Meanwhile....

Announcing on Twitter that people should watch you live on Facebook, as you sign a blatantly unconstitutional bill denying both of those companies their 1st Amendment rights is... a decision. https://t.co/dkgfzsk13L

— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) September 9, 2021

Narrator: it won't do any such thing.  The only people in the U.S. with better lawyers than the DOJ in D.C. are:  Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Before you even get to the 1st amendment, there's the pre-emption of federal law and section 230 of the Communications Act.  This bill is dead with or without the governor's signature.

Also from Texas:

Gov. Greg Abbott called President Biden’s vaccine mandate for employees of large U.S. companies a “power grab.”

The governor’s office and the Texas attorney general are already exploring legal action against the Biden administration. https://t.co/tw3nGdsgM4

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 10, 2021

“The federal government needs to stop trying to run private businesses,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said in a statement. “Texans and Americans alike have learned and mastered the safe practices to protect themselves and their loved ones from COVID, and do not need the government to tell them how to do so.”

Abbott has encouraged Texans to get vaccinated but insists that they shouldn’t be forced to do so. At the governor’s request, state lawmakers will consider legislation to bar local governments from mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for their residents when they convene later this month for a third special session.

“Biden’s vaccine mandate is an assault on private businesses,” Abbott tweeted on Thursday evening. “Texas is already working to halt this power grab.”

Good luck with that.  Considering Paxton's track record in federal court recently, nobody in D.C. is sweating bullets.  The DOJ clearly has better lawyers than Paxton does. Better thinkers, too.

Private businesses like the restaurants whose licenses you threatened to revoke when they wanted to require their customers to be vaccinated? https://t.co/cbJB18aS9i

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) September 9, 2021

(Abbott pressured TABC to revoke the alcohol license of any bar or restaurant if they imposed such a requirement on their customers. Abbott is okay with demands he makes, but not when anyone else makes them. Thou shalt have no other government before him.)