NCLA Suit Demands End to Gov’t Censorship of Support Groups for Victims of Covid Vaccine Injuries
September 13 2024 - 1:55PM
The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed an Amended Complaint in
the Dressen, et al. v. Flaherty, et al. lawsuit against the federal
government’s ongoing efforts to collude with social media companies
to monitor and censor online support groups for those injured by
Covid vaccines. This censorship campaign has combined the efforts
of numerous federal agencies and government actors—including within
the White House, as well as the Surgeon General’s Office and the
CDC—to coerce, induce, and collude with social media platforms to
censor, suppress, and label as “misinformation” speech expressed by
those who have suffered vaccine-related injuries. That includes
private speech in online chat groups. The Amended Complaint exposes
how the illegal scheme has continued since this lawsuit began last
year. NCLA urges the U.S. District Court for the Southern District
of Texas to enjoin this government-sponsored censorship and declare
it unlawful state action to prevent these Defendants from further
censoring such free speech and free association in violation of
Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights.
NCLA represents Brianne Dressen, Shaun
Barcavage, Kristi Dobbs, Nikki Holland, Suzanna Newell, who have
suffered vaccine-related injuries, and Ernest Ramirez, who lost his
son to a vaccine-related death. Plaintiffs are not anti-vaxxers.
Ms. Dressen, for example, was injured by the AstraZeneca vaccine
after she volunteered to participate in vaccine trials for that
vaccine. Mr. Ramirez received a Moderna vaccine himself without
incident, but his 16-year-old son died of vaccine-induced cardiac
arrest five days after Ernest, Jr. received the Pfizer vaccine. The
First Amendment forbids Defendants from suppressing the speech and
association rights of innocent victims like these, who are seeking
to commiserate with other sufferers and to share ideas for medical
treatments.
The Plaintiffs have all been heavily censored on
social media for sharing their personal experiences, supporting
others, and exchanging advice and medical research with others who
were medically harmed after taking the vaccine. For posting about
their personal experiences and trying to connect with others in the
vaccine-injured community, Plaintiffs’ speech has repeatedly been
flagged as misinformation or removed entirely, and they have had
their private support groups shut down. This risk is ongoing, as
Plaintiffs continue to be censored on social media platforms.
Importantly, their censorship is the direct result of the Biden
Administration’s campaign to stop them from discussing their
inconvenient truths by threatening, coercing, pressuring, inducing,
and colluding with social media companies to silence them.
NCLA released the following
statements:
“If there is any case that exemplifies why the
First Amendment exists—as well as the abominable and Orwellian
consequences that take place when the government evades its
restraint—it is this one. The time has come for the federal
government and its private partners in this cruel censorship scheme
to be held to account for the ongoing harm that they have caused
our clients, along with so many other Americans across the country
who were simply trying to do their part by getting vaccinated—and
who were then silenced and made to be pariahs by their own
government.”— Casey Norman, Litigation Counsel,
NCLA
“The plaintiffs in this case posed a threat to
the Biden Administration, because their personal experiences
conflicted with the government’s heavy-handed approach to Covid-19
vaccination, which was predicated on the false claim that vaccine
injuries were virtually nonexistent. The response of the government
defendants here—to wield their authority to get social media
companies to silence these individuals, who had suffered serious
injuries and in the case of Mr. Ramirez lost his own son—should
shock the conscience of all Americans. Through this lawsuit, we
will hold the Administration and these wayward officials
accountable for their flagrantly unconstitutional
conduct.”— Jenin Younes, Litigation Counsel,
NCLA
For more information visit the case page
here.
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights
group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to
protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the
Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other
pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and
federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that
will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
###
Joe Martyak
New Civil Liberties Alliance
202-869-5208
joe.martyak@ncla.legal