In a significant First Amendment challenge, Nashville civil rights attorney Daniel A. Horwitz has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The legal dispute centers around Local Rule 83.04, which bars attorneys from making “extrajudicial statements” concerning cases in the district. Horwitz argues that this rule infringes on free speech rights, an assertion he is pushing to keep alive in court. Despite the court’s claim of sovereign immunity, Horwitz contends that it is not immune from challenges when acting unconstitutionally.
The controversy originates from a case Horwitz filed against CoreCivic of Tennessee LLC, a private prison contractor, over an inmate’s death. His public comments on this case resulted in a magistrate judge invoking Local Rule 83.04 to order a gag and the deletion of his social media posts. This led to further legal actions from Horwitz, who contends that the rule’s provisions, particularly its burden-shifting mechanism, conflict with First Amendment principles. The case in question is listed as Horwitz v. U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee et al., case number 3:24-cv-01180.