Supreme Court Rejects Gag Order Appeal in Undercover Video Case, But the Battle is Far from Over
PRESS RELEASE
Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Troy Newman over a gag order issued by a lower court that blocks the release of previously unpublished undercover videos created by the Center for Medical Progress. This allows the lower court ruling to stand.
Newman served as a founding board member for the Center for Medical Progress, and currently serves as President of Operation Rescue.
Through his attorney, Jay Sekulow, and his legal team from the American Center for Law and Justice, Newman argued that the gag order prohibited the release of incriminating videos to law enforcement agencies around the nation who sought the evidence in their own investigations. At least twenty state attorney generals had joined in the appeal.
“While appealing the gag order before the entire Supreme Court would have been preferable, we continue to fight the two oppressive lawsuits brought by the NAF and Planned Parenthood, which aim to silence us and conceal the truth about their involvement in the grisly illegal sale of aborted baby tissues and organs for profit,” said Newman. “We pray that one day the full truth will come out, and those who have committed crimes will be held accountable in a court of law.”
Newman is a named defendant in NAF v. Center for Medical Progress, et al, a federal case filed in 2015 through which the gag order was issued. Planned Parenthood later filed a similar lawsuit against Newman and CMP members. Those cases are ongoing.
Judge William Orrick based his decision to seal the videos, which gagged CMP members — including Newman — on his erroneous belief that the undercover videos contained no evidence of wrong-doing on the part of the NAF or Planned Parenthood.
However, Orrick’s faulty determination was debunked by two Congressional investigations found probably cause to believe that crimes had been committed by Planned Parenthood and others, and criminal referrals were made to the Department of Justice.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has confirmed that a federal criminal investigation into Planned Parenthood’s illegal sale of aborted baby remains and a host of other alleged crimes is currently underway.