Injunction Would Block State Department From Censoring ‘Disfavored’ Media Outlets

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and the Daily Wire and Federalist media outlets seek a preliminary injunction to block the State Department, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and five of his department colleagues from promoting or using censorship technology that targets Americans’ speech or the American press, said their motion Tuesday (docket 6:23-cv-00609) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Texas in Tyler. The plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm absent the requested injunctive relief as a direct result of the defendants’ “ultra vires actions,” which have also “gravely violated,” and continue to violate, the media plaintiffs' First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press, said the motion. They followed that up Wednesday with a separate motion to expedite discovery. Such expedited discovery is essential for the court to assess what "additional and tailored" preliminary injunctive relief is appropriate and necessary to fully address the details and scope of the defendants’ “ultra vires and unconstitutional conduct and to prevent further irreparable harm” to the plaintiffs, it said. The State Department, through its Global Engagement Center, “is actively intervening in the news-media market to limit the reach of, the circulation of, and render unprofitable, disfavored press outlets,” said the plaintiffs’ memorandum in support of the preliminary injunction. It’s doing so by funding the infrastructure, development, and marketing and promotion of censorship technology and private censorship enterprises “to covertly suppress speech of a segment of the American press,” it said. The government’s motion Monday for a 45-day deadline stay to answer the plaintiffs’ complaint gave the first indication that the plaintiffs intended to seek a preliminary injunction (see 2402070016).