The Supreme Court has blocked the release of any more of the Planned Parenthood sting videos that are part of the Center for Medical Progress’ undercover investigation of the nation’s largest abortion provider.
The National Abortion Federation filed a lawsuit in 2015, suing the Center for Medical Progress in an effort to block the release of further incriminating videos. The lawsuit, National Abortion Federation v. CMP, et al, has essentially restricted the Center for Medical Progress from releasing any more of the investigative videos.
Attorney Jay Sekulow with the Center for Law and Justice urged that the restriction prohibited incriminating evidence from being released.
In September of last year, attorneys general in 20 states asked the Supreme Court to remove the injunction from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prohibiting David Daleiden from releasing the undercover footage he and other investigators with the Center for Medical Progress obtained. Multiple courts have considered multiple lawsuits from abortion activists who are attempting to strip the First Amendment rights from these pro life investigative journalists.
District Judge William Orrick denied the motion, stating that he did not believe the undercover videos indicated any evidence of wrongdoing. However, he was clearly wrong, as the undercover videos also sparked investigations by House and Senate panels that later referred Planned Parenthood organizations to the U.S. Department of Justice and state Attorneys General for further criminal investigation and prosecution.
Orrick later found Daleiden, the Center for Medical Progress, and two of his attorneys, in contempt of court after they published some of the blocked material on the internet.
A three-member panel of the liberally San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that additional footage obtained through the CMP’s undercover investigations cannot be released to law enforcement personnel, despite clear evidence contained in the videos showing criminal conduct on the part of Planned Parenthood executives and employees. A requested review by the full Ninth Circuit was denied.
On March 12, 2018, the Center for Medical Progress filed an appeal at the United States Supreme Court seeking to overturn Judge Orrick’s unconstitutional gag order enforcement ruling.
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on behalf of pro-lifers. The Supreme Court’s not to consider the appeal leaves in place the ruling by the lower Court, still prohibiting the Center for Medical Progress from publishing any more of the investigative videos.
