KEY TAKEAWAYS: Federal decree prevents government from forcing social media censorship Louisiana and Missouri sued Biden administration over alleged pressure campaigns Consent decree allows Louisiana to enforce protections against federal agencies   Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murril l stated Tuesday that Louisiana secured federal consent decree with the Trump administration, banning the federal government from using coercion tactics to force social media companies into censoring the speech of the American people. Louisiana and Missouri filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration in 2022 for pressuring major social media companies to censor speech and content on issues like COVID-19 and elections. George Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning against tyranny, a news release from Murrill’s office said. The news release said Orwell never intended it to be used as a how-to guide by the federal government. Yet, Louisiana case uncovered over 20,000 pages of documents highlighting an extensive censorship campaign stemming directly from the U.S. President and his administration. The news release said Louisiana took the case case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. A majority of the Court found a lack of standing to sue. But, as Justices Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch, and Chief Judge Doughty, said, “This case involves … ‘a far-reaching and widespread censorship campaign’ conducted by high-ranking federal officials against Americans who expressed certain disfavored views about COVID–19 on social media.” That was “blatantly unconstitutional,” they wrote, according to the news release. Murrill said the new consent decree ends the litigation and gives Louisiana the power to enforce this decree against the federal government. According to the decree, “the Surgeon General, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) (“Enjoined Defendants”), and their employees and agents, shall take no actions, formal or informal, directly or indirectly—except as authorized by the Constitution, statute, judicial order, or regulation—to threaten Social-Media Companies with some form of punishment (i.e., an adverse legal, regulatory, or economic government sanction) unless they remove, delete, suppress, or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech. The news release said, “nor shall Enjoined Defendants unilaterally direct or veto social media content moderation decisions of Social Media Companies.” “Shadow bans, throttling, and blocking information such as the Hunter Biden laptop were a common occurrence,” Murrill said. “One of the darkest moments in the history of the First Amendment is over. I’d like to thank President Trump and his administration for defending the Constitution and ending this assault on free speech.” Follow Ian Robinson on Twitter @_irobinson and on Facebook at https://bit.ly/3vln0w1. This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Louisiana AG: Federal deal limits social media censorship Reporting by Ian Robinson, Shreveport Times / Shreveport Times USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect ...read more read less