Gag Order In O.J. Case p. 12

By: M.L. STEIN

THE JUDGE IN O.J. Simpson's civil trial has issued a gag order so restrictive that one First Amendment attorney termed it "wildly overbroad."
The order by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Hiroshi Fujisaki was immediately challenged in a suit by several media organizations, including the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, NBC, CNN and Copley News Service.
Under Fujisaki's order, all attorneys, witnesses and litigants are forbidden to talk about the case for the duration of the trial, scheduled to start on Sept. 17 in Santa Monica.
If the order sticks, the atmosphere of the civil case would be far different from Simpson's criminal trial, during which prosecution and defense lawyers spoke freely almost daily to the more than 1,000 reporters covering it. The cycle inspired critics to call it a "circus."
The Times reported that attorneys emerging from an hour-long session in the judge's chambers, where they were informed of the gag, declined to disclose that the judge had postponed the trial eight days from its scheduled Sept. 9 opening. Lawyers for both sides reportedly agreed with the delay.
Fujisaki issued the gag order unilaterally, without motions for it from either side.
At this writing, Fujisaki had not decided whether to allow cameras in the courtroom, as the media had requested. A hearing on the issue was scheduled later in the week.
Simpson is being sued for damages by the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman, who were stabbed to death in June 1994. Simpson, a former football star and actor, was acquitted of the murders in a sensational trial.
Appealing the gag order to Fujisaki, media attorney Kelli L. Sager, of Davis Wright Tremaine in Los Angeles, said it violated U.S. and California constitutions because it "was entered without any public hearing and was not accompanied by any findings justifying its entry."
"There is no justification for any in this case, much less the blanket gag order imposed by the court," the media complaint said, arguing that public interest "far outweighs the remote possibility that any further public comment by the attorneys, parties or witnesses about this case could taint the jury pool or prejudicially affect the outcome of the trial in this matter."
In an interview, however, Sager noted that the suit will be difficult to win because the media, since they are not involved in the case, have no legal standing.
Her view was confirmed by other attorneys, who also regarded the gag order as one of the toughest they had seen.
"It's wildly overbroad," said Rex Heinke, a prominent Los Angeles First Amendment expert who has represented the Times and other news organizations. "But the problem for the media is whether they have standing to challenge the order. Also, even if the order is overturned, the attorneys, as a practical matter, don't have to talk to the press."
Terry Francke, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said the gag was "certainly overbroad, and its necessity is questionable." The attorney said a gag order might have been warranted in Simpson's criminal case, but he saw no "demonstrated need" for one in the civil trial.
In a Times interview, Douglas Mirell, a First Amendment scholar who has fought gag orders many times as counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, termed Fujisaki's dictum "breathtaking," adding: "I've never seen, in a civil case, a gag order that is as broad and blunderbuss as this one."