The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday stopped three previously court-ordered depositions of Biden administration officials in a lawsuit claiming the government colluded with social media companies to censor debate about the COVID pandemic, election security, and The Post’s expose on the Hunter Biden laptop.

A panel on the federal appeals court overruled Louisiana District Judge Terry Doughty, who in October compelled Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly, and White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty to schedule deposition in a lawsuit brought in May by Republican attorneys general Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Jeff Landry of Louisiana.

The panel argued that Doughty did not examine whether the information sought by Schmitt and Landry could be obtained by other means. The two attorneys general are trying to prove that President Biden and other top officials deprived Americans of their First Amendment rights by pressuring social media companies to censor material.