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The headline reads: "White House Doubles Down on Censorship Scheme That Violates the Constitution To Muzzle Critics."
In response to a federal judge’s ruling halting the program, the president files an appeal devoid of even one winning argument in his own defense.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and author of "The Next Pandemic."
She says, "President Biden has played his cards: all bluff, no aces."
A federal district court judge, Terry Doughty, calls Biden's actions “the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.”
Let's take a closer look.
Be informed, not misled.
Betsy McCaughey writes:
On July 4, Judge Doughty announced that the evidence produced so far indicates the president is operating a vast, illegal censorship scheme to muzzle his critics.
Judge Doughty knows tyranny when he sees it. He’s got the goods on the Biden administration, and he laid out his evidence in 155 pages, all meticulously footnoted.
Mr. Biden, numerous White House staff, and employees of 11 federal agencies are being sued for operating a whole-of-government censorship operation to prevent you —- the public — from seeing social media posts that challenge Biden policies on a wide range of issues from vaccines to climate change, inflation and more.
Not to mention any posts that mock Biden family members. Straight out of Kim Jong Un’s playbook.
Judge Doughty cited ample evidence — emails, meeting notes, sworn testimony, and correspondence — showing the Biden administration strong-arms media platforms into serving as government censors.
The Constitution bars the government from censoring, so Mr. Biden is coercing social media to do the dirty work for him. That, reasons Judge Doughty, is just as unconstitutional.
Biden has a history of ignoring the Constitution.
In August 2021, National Review ran this headline: "Biden’s Unprecedented Attack on the Constitution."
The Review said, "Joe Biden certainly isn’t the first president to violate his oath of office, but he might be the first in memory to openly brag about doing it. As Biden announced a new 'eviction moratorium,' he informed Americans that the 'bulk of constitutional scholars' would say the CDC eviction moratorium is 'not likely to pass constitutional muster'.”
"Biden admitted to the media," they said, "that he would be circumventing the courts, the law, and his oath of office, in which he promised, to the best of his ability, to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,' not to infringe on the property rights of Americans to placate crackpot socialists in his party."
While an impeachment proceeding was filed, it didn't move and is still "pending."
At that time, the Los Angles Times wrote an article structured to minimize what Biden was doing. The theme of their reporting was "Yeah, he violated the Constitution, but everybody else is doing it too---no big deal."
It was a big deal. Anytime any president knowingly violates the Constitution of the United States, it's a big deal.
At least it should be.
The judge is taking appropriate action for the sake of the country.
To halt this assault on freedom as an election nears, Judge Doughty issued an order on July 4 barring Mr. Biden himself and dozens of White House staff and federal agency employees from any further communications with executives at Facebook/Meta, Twitter, YouTube/Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, and other platforms “for the purpose of encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content.”
It’s damage control for the nation.
The White House denies coercing social media executives, insisting they make “independent choices.”
However, Judge Doughty documents the demands made to social media and the coercive language that White House staff and other federal employees used. Biden officials met with tech executives regularly and flagged content they wanted to be removed.
McCaughey notes that "Judge Doughty cites numerous times administration representatives warned that the Biden administration would consider altering Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects social media platforms from being held liable for what they post or refuse to post. That threat is tantamount to holding a gun to their heads."
Judge Doughty explains, "The purpose of the First Amendment, is to preserve an uninhibited marketplace of ideas.”
Tragically, liberal media are no longer champions of a marketplace of ideas. The New York Times blasts Judge Doughty and warns the lawsuit could “alter how government battles disinformation, dangerous falsehoods, and harmful content online.”
That has never been the government's job. And it should not be now.
The Washington Post goes into a time of mourning and cautions that “after companies and the federal government spent years expanding efforts to combat online falsehoods,” this lawsuit might end that cooperation.
It's not "cooperation." It's "collusion."
The First Amendment protects all speech, good and bad, true and false.
Leftist media characterize Judge Doughty as a “Trump-appointed judge” to discredit him.
Truth is, Judge Doughty was confirmed by the Senate 98-0 and has become a formidable defender of the Constitution’s limits on government.
He halted Biden’s mandate that all healthcare workers be vaccinated and a similar mandate requiring Head Start workers be vaccinated, not because he opposed vaccines but because both mandates exceeded the federal government’s authority.
Judge Doughty has a strong case again.
He warns that the U.S. government “seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth'” like that in Orwell's "1984."
There are still good, honest, brilliant public servants in America. Judge Terry Doughty is one of them.
Our current president's actions and disregard for the Constitution create a grave danger, but it won’t advance on this judge’s watch.
Judge Doughty writes: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation," quoting an 80-year-old precedent, “it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.”
Takeaway
Founding Father James Madison noted, "There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation."
He warned, "It is indispensable that some provision should be made for defending the Community against the incapacity, negligence or perfidy of the Chief Magistrate."
In his personal notes on the same day, he noted that "perfidy" means "The quality or state of being faithless or disloyal."
Paul, writing to the Ephesians (5:6), said, "Let no one deceive you with empty words."
The Prophet Jeremiah (9:6) warned, "You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit, they refuse to acknowledge me, declares the LORD."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.