Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a very limited gag order on former President Donald Trump, then temporarily paused it, then reinstated it as Trump continued to hurl invective that the Court considered intimidating on his social media platform and elsewhere.
The brief pause came as Chutkan considered claims from Trump’s lawyers that the order lacked clarity and also infringed on Trump’s First Amendment rights. It was reinstated after Chutkan reevaluated the order and determined it was clear and that it curtailed Trump’s speech only as it related to the case — that is, appropriately. (The government’s motion was made to “Ensure that Extrajudicial Statements Do Not Prejudice These Proceedings.”)
After the first order, and again after its reinstatement, Trump received support from an unlikely ally, as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sought to file a third-party amicus brief in the case arguing that the gag order violated Trump’s First Amendment rights. (Trump has far more often found himself on the other side of the ACLU’s battles — by 2020, the ACLU had filed 400 legal actions against the Trump administration.)
The latest ACLU amicus brief, siding with Trump’s lawyers, says of Chutkan’s gag ruling that:
…this prohibition sweeps too broadly. Much that Trump has said has been patently false and caused great harm to countless individuals, and to the Republic itself. Some of his words and actions even led him to the criminal indictment in this case, which alleges grave wrongdoing in contempt of the peaceful transition of power. But Trump retains a First Amendment right to speak, and the rest of us have a right to hear his speech.
ACLU
JUST IN: Judge Chutkan, as she's done for every outsider filing so far in the Trump case, has denied the ACLU's effort to submit an amicus brief related to the gag order (which the ACLU has publicly opposed) pic.twitter.com/L6U42Ntxs3
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 31, 2023
Judge Chutkan did not allow the filing of the ACLU’s amicus brief. Reporter Kyle Cheney reveals Chutkan has denied “every outsider filing so far in the Trump case.”
Politico reports that Chutkan’s “decision to issue the original gag order earlier this month was rooted in evidence that Trump’s public attacks on witnesses, prosecutors and court personnel have routinely resulted in threats and harassment jeopardizing their safety and her duty to protect the ‘orderly administration of justice.'”
