15.08.2015 - 16:50 [ Techdirt ]

Judge Realizing He Probably Can‘t Block Release Of Surreptitiously Recorded Video

Last month, we wrote about a judge in California issuing a temporary restraining order barring an anti-abortion group from releasing a video it had surreptitiously recorded of a conversation it held with a life sciences company named StemExpress, where the group pretended to be an organization interested in doing business with StemExpress. You can argue that the group, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), did something quite shady (it‘s the same group that similarly recorded conversations with a Planned Parenthood exec) in misrepresenting who they were, secretly recording conversations, and editing and releasing the videos — but that doesn‘t change the fact that the court really can‘t bar the release of the video. Because that‘s called prior restraint.