Show-Me State Times

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R-Mo.) criticized the federal government for “unlawfully pressuring Big Tech companies to take down constitutionally protected speech” during testimony before a hearing of the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

“After successfully obtaining a court order compelling the federal government to produce documents, my office obtained more than 20,000 pages of evidence detailing extraordinary censorship efforts by a variety of officials within the federal government,” said Bailey. “My office also deposed key witnesses including Dr. Anthony Fauci and officials from the FBI, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Surgeon General, and the CDC.”

“These documents reveal specific incidents of federal officials unlawfully pressuring Big Tech companies to take down constitutionally protected speech,” said Bailey. “Backed by overt and implicit threats of legal retribution, officials in the White House have hurled abusive invectives at employees of Big Tech companies, pushing them to suppress information even when said information is protected by both the Constitution and the companies’ own terms of service.”

Bailey’s remarks focused on Missouri v Biden, a lawsuit filed by his office and the state of Louisiana in May 2022. 

The NY Post reported of the lawsuit that, “Missouri and Louisiana have claimed social media sites violated the First Amendment by over-censoring users on social media over topics like COVID and election security.” 

The Post’s Miranda Devine wrote that the lawsuit “is uncovering astonishing evidence of an entrenched censorship scheme cooked up between the federal government and Big Tech that would make Communist China proud.” 

Bailey and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) "filed for a Motion for Expedited Preliminary Injunction-Related Discovery on June 17, 2022, and that motion was granted on July 12, 2022, clearing the way for Missouri and Louisiana to gather discovery and documents from Biden Administration and social media companies," according to the Missouri AG's website.

"The request for depositions was filed on October 10, 2022, and that motion was granted on October 21, 2022, allowing Missouri and Louisiana to depose top-ranking officials in the federal government under oath," said the website.

The subcommittee hearing, “Churches vs. Casinos: The Constitution is not Suspended in Times of Crisis,” was held June 21, and also featured testimony by Louisiana Solicitor General Elizabeth Murrill; Misha Tseytlin, the former solicitor general of Wisconsin; and, University of Virginia law professor Mica Schwartzmann.