Get Gag Order Template

A gag order restricting the news media from publishing something that transpired in open court is usually an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.

A gag order is an order imposed by a judge in a criminal or civil case that blocks a party (including attorneys or witnesses) from publicly talking about the case, though the exact terms of the order and what can and cannot be said vary.

What Happens When You Violate One. When you violate any court order, you are held in contempt of the court (or contempt). The same applies when you violate a gag order. The consequences of such may include a more stringent order, a fine for disobeying the order, or, in some cases, even imprisonment.

Gag orders — issued by a court, government, or private entity — require an individual to refrain from making public comments. Typically, judges issue injunctions barring trial participants — including attorneys, litigants, and witnesses — from discussing trial-related material outside the courtroom.

A gag order is a “most extraordinary remedy” that may be used only in “exceptional cases” where “the evil that would result from the reportage is both great and certain and cannot be mitigated by less intrusive measures.” CBS Inc. v. Davis 510 U.S.1315, 1317 (1994) (Blackmun, J., in chambers).

DL: This is an issue that comes up often and gag orders have routinely been found to be legal, and constitutional. Gag orders are things that are imposed in thousands of criminal cases around the country on a near daily basis. They're particularly acute in cases where there's a lot of pretrial publicity.

Gag orders are not uncommon in criminal cases, as they are put in place to ensure that the defendant has a fair trial and that the jury pool is not influenced prior to a trial.

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federally funded health clinics from giving out information about abortions, a gag order which President Bill Clinton rescinded on his first day in office, January 22, 1993.