After the Supreme Court declined to rule on the merits of Murthy v. Missouri, a federal judge has paused litigation — so efforts to end systematic government censorship could hang in the balance.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty granted a motion from the defendants — former President Joe Biden and his top administration officials — to stay the case. Jenin Younes, a litigation counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance representing plaintiffs, told The Federalist the order pauses the case in light of President Donald Trump’s executive order “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.”
“The government suggested that we move to stay discovery,” Younes said. “They want to put in a statement about what effect they think the executive order has. I’m guessing they’re going to say it makes the case moot.”
If the judge rules the case moot, it will be dismissed as no longer relevant. She said plaintiffs agreed to stay the case so the judge will get a chance to decide, but the censorship-industrial complex could potentially pose an issue in the future.
“We haven’t staked out our position yet, but there are arguments against mootness,” Younes said, “especially if there’s a chance that could happen again and the executive order won’t necessarily be binding on a subsequent administration.”
Murthy — formerly known as Missouri v. Biden — began when plaintiffs, including the states of Missouri and Louisiana, sued Biden and some of his top officials for colluding with Big Tech companies to censor speech online, as The Federalist previously reported. The case revealed troves of evidence proving the anti-speech actions of the censorship-industrial complex — specifically, how the federal government colluded with private corporations to censor things from The New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story to heterodox views of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“Murthy is ultimately about enabling an enormous censorship-industrial complex to control individuals’ conversations — and by extension, individuals’ relationships — at the behest of government actors,” Stella Morabito previously wrote for The Federalist.
Earlier in the case, Doughty issued an injunction against these censorship activities, holding that federal officials had carried out “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history,” The Federalist previously reported. Defendants appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which upheld most of Doughty’s ruling. The matter went to the Supreme Court last summer, which ruled 6-3 plaintiffs “failed to establish standing” to seek an injunction against the federal government — despite mountains of evidence. At the time, Younes told The Federalist that NCLA would be “pursuing it on the merits” by taking it to discovery in district court.
Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to ensure “no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.” It also said no “taxpayer resources” may be used to do so, and the government will “identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct.”
Tuesday’s order from Doughty extended defendants’ deadline to submit a statement “regarding the effect of the executive order on this action” until April 7, and plaintiffs’ deadline until May 7. Younes said the judge will likely decide whether or not the case is moot in mid-to-late May.
The executive order could spell the end of the censorship-industrial complex, as The Federalist noted at the time. But, as executive orders are temporary, a lack of other measures could potentially let a future president resume federal censorship activities.
There are still remnants of the Biden regime’s censorship apparatus in place. The State Department’s Global Engagement Center funded the London-based Global Disinformation Index, which tried to deplatform conservative outlets, including The Federalist. So The Federalist, The Daily Wire, and the state of Texas sued for First Amendment violations.
Congress cut funding for the GEC this year, and the agency closed its doors in December. But as Gabe Kaminsky with The Washington Examiner reported, the GEC’s funding and close to 50 of its employees were rerouted to a new “hub” — “Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference.” It is unclear what Trump’s State Department under Secretary Marco Rubio plans to do with this agency.
Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.
