In an order fittingly issued on Independence Day, a federal judge in Louisiana has forbidden multiple federal agencies and named officials from having any contact with social media companies with the intent to moderate content.  

The preliminary injunction arises from a suit filed by the states of Missouri and Louisiana, along with individuals that include two leading critics of the Covid-19 lockdown regime -- Harvard's Martin Kulldorff and Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya -- and Jim Hoft, who owns the right-wing website Gateway Pundit. 

"If the allegations made by plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States' history," wrote US District Judge Terry A. Doughty. "The plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the government has used its power to silence the opposition."