A federal judge entered a consent decree on Wednesday settling a years-long First Amendment lawsuit between the State Department and conservative media outlets The Daily Wire and The Federalist, marking what legal experts describe as an unprecedented resolution to allegations of government-supported censorship.
The settlement, which emerged from a 2023 lawsuit filed by the two outlets, requires the State Department to halt support for any efforts to censor American media outlets and grants the plaintiffs authority to monitor government compliance through 2036.
The lawsuit centered on the State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC), which during the Biden administration funded and promoted companies that assigned reputability scores to news outlets. The plaintiffs argued this amounted to government-backed censorship of disfavored viewpoints.
What the Right Is Saying
Conservative supporters have celebrated the settlement as a landmark victory for First Amendment rights. Daily Wire CEO Caleb Robinson called it "an important day for preserving free speech in the digital era" and noted that the U.S. government has acknowledged its censorship structures under the Biden administration.
Senator Marco Rubio, who as Secretary of State announced layoffs for GEC employees in 2025, has been a vocal critic of the program's activities. Rubio stated that the office "spent millions of dollars to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving," calling such activities "antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding."
Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro described the Global Disinformation Index's activities as providing "basically a blacklist of sites to advertisers so that advertisers would want to pull their money," noting the effort "deprived groups and organizations like the Daily Wire of legitimately millions of dollars in advertising."
The New Civil Liberties Alliance, which represented the plaintiffs, successfully argued that it would be unconstitutional for the government to work to bankrupt news outlets that criticized the government's official line.
What the Left Is Saying
Progressive critics and some civil liberties advocates have raised concerns about the broader implications of the settlement, particularly regarding government capacity to address foreign influence operations. Some progressive commentators have noted that while the specific practices targeted in the lawsuit were problematic, the consent decree's broad language could limit legitimate national security communications efforts.
Progressive media watchdogs have also questioned whether private companies like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index should be characterized as government censorship tools, arguing that these are private rating services that advertisers voluntarily choose to use. Some progressive voices have noted the settlement effectively grants two conservative outlets veto power over future government communications initiatives.
Additionally, some progressive legal scholars have noted concerns about the precedent of private parties serving as compliance monitors for government agencies, arguing this arrangement could create accountability issues rather than resolve them.
What the Numbers Show
The Global Engagement Center received over $50 million annually in federal funding before its defunding by Congress in 2024. The settlement agreement covers activities conducted under both the Biden administration and requires annual reporting through 2036.
The lawsuit identified more than 30 products showcased by the GEC that assigned reputability scores to news outlets. Outlets were down-rated for coverage of COVID-19, vaccine efficacy, masking, election integrity, abortion, and transgender topics.
The Global Disinformation Index rated outlets such as ProPublica as "least risky" while classifying the New York Post, Reason Magazine, The Federalist, and The Daily Wire as "riskiest." GDI received a cash award from the State Department's GEC.
The settlement is binding on future administrations, including any future Democratic president, and cannot be dissolved without agreement from both the Daily Wire and The Federalist.
The Bottom Line
The consent decree represents an unprecedented legal settlement that effectively creates a private monitoring mechanism for government communications activities affecting media outlets. The State Department has agreed to dismantle aspects of its censorship apparatus and is prohibited from using technologies to suppress, censor, demonetize, or downgrade constitutionally protected speech.
While the Global Engagement Center was defunded by Congress in 2024, Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted that the Biden administration relocated employees to a similar group performing comparable work before issuing layoff notices in April 2025. The settlement aims to prevent such relocations from circumventing congressional intent.
Legal observers will be watching to see how the compliance monitoring mechanism operates in practice, particularly as it relates to distinguishing between legitimate national security communications and unconstitutional suppression of speech. The annual reporting requirements will provide ongoing visibility into State Department activities that the plaintiffs and their supporters argue were previously hidden from public scrutiny.