Before the opening statements of the parties this morning Judge Quaintance announced her decision on the First Amendment issue raised by the motion of the Media Coalition challenging her pretrial order from the bench on March 29. I have discussed this order at length in previous installments of this series in which I described it as lawless.
Judge Quaintance announced that on further review she was reversing her order. She had found no law to support it, much as she might disagree with the law. Whatever bodycam videos are admitted into evidence at trial will be displayed to the public and the press. Sketch artists are not now prohibited from depicting jurors in their drawing of courtroom scenes.
Judge Quaintance will issue a formal written memorandum of law at a later date, but wanted to announce her ruling before the opening statements. Everything I wrote criticizing her order in earlier installments is vindicated in light of her announcement this morning.
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