night requested a stay against a federal judge’s order limiting the Biden administration’s communication with social media companies over free speech concerns.

Lawyers — led by Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general — wrote in a filing before U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty in Louisiana that the order’s “broad scope and ambiguous terms” prevent the government from engaging in a “vast range of lawful and responsible conduct.”  

The government’s initiatives with social media companies prevent “grave harm” to the American people and the nation’s democratic processes, Boynton says in the filing.

“These immediate and ongoing harms to the Government outweigh any risk of injury to Plaintiffs if a stay is granted, and for the same reason, a stay is in the public interest,” the filing reads.

In a blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to curb disinformation online, Doughty ruled on Tuesday that administration officials cannot contact social media companies regarding “the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social media platforms.” 

That decision came after two Republican attorneys general alleged that federal officials “coordinated and colluded” with social media platforms to target “disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content.”

The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Wednesday evening, which will go to the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

That court is primarily made up of GOP-appointed judges.