Imposing a Permanent Gag Order on Trump
Gag orders, constitutionally dubious, are meant to protect the integrity of a judicial proceeding.
However, even with the trial over, the gag orders imposed on former President Trump are not going away.
DA Bragg’s office (which had just freed the antisemitic Columbia Hamas rioters) demanded a continuation of the gag order which prohibits him from commenting on the individuals involved in the trial.
Since Trump is also running for president and Biden is spending $50 million to attack him over the various Democrat trials imposed on him, this effectively bans a presidential candidate from debating a campaign issue.
The New York Court of Appeals claimed that “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved” in gagging a presidential candidate when in reality several are involved.
But weasel words like “substantial” and “directly” give away the game.
Imposing a gag order post-trial on a potentially indefinite basis has no legal validity. There is no longer a judicial proceeding to protect. The basis for Bragg’s demands is the DA’s claim that he’s still getting death threats and that Trump may seek revenge. There will be plenty of people who hate Bragg regardless of what Trump says and the rationale that the rhetoric poses a personal risk rather than a risk to a case allows for a permanent gag order.
It also shifts away from protecting judicial proceedings before and during to protecting them afterward, and from restricting speech by a participant in a legal proceeding to restricting speech that political agitators believe threatens them.
How long until the same doctrine is being used to muzzle not just Trump but everyone?
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