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Louisiana case acusing Biden of illegal social media censorship takes Supreme Court stage

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Louisiana case acusing Biden of illegal social media censorship takes Supreme Court stage


A Louisiana case that could set new free speech standards in the digital age took center stage Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court where justices heard arguments about whether the Biden administration went too far in pressuring social media giants like Faceboot and X to remove posts containing misinformation about COVID-19.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s Solicitor General Benjamin Aguinaga represented his home state, Missouri and other plaintiffs in oral arguments contending Biden officials illegally supressed conservative voices about the pandemic, vaccines, Hunter Biden’s laptop and other hot-button issues.

In September 2023, a federal appeals court in New Orleans upheld Louisiana U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty’s order banning much of the Biden administration from communicating with social media companies like Facebook about controversial online posts.

Both orders were put on hold by the Supreme Court until it could hear the case.

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On Monday, Aguinaga described the Biden officials’ actions as “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in American history.”

“Behind closed doors the government badgers the platforms 24/7, it abuses them with profanity, it warns that the highest levels of the White House are concerned and ominously says the White House is considering its options,” Aguinaga told the justices. “Under this onslaught the platforms routinely cave.”

Facebook recently acknowledged as much in an internal email to former United Kingdom deputy prime minister Nick Clegg “because we are under pressure by the administration. We shouldn’t have done it,” Aguinaga said.

Brian Fletcher, principle deputy solicitor general at the Justice Department, argued that the plaintiffs against the U.S. government “mistook persuasion for coersion,” saying the Biden administration was just using the “bully pulpit” to contradict dangerous misinformation as have previous administrations throughout U.S. history.

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“(The government) can encourage, but not mandate,” Fletcher said. “We think that’s what the government is doing. Our position is there wasn’t any coersion.”

Fletcher continued the government’s argument that a prohibition of communication between U.S. officials and social media platforms could cause “grave harm” by preventing the government from “engaging in a vast range of lawful and responsible conduct.”

He said it could prevent agencies like the FBI from warning of dangerous misinformation about elections or possible terrorist threats.

Justice Sonia Sotomay said she had problems with the states’ arguments for not showing harm to the people they were representing. She said lawyers cited events that happened to the wrong people or contentious posts that were simply reposted by the litigants.

“I don’t know what to make of all this,” Sotomayor added. “I’m not sure how we get to prove direct injury in any way.”

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The court is expected to rule on the case in early summer.

USA Today contributed to this report.

More: Supreme Court schedules Louisiana Facebook case accusing Biden of censorship

Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1



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Pipeline blowout reported in St. Helena Parish, authorities say

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Pipeline blowout reported in St. Helena Parish, authorities say


ST. HELENA PARISH, La. (WAFB) – Authorities are warning people to avoid one part of St. Helena Parish following a pipeline blowout.

According to the St. Helena Parish Sheriff’s Office, the blowout happened Saturday along Nesom Road off of Highway 16.

Officials said they evacuated some residents living near where the incident took place. Many of the impacted people live on Nesom Road, Dennis Lee Road, and Burkett Lane.

According to the sheriff’s office, no one will be allowed back into the surrounding neighborhoods until the all clear is given.

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No injuries have been reported.

Any potential leak following the blowout has been stopped.

Louisiana State Police and multiple fire departments have been notified of the situation.

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Podcast helps Louisiana police arrest 4 suspects in decades-old murder of teen girl Roxanne Sharp

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Podcast helps Louisiana police arrest 4 suspects in decades-old murder of teen girl Roxanne Sharp


Louisiana police say a podcast helped them solve the decades-old killing of a 16-year-old girl and announced Friday that four men now face criminal charges in connection with her rape and murder.

In 1982, teenager Roxanne Sharp was killed in the woods of St. Tammany Parish, about 30 miles north of New Orleans. Police struggled to solve the case due to a lack of evidence and witnesses willing to come forward.

But then, investigators approached a local media company, which agreed to produce a podcast, “Who Killed Roxanne Sharp?” renewing public interest in the case after its six-part series aired last year.

Roxanne Sharp — here in Covington, Louisiana in 1980 — was raped and murdered at age 16 in 1982. AP

Louisiana State Police spokesperson Marc Gremillion credited the podcast with generating crucial tips from the public and prompting new witnesses to approach investigators.

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“It helped our investigators piece together where Roxanne was days before to the time she died, to where we’re at now,” Gremillion told The Associated Press. “It was a very large help with getting that message out to the public, and then, therefore, those witnesses getting back to us.”

Over the past few days, police charged four men with aggravated rape and second-degree murder: Perry Wayne Taylor, 64; Darrell Dean Spell, 64; Carlos Cooper, 64; and Billy Williams, Jr., 62.

Cooper and Taylor were already in prison on unrelated charges, and Williams and Spell were arrested earlier this week.

Sharp was an acquaintance of the four arrested suspects and was known to frequent the neighborhood where they lived, Gremillion added.

The podcast “Who Killed Roxanne Sharp?” renewed public interest in the case. WDSU
Police have charged four men with aggravated rape and second-degree murder. WDSU

“We appreciate the hard work and love that has been shown to Roxanne Sharp’s case,” Sharp’s niece, Michele Lappin, said in a statement on behalf of her family. “We hope that with justice will come healing and closure for our family, her loved ones, and the community.”

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Billy Williams Jr.’s son, Billy Williams III, said his father is innocent of the crime.

“He thinks they’re putting him in for something he didn’t do,” the younger Williams said. “He says he would never in his life hurt anyone.”

Louisiana police credited the podcast with helping them track down the four suspects. WDSU

The St. Tammany Parish clerk of court did not have attorneys listed for any of the suspects. Family members of Spell, Cooper and Taylor did not respond to requests for comment via phone numbers associated with them.

“When we started the podcast, we kind of thought nobody cared — we were quickly corrected,” said Charles Dowdy, vice president of Northshore Media, which produced the podcast. “A lot of people stepped up and said they knew Roxanne, they remembered her, they were friends with her.”

Dowdy recorded audio as investigators recreated the crime scene using measuring tapes to mark the exact locations where Sharp’s body was found and where other pieces of evidence were uncovered.

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“It clearly showed that she’d been grabbed on the street and dragged into the woods,” Dowdy said.

Sharp was killed in the woods of St. Tammany Parish, about 30 miles north of New Orleans. WDSU

Police had once thought the case solved after serial killer Henry Lucas claimed responsibility for Sharp’s murder. But Lucas, known for making false confessions, later retracted his claim, and other evidence disproved his connection to the murder.

St. Tammany Parish resident Justin Joiner, 39, told the AP that his father, a Covington police officer, had been one of the first law enforcement to arrive at the scene of Sharp’s death and remained frustrated about the lack of closure for the rest of his life.

He kept a briefcase full of his notes on the case until he passed away last year.

“It’s been a big black cloud on the community,” Joiner said. “Nobody would talk about it — it was hush, hush, you talk about it in your house, not in public.”

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Joiner added that the podcast opened up discussion about the case across generations and throughout the community.

“Cold cases don’t close themselves,” Covington Police Department Chief Michael Ferrell said in a statement.

“They close because people show up, year after year, and refuse to quit. That is exactly what our agencies did, and today, Roxanne and her family finally have the justice they have waited so long for.”



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Martha Odom, killed in Mall of Louisiana shooting, loved ballet, Dr Pepper, writing

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Martha Odom, killed in Mall of Louisiana shooting, loved ballet, Dr Pepper, writing


She was a writer, a dancer, a Dr Pepper enthusiast.

Martha Odom, 17, died after being caught in the crossfire of a shooting Thursday at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge. Odom, a senior at Ascension Episcopal School in Lafayette, visited the mall with friends for their “senior skip day” as graduation approached in just three weeks.

Odom planned to attend Sewanee, also known as the University of the South, where she was going to study English and creative writing. Instead, she and two other classmates from Ascension Episcopal were hit in the crossfire in a food court shooting that police say happened when two groups started arguing and drew guns.

She died from a gunshot wound to the chest, the coroner’s office reported Friday.

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After Odom’s name became public Friday morning, and outpouring of social media tributes for her followed. She leaves behind her parents and a younger sister.

Odom was an overachiever: captain of the girls’ soccer team at her school, editor of the student newspaper, a teacher at her dance studio. She won second place in the Lafayette Public Library’s 2026 Writes of Spring contest.

She planned to spend her summer before college at Ballet Austin’s summer intensive, a chance to “train in the timeless art of dance,” she wrote in the student newspaper.

“Her classmates, Ascension faculty, and our Blue Gator families remember Martha as a joyful presence whose kindness and infectious enthusiasm brought light to all who knew her,” the school shared on social media.

Her family visited New York City over spring break, and she wrote about how much she enjoyed eating at Raising Cane’s in Times Square, going to a New York Rangers’ hockey game and seeing several Broadway musicals, including “The Outsiders” and “Cats: The Jellicle Ball.”

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In other writings for the student newspaper, she shared her observations about Taylor Swift (‘captivating,’ ‘empowering’), being a debutante late last year (‘had the time of my life’) and how much her soccer team had improved (‘the soccer team is a family’).

She also took sharp interest in journalism and shared her fears about the press losing independence. In one student newspaper piece, she wrote about the inaccurate portrayals of journalists as lead characters in rom-coms including “13 Going on 30” and “27 Dresses.”

“What did rom-coms get wrong about journalists? Their drive,” she wrote. “It takes grit to unearth the information in an article. It takes bravery to be that bridge between the people and their government. A lack of that grit leads to an epidemic of self-censorship, where writers hesitate to publish critical works for fear of penalties.”

Odom summed up her beliefs in a Psalm from the Bible she shared in her Instagram biography.

“Behold,” reads Psalm 133:1 that she cited. “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.”

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