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gag order definition
a judge's order prohibiting the attorneys and the parties to a pending lawsuit or
criminal prosecution from talking to the media or the public about the case. The
supposed intent is to prevent prejudice due to pre-trial publicity which would influence
potential jurors. A gag order has the secondary purpose of preventing the lawyers
from trying the case in the press and on television, and thus creating a public
mood (which could get ugly) in favor of one party or the other. Based on the "freedom
of the press" provision of the First Amendment, the court cannot constitutionally
restrict the media from printing or broadcasting information about the case, so
the only way is to put a gag on the participants under the court's control. In Canada,
however, the media can be restricted, as in a famous case in which American newspapers
were smuggled across the border to report on a particularly lurid sex-murder case
in which a second accused person was yet to be tried. A gag order can also be made
by an executive agency such as when President George Bush issued a gag order which
forbade federally funded health clinics from giving out information about abortions,
a gag order which President Bill Clinton rescinded on his first day in office, January
22, 1993.
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