NEW ORLEANS (NEWSnet/AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily paused a lower court’s order limiting executive branch officials’ communications with social media companies about controversial online posts.

Biden administration lawyers had asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to stay the preliminary injunction, issued on July 4 by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty. Doughty himself had rejected a request to put his order on hold pending appeal.

Friday's order put Doughty's injunction on hold “until further orders of the court.” It called for arguments in the case to be scheduled on an expedited basis.

The lawsuit, filed in 2022, claimed the administration, in effect, censored free speech by discussing possible regulatory action the government could take while pressuring companies to remove what it deemed misinformation. COVID-19 vaccines, legal issues involving President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and election fraud allegations are among the topics spotlighted in the lawsuit.

Doughty issued an Independence Day order and accompanying reasons. He said the plaintiffs are likely to win their ongoing lawsuit. His injunction blocked the Department of Health and Human Services, FBI and multiple other government agencies and administration officials from “encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech."

Administration lawyers said the order is overly broad and vague, raising questions about what officials can say in conversations with social media companies or in public statements. They say Doughty's order poses a threat of “grave” public harm by chilling executive branch efforts to combat online misinformation.

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