David Daleiden has risen to the level of a defiant teenager and chosen to release more video of his encounters with the National Abortion Federation, even after a judge slapped a restraining order on him last week barring him from releasing any video relating to NAF, NAF employees or any information he may have learned at NAF meetings.
In Daleiden's learned opinion, the video released does not violate the court's order because it was allegedly filmed at a meeting of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, according to US News & World Report.
"It was filmed at an ARHP meeting prior to any NAF meeting we attended,” Daleiden says of the latest release, and therefore is not covered by the injunction that the anti-abortion group plans to appeal, claiming it violates the First Amendment.
The injunction issued Friday bars CMP and its members from releasing to anyone video or audio recordings from “any NAF annual meetings” or any NAF member names learned there, or information about future NAF meetings.
National Abortion Federation's Vicki Saporta disagrees.
Saporta tells U.S. News she believes the latest video is “total retribution” for her group’s legal win, intended to rattle the federation after other content was blocked from distribution. The two other NAF employees shown in the video left the federation before CMP began releasing videos, she says.
The video of Saporta’s ACLU acceptance speech – in which she talks about her early contact with the civil liberties group – was published before the first CMP video’s release, and Saporta says the CMP used it without describing its context to falsely portray her as concerned about current controversies.
The timing is certainly suspect. Releasing video just after you've been barred from releasing video, while intentionally including the names of NAF employees in the video strikes me as Daleiden thumbing his nose at Judge Orrick.
It's probably a bad idea for him to do that. I expect there will be another restraining order shortly.
