In a major victory for the Center for Medical Progress, a judge in California has revoked a restraining order on the release of videos featuring Planned Parenthood’s fetal parts buyer, Stem Express:
Judge Joanne O’Donnell argued that the requested injunction, which would have prevented CMP from releasing some of their undercover footage featuring high level StemExpress employees, would violate CMP’s First Amendment rights.
The ruling comes two weeks after O’Donnell issued a narrow temporary restraining order preventing CMP from releasing further undercover video footage taken at a meeting with the three top-level staff at a restaurant in May.
Bravo, Judge O’Donnell! It should be noted that O’Donnell was skeptical of Stem Express’ argument in the first place, tossing an earlier request for a blanket injunction and noting today that she didn’t think StemExpress had a good argument for any injunction:
In the ruling Judge O’Donnell tossed the injunction request, saying that StemExpress was highly unlikely to prevail in its efforts.
“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 in her Thursday order.
This is a win for freedom of speech and it means the CMP will be able to release its videos without interference, at least for the time being. The response from the pro-life movement has been enthusiastic:
“The Court has rightly stopped Stem Express from using a meritless lawsuit to try to silence the Center for Medical Progress,” said Casey Mattox, Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom. “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.”
Nick Arnold is a researcher for American Principles in Action.
