The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal District of Columbia Circuit temporarily froze a gag order against former President Donald Trump. Notably, the per curium decision stated the temporary freeze is in place to provide the court time to consider an emergency stay of the order requested by the ex-president.
This move comes after a lower court rejected Trump’s submitted request to stay the gag order. This emergency motion was in response to the gag order issued ahead of his trial for alleged election interference in 2020. Trump argued the gag order, which prohibited him from making any disparaging remarks about the court, its prosecutors or potential witnesses, compromises his First Amendment rights.
Citing previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings, Trump’s defense stated that any violations of free speech should be scrutinized at the highest level as they are ‘the most serious and least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights’. Furthermore, the petition declared the order obstructs ‘core political and campaign speech’, adding that his political opponents are utilizing the indictment issues for their campaigning advantage. The former president reasoned that this should warrant First Amendment protections allowing him to criticize the current and past government officials attacking him.
The court also granted an expedited review of the motion following the D.C. Circuit Handbook of Practice and Internal Procedures Rule 33. This rule permits the court to expedite cases where the public or people not present before the court have an unusual interest in a speedy decision.
Interestingly, this is the second instance of the gag order being frozen since its issuance on October 16. A federal district judge had lifted this order temporarily in October to allow Trump to build a case against it. However, the order was reinstated after assessment of the submitted defense. Oral arguments for the merits of the gag order have been scheduled for November 20.