{"id":182785,"date":"2018-05-21T15:09:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T19:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=182785"},"modified":"2018-05-21T13:20:32","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T17:20:32","slug":"pro-abortion-judge-daleiden-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-abortion-judge-daleiden-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Actively pro-abortion judge with conflict of interest to stay on Daleiden baby parts case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Life Site News<\/a>)\u00a0The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will allow Judge William Orrick to continue presiding over David Daleiden’s legal battle with Planned Parenthood<\/a> and the National Abortion Federation, despite apparent conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

The court rejected a petition from the Thomas More Society, which is representing Daleiden, to have Orrick removed from the case, Thomas More president and chief counsel Tom Brejcha has announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’ll recall that Judge Orrick has close ties to Planned Parenthood and his wife is an outspoken abortion activist,\u201d Brejcha wrote. \u201cThis is another frustrating setback for David \u2013 especially after just last month the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear our appeal of the \u2018gag order\u2019 injunction Judge Orrick hit David with at the request of the National Abortion Federation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas More is currently defending<\/a> Daleiden and his pro-life group, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), against multiple criminal charges and lawsuits stemming from CMP\u2019s series of undercover videos revealing<\/a> abortion industry officials discussing the sale of organs from aborted babies. California prosecutors have charged Daleiden\u2019s team with multiple felonies related to recording \u201cconfidential\u201d communications, while Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation are suing to prevent CMP from releasing further videos.<\/p>\n

Orrick has sided with the abortion groups, placing a gag order on future CMP videos. The attorneys general of twenty states have called on<\/a> the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the public to see the videos, but the court declined to hear the case<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

Pro-life legal observers note that the Supreme Court has previously been less accepting of such gag orders. They cite precedent that \u201cprior restraints<\/a> on speech and publication are the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights,\u201d because the First Amendment\u2019s \u201cdominant purpose<\/a>\u201d was to prevent \u201cgovernmental suppression of embarrassing information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, last September Orrick fined<\/a> Daleiden and two of his attorneys almost $200,000 for releasing a three-minute compilation of highlights from the restricted footage. The footage included Planned Parenthood of Michigan\u2019s Lisa Harris advising, \u201cLet\u2019s just give them all the violence. It\u2019s a person. It\u2019s killing.\u201d<\/p>\n