The Superior Court of the State of California has ruled that biomedical company StemExpress cannot legally suppress the release of video obtained by the Center For Medical Progress, and does not have any right to the footage or documents that the anti-abortion activists have obtained.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joanne O’Donnell explained that a restraining order taken out against CMP will no longer stand, as it represents a restraint on First Amendment rights.
“The injunction Plaintiff seeks would prevent Defendants from disseminating the videotapes,” said the judge. “First, this proposed injunction would constitute a prior restraint on the Defendants’ rights under the First Amendment and the parallel protections under the California Constitution.”
“Plaintiff does not persuade the Court that the discovery it seeks is necessary to obtain the preliminary injunction. That is because it appears unlikely that the Court is going to grant the preliminary injunction,” Judge O’Donnell said Thursday.
The ruling means that the CMP will be able to release the remaining footage it has of StemExpress employees, without fear of reprisal.
Attorneys working with the CMP believe justice has prevailed.
“People who don’t have anything to hide don’t go to court to stop journalists from reporting the truth.” said Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund President Chuck LiMandri.
“The court was right to deny StemExpress’ request to gain access to damaging material against them obtained through solid investigative journalism. Americans have the right to know the truth about Planned Parenthood’s sale of baby body parts and the ‘fiscal rewards’ Stem Express says that it provides to abortion clinics,” LiMandri added.
“As has been more than apparent from the videos that have been released, StemExpress and Planned Parenthood have plenty to hide.” added Life Legal Defense Foundation Vice President of Legal Affairs Catherine Short.
“These videos not only expose the potential illegality of Planned Parenthood’s actions, they expose the grisly, inhuman nature of Planned Parenthood’s business,” Short said.
Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom Casey Mattox also noted that “The Court has rightly stopped Stem Express from using a meritless lawsuit to try to silence the Center for Medical Progress. Americans have a right to know the truth about Planned Parenthood and its business deals with Stem Express. This decision brings us one step closer to the day Stem Express and Planned Parenthood have been dreading.”
The CMP has vowed to “contest all attempts from Planned Parenthood and their allies to silence our First Amendment rights and suppress investigative journalism.”
While CMP will continue to release footage and keep the issue in the public eye, it is obvious that the mainstream media has no intention of covering the story.
Katie Yoder of Newsbusters notes that the three major broadcast networks have spent only 1 minute and 13 seconds airing CMP video footage with audio. Since the scandal broke, that constitutes 1 minute, 13 seconds out of 243 hours and 30 minutes of morning and evening news shows.
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Steve Watson is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.
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