A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily paused an order from a lower court restricting executive branch officials’ communication with social media companies about controversial online posts.

Attorneys for the Biden administration had asked the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to suspend the preliminary injunction issued July 4 by US District Judge Terry Doughty. Doughty himself had turned down a request to suspend his order pending appeal.

Friday’s brief order from the 5th circuit put Doughty’s order on hold until further court order. It called for urgent planning of arguments in the case.

The lawsuit, filed last year, alleged that the government was, in effect, censoring free speech by discussing potential regulatory action the government could take while urging companies to remove what it deemed misinformation . COVID-19 vaccines, legal issues involving president

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Biden’s son Hunter and allegations of voter fraud were among the topics highlighted in the lawsuit.

Doughty, nominated on the federal bench by the former president

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Trump, issued an order for Independence Day and its reasons that ran over 160 pages. He said the plaintiffs would likely win their pending lawsuit. His order blocked the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI, and multiple other government agencies and government officials from encouraging, urging, or causing in any way the removal, removal, suppression, or reduction of protected free speech content.

Administration lawyers said the order was too broad and vague, raising questions about what officials might say in conversations with social media companies or in public statements. They said Doughty’s order posed a threat of serious public harm by stopping the executive branch’s efforts to combat online disinformation.

Doughty on Monday rejected the government’s request for a delay, writing: Defendants argue the injunction should be suspended because it could impede the government’s ability to continue working with social media companies to censor Americans’ top political expressions based on views. In other words, the government is seeking a suspension of the order so it can continue to violate the First Amendment.

In asking the 5th Circuit to grant a stay, the administration’s attorneys said there was no evidence of threats by the administration. The court found no indications that a request for content removal was accompanied by a threat. Indeed, the refusal of stay order, which supposedly highlighted the apparently strongest evidence, did indeed refer to a series of public media statements, the government said.

Friday’s “administrative stay” was issued without comment by a panel of three 5th Circuit judges: Carl Stewart, nominated to court by the former president

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Clinton; James Graves, nominated by former president

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obama; and Andrew Oldham, Trump nominee. Another court panel, which has 17 active members, will hear arguments over an extended stay.