Exclusive—Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry: An Historic Injunction as the Fight for Free Speech Continues

Now Judge Terry Doughty has ruled in our favor, granting an historic preliminary injunction against the Biden administration that prevents them from censoring the protected speech of Americans across all social media platforms. Similar to ESG and other social credit scores, the Biden administration attempted to drive behavioral changes leading to self-censorship by silencing dissent and giving preferential treatment to government narratives. On July 4, Judge Doughty ruled that such preferential treatment is unconstitutional.

Of course, those in favor of totalitarian rule and the censorship of Americans—even those who simply tried to read or share accurate reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop—are crying foul, claiming that this ruling limits government speech. The truth is that federal officials have grossly overstepped their boundaries, and now they are being put back into their rightful place. At the same time, their efforts at social engineering have been brought to a screeching halt.

That’s not to say that this censorship enterprise is officially dead. In fact, this tumor growing within our nation’s fabric is so vast and entrenched, spanning across almost every government institution, working to control, manipulate, and deceive millions of social media users, that this victory must be one of many. We have won a battle, but not yet the war.

(Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

So each and every American must take this opportunity to ask themselves: can we keep our republic? Are we ready to flood social media with speech that is true, engage in open debate, and push back against federal officials who have knowingly tried to silence you? Are we ready to steer this nation back to truth and buck federal control of our “cognitive infrastructure?”

As Judge Doughty observed in his ruling, “the principal function of free speech under the United States’ system of government is to invite dispute; it may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.” But that is our battlefield, and also our best hope.

Why? “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one place to go,” warned Harry Truman. “And that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

That is why my office, and our counterparts in Missouri, look forward to litigating this very important case to conclusion on behalf of all Americans—because free speech is not subject to government approval.

Jeff Landry is the attorney general of Louisiana and a former U.S. representative.