First Amendment Legal Fight Averted: Judge Lifts Order Barring Reporter From Publishing Info

from the well-that-was-quick dept

Mon, Aug 2nd 2010 5:34pm — Mike Masnick

Last week, we wrote about a judge who issued a temporary restraining order on the National Law Journal, which was about to publish a story claiming that the FTC was investigating POM, makers of pomegranate juice. Apparently, the judge had already ordered the documents of such an investigation be sealed, but a court clerk had been slow in getting around to it, and the reporter found the info while it was still public. Given that the info was public at the time, the NLJ felt it had every right to publish it, and pointed out that the First Amendment seemed to agree. That's when the judge made her infamous statement: "Look -- if I'm throwing 80 years of First Amendment jurisprudence on its head, so be it," though (as it later came out), she also stated: "But none of that First Amendment jurisprudence, to my knowledge, is dealing with this issue. The question is, what authority do you have for the proposition that the First Amendment trumps court orders sealing files?"

Either way, the legal fight over this issue is now dead. Late last week, in part with the acceptance of POM, the judge dropped the restraining order and allowed the NLJ to publish the simple fact that the FTC was investigating. Of course, it's still not clear why that information should have been sealed anyway. But, of course, now a hell of a lot more people are aware that the FTC investigated POM.

Filed Under: first amendment, free speech, national law journal, reporting

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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 5:46pm

Peer pressure is hard.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 7:01pm

peer to peer pressure is ....
even harder if you go against the grain
im sure a few calls were masde
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Matt Schafer, 2 Aug 2010 @ 7:05pm

Finally Came to Her Senses
It's no wonder that shortly after the brief was filed, Judge Bartnoff withdrew her order. Perhaps she realized that the United States’ Supreme Court has never upheld an order which resulted in prior restraint.

http://bit.ly/aSdrFB
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 8:13pm

Re:
Uhm.... Your attempts at decipherable ASCII art are about as successful as Obama's war on terror in Afghanistan.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 8:24pm

Re:
"People always like celebrities"

What's a celebrity? You mean like Britney Spears? Who's she?

"but I think those in uniform deserve more respect."

Absolutely. and it's very disrespectful for Obama to fire military personnel for giving their honest opinion. They are fighting for democracy and free speech only to be punished by our government for freely expressing their opinion? How does that make sense?

but seriously, what does your post have to do with the OP?
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Jay (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 10:01pm

Think about if the judge had done the order thru a text message. They could have had this sealed in 2 hours.
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