Boasberg delivers fresh immigration setback to Trump in free-speech clash

By Fox News · Fox News

Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has temporarily halted the Trump administration’s effort to deny visas to individuals it claims worked to perpetuate censorship against Americans. Boasberg, who has been a major judicial antagonist across President Donald Trump's two administrations, handed down a decision earlier this month blocking the State Department from restricting visas for foreign officials and other foreign nationals considered responsible for or complicit in suppressing American free speech. He found that, while the federal government has a "legitimate interest in responding when foreign officials use sovereign power to suppress protected expression in the United States," it is possible that the government is engaging in viewpoint discrimination, and thus violating the First Amendment, through its policy. "The policy, at its core, does not burden all speech about platforms, all research into content moderation, or all advocacy about online harms," Boasberg wrote. "It presses its enforcement thumb against one side of the scale: the view that platforms should do more to moderate content, label disinformation, restrict abuse, share data with researchers, or take responsibility for the harms their systems amplify." GOP LAWMAKERS URGE SUPREME COURT TO STRENGTHEN FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTIONS FOR STREET PREACHERS "The Government, in other words, has not set itself against everyone who speaks about platform governance. It has set itself against those whose work favors more moderation rather than less," he added. The State Department ’s policy followed a Biden-era controversy where the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which produced alleged "blacklists" of certain news websites, received funding from the federal government. Conservatives have argued that GDI’s ratings contributed to advertisers withholding revenue from conservative outlets and that federal support for the organization implicated free-speech concerns. The State Department’s policy paused by…