A federal judge in Louisiana rejected a request from the government to delay an order he imposed on Independence Day that banned federal agencies from communicating with social media companies.

The Justice Department will likely ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene in the case after U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty on Monday refused to pause his July 4 nationwide injunction that significantly limits how Biden administration officials can communicate with social media companies, according to a single-page filing.

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President Joe Biden's DOJ attorneys sought to put the order on hold while they challenge the 155-page opinion finding the government likely infringed on the First Amendment through its efforts to tell Big Tech companies to mitigate the spread of misinformation and fake accounts, primarily during the coronavirus pandemic.

Attorneys for the DOJ said Doughty, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, gave an overbroad order and that it's murky on whether it would interfere with federal agencies' ability to work with tech companies on projects to "prevent grave harm" through online speech and appeal to the nation's "democratic processes."

Doughty's order names more than 40 Biden administration officials and affects dozens more under various agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the DOJ, the FBI, and many more.

It prevents officials in those agencies from "urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing” social media companies to remove or restrict content covered by the First Amendment’s free speech protections. The judge included exceptions for communications about criminal activity, national security threats, election integrity, and other “permissible public government speech.”

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Also affected by the order are a range of Big Tech companies, including "Facebook/Meta, Twitter, YouTube/Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok,” and other online platforms.

The challengers who brought the case are the Republican state attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, along with people who said they were harmed by the government's actions. Those plaintiffs had opposed pausing Doughty's injunction while it moves forward through the appeals process.