A U.S. District Court Judge is temporarily prohibiting White House officials from meeting tech companies to discuss social media censorship. The judge argues that past actions were likely First Amendment violations.

In response to recent lawsuits filed by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, Louisiana judge Terry A. Doughty issued an injunction on Tuesday. The lawsuits allege that the White House forced or “significantly encouraged[d]” technology companies to suppress freedom of speech during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Doughty has barred several federal officials, including Biden’s Cabinet and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre, from contacting social networking companies to suppress speech.

The lawsuits named Google, Meta, and Twitter.

Fox News obtained the injunction which stated that the government’s action “likely violates the Free Speech Clause”. The court also said that it was “not persuaded” by the defendants’ arguments, dealing a major blow to the White House.

Doughty wrote: “During the COVID-19 Pandemic, which was characterized by doubt and uncertainty in general, the United States Government appears to have taken on a role that is similar to Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Truth’.”

The injunction states that “if the Plaintiffs’ allegations are true, this case is arguably the largest attack on free speech in the history of the United States.” In their efforts to suppress alleged misinformation, the Federal Government and the named defendants are accused of blatantly violating the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

In addition, the injunction claims that “the censorship claimed in this case almost exclusively focused on conservative speech” but that the issues raised in this case are “beyond partisan lines.”

Doughty said that “viewpoint discrimination” is a particularly egregious type of content discrimination. “The government should refrain from restricting speech when the motivational ideology or perspective of the speaker’s is the reason for the restriction.”

In the future, interactions between tech companies with government officials could be severely limited. Social media posts about criminal or national security issues could be an exception.

On Tuesday, the Missouri and Louisiana Attorneys General responded positively to the injunction.