Van Zant v. Pyle
A federal district court judge in Manhattan permanently enjoined the release of a fictionalized film by Cleopatra Films about the 1977 plane crash that killed members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd, because one of the co-producers, a former member of the band, was subject to a settlement agreement that limited his ability to profit off of the band’s story. Cleopatra filed an expedited appeal with the Second Circuit. RCFP’s amicus brief argues that the First Amendment protects films, including fictionalizations like Cleopatra’s movie, that the injunction entered by the district court is a prior restraint, which is forbidden in all but the rarest of circumstances, and that even assuming Cleopatra is bound by the settlement agreement and violated it, the proper remedy is an action for damages, not a prior restraint.