Mary Anne Pazanowski reports:
Anti-abortion activists who misrepresented their identities to gain access to private Planned Parenthood events must pay over $2 million in damages to the abortion advocacy group and its related entities.
The case is Planned Parenthood Fed’n of Am., Inc. v. Newman, 9th Cir., No. 20-16068, 10/21/22.
Of special note to journalists:
The court rejected the defendants’ argument that they couldn’t be held liable for damages because were engaged in journalistic newsgathering when the allegedly unlawful acts took place. Even journalists must comply with laws of general applicability, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said.
“The First Amendment is not a license to trespass, to steal, or to intrude by electronic means into the precincts of another’s home or office,” Judge Ronald M. Gould’s opinion said. Journalists “have no special license to break laws of general applicability in pursuit of a headline,” it said.
Read more at Bloomberg Law.
Related: “The Ninth Circuit rejected the defendants’ other objections to the judgment in a separate unpublished opinion also released Friday.”