Citizen journalist David Daleiden faces continued legal jeopardy

David Daleiden (third frm right) with Thomas More Society's Peter Breen (r) Tom Brechja (2nd r)

CHICAGO – The shocking Planned Parenthood undercover videos that hit the Internet last fall were the center of attention in Houston Friday, as videographer David Daleiden's attorneys argued for the reversal of a preliminary injunction barring Daleiden from publishing videos he took at the National Abortion Federation's 2014 and 2015 annual meetings.

"The government will respond within two weeks to our motion, and the court will convene a status on the motion May 25, in Houston," one of Daleiden's attorneys Peter Breen told Illinois Review. The hearing will be sometime during the summer.

Daleiden’s appeal, filed last week by Chicago-based Thomas More Society counsel, assails the lower court’s decree as a "blatantly unconstitutional 'prior restraint' on free speech, based on repeated Supreme Court precedents that condemn such gag orders, most notably the famous Pentagon Papers case in which the Justices refused the federal government’s plea to stop publication of top secret files discussing the Vietnam war which had been leaked to the New York Times and Washington Post. 

"The appeal brief also argued that release of undercover video of significant (if not paramount) public interest should not be suppressed, in order to protect the public’s right to know – a critical element of our professed democratic self-governance as an open and free society," a statement from Thomas More Society explained.

"Indeed, the United States Congress, numerous state legislators, and criminal investigators have subpoenaed and relied on Daleiden’s video releases to instigate hearings, new legal and regulatory initiatives, defunding measures, and also possible civil and criminal enforcement actions against the abortion industry. Congress itself had subpoenaed the suppressed videos and the lower court upheld that subpoena, which in turn led to a public hearing by the House Select Committee on Infant Lives, held last week."

This prejudicial censorship targeted at civilian investigator Daleiden threatens undercover journalism at large, explained Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, a national non-profit law firm.

“The National Abortion Federation (NAF) is working in tandem with Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers and promoters to suppress David Daleiden’s First Amendment rights and to shut down the resulting investigations focused on the abortion groups’ involvement in baby parts trafficking,” Brejcha said. 

Before the court appearance Friday, Daleiden was honored at an event sponsored by Illinois Right to Life in Chicago Wednesday night.  

After the event, IRTL's executive Director Emily Zender shared via email four things Daleiden said at their banquet that struck her the most:

• ….the abortion industry is very meticulous about preserving each body part of the child in the abortion to sell but entirely disregards preserving the actual child.  
• …the aborted baby parts that Planned Parenthood sells are so valuable because they are human.
• …the abortion clinic workers he met are highly ambivalent and highly conflicted about their work.
• … David said all the lawsuits, the indictments, the media coverage, and negative personal attacks against him is relaxing compared to what he witnessed and endured undercover in Planned Parenthood. 

Zender offered an opportunity for prolifers to directly write Daleiden: 

For the next 72 hours only, you can still write David a thank you note and we'll deliver it directly to him. Write your letter here. 

"Forward this email to your kids, your family, or your friends as their last chance to thank the man that has sent the abortion industry into a tailspin," she wrote.