Prior Restraints

The popular website Gawker partially complied with a Florida judge’s order to take down a clip of a Hulk Hogan sex tape but refused to delete the accompanying article, citing the restraint as a violation of the gossip-news outlet's First Amendment rights.

Pinellas County Circuit Judge Pamela A.M. Campbell on Wednesday ordered Gawker to take down the video, the 1,400-word accompanying article and the 466 user-submitted comments at the famous professional wrestler’s request.

A federal judge in Miami today dismissed the defamation suit against a U.S.-based Haitian journalist and retracted a previous court order prohibiting him from ever publishing anything about the Haitian prime minister and a Florida businessman.

A federal judge in Miami ordered a Haitian-American journalist to never again publish anything about the prime minister of Haiti or a Florida businessman, as part of a defamation judgment.

Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and businessman Patrice Baker sued Leo Joseph and the Haiti-Observateur, a New York City-based, bi-language Haitian newspaper managed by Joseph.

A Virginia woman being sued by her home contractor for libel won't have to remove negative comments she posted on Internet review sites about him, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled.

The state’s high court reversed a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge’s ruling ordering Jane Perez to delete portions of her review of the contractor on Yelp and Angie’s List. In her review, Perez mentioned that her jewelry was missing. She also referenced the outcome of a suit brought by the contractor against Perez for nonpayment.

A federal judge Wednesday banned the enforcement of a century-old statute that prevents North Dakota citizens from campaigning on Election Day, calling the law “archaic” and “unconstitutional.”

A federal judge in New York Wednesday blocked enforcement of a provision of a statute that would allow the U.S. government to indefinitely detain Americans who give “substantial support” to terrorists groups, finding that journalists' and others' fears of detention under the law are reasonable.

A Massachusetts district judge ordered a blogger to remove from his website all references to a woman who faced criminal charges related to a car accident that seriously injured a pedestrian. A hearing Monday will bring into question the constitutionality of the order, which some argue violates the First Amendment.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Montana ban on corporations’ political contributions today, reaffirming on the state level its 2010 ruling against federal regulations of corporate and union speech.

A federal appellate court ruled Monday that a Texas journalist had standing to challenge a lower court’s gag order in an alleged terrorist’s criminal trial, but the court still upheld the order barring those involved in the case from communicating with the media.

A federal judge in New York recently halted enforcement of a controversial section of an anti-terrorism bill that the court found harms First Amendment rights. Plaintiffs to the case included noted activists, journalists and a member of Icelandic parliament who argued the law had a chilling effect.