Judge Denies State Department’s Deadline Stay to Answer Texas AG’s Injunction Motion

A U.S. District judge for Eastern Texas granted the State Department’s motion for a 45-day extension, to March 28, to respond to the Dec. 6 complaint in which Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and the Daily Wire and Federalist media companies allege the department is running an “egregious” government operation to censor disfavored media outlets (see 2402070016), said the judge’s signed order Friday (docket 6:23-cv-00609). Judge Jeremy Kernodle’s order also denied the government’s motion to stay its deadlines to respond to the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction and for expedited briefing deadlines on the injunction motion. The injunction would block the 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 (see 2402080044).