By Brendan Pierson

A group of Democratic state attorneys general has urged a federal appeals court to lift an order sharply curbing the ability of government officials to push social media companies to moderate content they deem harmful.

The top law enforcement officers of 20 states and the District of Columbia, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, said in a filing Friday with the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the order hampers efforts by government officials to stop the spread of false information.

The July 4 preliminary order from U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana came in a lawsuit filed in May 2022 by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri.

They alleged that U.S. government officials, under both Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, effectively coerced social media companies to censor posts over concerns they would fuel vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or upend elections.

The judge said that federal officials violated the right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment when they began asking social media companies such as Meta's Facebook and Google's YouTube around 2019 to limit the spread of posts they considered to be misinformation.

The order is temporarily on hold while the Biden administration appeals it.

If the 5th Circuit allows it to take effect again, it will bar government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from talking to social media companies for "the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech" under the First Amendment, with narrow exceptions.

The Democratic attorneys general in Friday's filing called the ruling "erroneous," adding that "in purporting to protect First Amendment values, the district court significantly restricted the flow of public discourse on vitally important issues."

The offices of Louisiana's and Missouri's attorneys general did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The appeal is expected to be heard on Aug. 10 by 5th Circuit Judges Edith Brown Clement, Jennifer Walker Elrod and Don Willett, all appointed by Republican presidents.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, editing by Deepa Babington)