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A pastor known primarily for his anti-LGBTQ views as leader of the Christian group Warriors for Christ will not be allowed to file an amicus brief in support of President Donald Trump’s class action lawsuit against Twitter.
The pastor, Rich Penkoski — who recently threatened to sue his daughter’s school for sending her home for wearing a homophobic T-shirt — does not have anything helpful to offer the court with his amicus brief, U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola ruled Tuesday.
Earlier this month, former President Trump filed three near-identical lawsuits against tech giants Google, Twitter and Facebook, claiming he is the victim of censorship.
Trump was suspended from those social media accounts in January over public safety concerns after his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Trump alleges his freedom of speech was violated by the companies, which argue they can remove him from their platforms as they are private companies, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
However, Trump says Section 230 is unconstitutional because the tech giants are being used by the government for censorship purposes. The government is not listed as a defendant.
Section 230 essentially keeps companies like Facebook and Twitter from being held liable for users’ postts, the BBC reported.
Penkoski had applied to submit an amicus brief in support of the president’s claims, Law360 reported.
However, the pastor’s brief instead appeared to solely advocate for the Stop Social Media Censorship Act, a bill passed in Florida that stops social media companies from blocking political candidates or journalists from its platforms, the judge reportedly said.
“Notably, the Plaintiffs in this action have not alleged any facts related to that bill,” Scola said, adding that the pastor’s brief “did little to help the Court determine issues raised in this action.”
The pastor also recently sued U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland over claims about the constitutionality of Section 230, Law360 reported. But the judge said that matter had no relevance to this case.
“Even though that case questions the constitutionality of Section 230, the proposed amicus brief here does not address that issue and is thus helpful to neither the Court nor the parties in this case,” Judge Scola said.
Trump announced the lawsuits earlier this month in a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. In each of the lawsuits, which Trump said he intended to represent a Class of other social media users affected by perceived censorship.
Trump is seeking immediate injunctive relief to restore his social media accounts, Axios reported — in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Twitter permanently booted him from the platform, while Facebook announced a temporary suspension that the company later said would last two years.
YouTube also suspended Trump after the Capitol insurrection, but has revealed few details about how long it intends to keep that suspension in place.
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