September 18, 2015

Congress, courts clash in legal battle over release of undercover Planned Parenthood videos

A federal appeals court has barred a district court judge from issuing an injunction to stop the release of undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), the group that has exposed the Planned Parenthood scandal.

In July, Judge William Orrick issued a temporary restraining order against the release of CMP videos of a meeting organized by the National Abortion Federation. That temporary order remains in effect, but CMP won a partial victory when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Judge Orrick could not issue an injunction to extend the order indefinitely. The appeals court also ruled that Judge Orrick could not require CMP to disclose information about its videos to the National Abortion Federation.

In a related development, a Congressional committee moved to circumvent the restraining order on the CMP videos by issuing a subpoena for all of the undercover footage. The subpoena from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee would force disclosure of the footage that the restraining order has blocked from public release.

Click here for the originating article from Catholic World News.