The complaint calls the government’s campaign to censor online speech one of ‘the gravest threats to free speech this country has ever faced’

On Friday, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Children’s Health Defense (CHD) et al., filed a class action lawsuit against President Joe Biden and numerous other federal agents and agencies in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, Monroe Division. The complaint alleges that the defendants have colluded with, encouraged and pressured social media companies to suppress speech that the government does not want the public to hear and to silence specific speakers who are critical of federal policy.

This class action, brought on behalf of all Americans who access the news from social media platforms, seeks nationwide injunctive relief on behalf of those Americans. Instead of seeking monetary damages, the claim asks the court to declare that the Defendants’ conduct violates the First Amendment and to prohibit them from engaging in any form of social media censorship in the future.

The complaint calls the government’s campaign to censor online speech one of “the gravest threats to free speech this country has ever faced.”

“Because of the historically unprecedented power wielded by a handful of behemoth social-media companies over the content of American public discourse, the federal government’s systematic campaign to induce these companies to censor speech is among the gravest threats to free speech this country has ever faced. …

Since 2020, an army of federal officers, at every level of the government—from the White House itself to the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the CDC, the Office of the Surgeon General, and numerous less-well-known federal entities—has been engaged in the effort to induce those companies to censor constitutionally protected speech.”

“U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said, ‘Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.’ It also violates the constitution,” CHD Chairman and Chief Litigation Counsel Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said. “The collaboration between the White House and health and intelligence agency bureaucrats to silence criticism of presidential policies is an assault on the most fundamental foundation stone of American Democracy.”

“The most serious threat to free speech of our time—and probably one of the most serious in the nation’s history—is the federal government’s massive, concerted and extraordinarily successful effort to get social media companies to censor ideas and information the government doesn’t want people to see, say or hear,” said Jed Rubenfeld, co-counsel for Plaintiffs. “This lawsuit challenges that censorship campaign, and we hope to bring it to an end. The real victim is the public, which is why we’ve brought this suit as a class action on behalf of everyone who accesses news from social media.”

CHD President and General Counsel Mary Holland said, “If Government can censor its critics, there is no atrocity it cannot commit. The public has been deprived of truthful, life-and-death information over the last three years; this lawsuit aims to have government censorship end, as it must, because it is unlawful under our constitution.”

Representing the Plaintiffs in addition to Mr. Rubenfeld is Louisiana Attorney G. Shelly Maturin, II.

About Children’s Health Defense:

Children’s Health Defense is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our mission is to end childhood health epidemics by working aggressively to eliminate harmful exposures, hold those responsible accountable and establish safeguards to prevent future harm. For more information or to donate to CHD and our ongoing lawsuits, visit ChildrensHealthDefense.org.