An appeal was heard and rejected by a jury on Friday in the Ninth Circuit. This appeal was brought by Anti-Abortion activists who secretly recorded the working of the inside of Planned Parenthood’s clinics. This group was found to have broken both state and federal laws, and received a warning from one judge who stated, “invoking journalism and the First Amendment does not shield individuals from liability for violations of laws applicable to all members of society.”
The defendants were convicted of manipulating the video footage they illegally recorded, as well as posting the footage online. The defense of free speech was unsuccessful by the defendants, who have now been faced with a $2 millions verdict against them. This value includes both compensatory and punitive damages. In addition, the journalism defense was transparent, as U.S. Circuit Judge Ronald Gould wrote in his opinion, “journalists must obey laws of general applicability”.
This is not the first recent loss for the group in question (known as the Center for Medical Progress). In August of this year, the defendants also appealed a decision from a different panel in the Ninth Circuit who backed a previous decision to block the defendants for continuing to illegally distribute the footage they obtained at the Planned Parenthood clinics. The defendants also faced an injunction earlier this year, with the attorney for Planned Parenthood stating, “this decision hides the most incriminating and damning footage under the fig leaf of trade show exhibit agreements, which explicitly permitted exhibitor recording. This transparent attempt to skew the law and suppress free speech to protect the worst wrongdoing must stop, and the truth must be revealed.”
