Gag Order: No Joking Matter?
posted by:Alison Gardner Biggs // 09:16 PM // March 05, 2005 // Digital Democracy: law, policy and politics
Tonight Show host Jay Leno has been subpoenaed in Michael Jackson's trial. The trial judge has issued an extremely broad order barring those who are involved in the case from discussing the case publically.
While Leno may be able to claim constitutional protection under the First Amendment, he has already found a way to get around the order: hiring another actor to deliver his monologue jokes for him. Questions remain as to whether this makes a mockery of an order which was intended to provide for privacy and a fair trial, or whether the original order overvalued privacy issues at the expense of free speech.
Click here for a story on the First Amendment issues.
Click here for a story on hiring another actor.
