Court Nixes Gag Order in Britney Case

Paparazzi dangerous, but 1st Amendment protects them
By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 19, 2008 3:35 PM CST
Court Nixes Gag Order in Britney Case
Photographers try to photograph through the back window of a Los Angeles City Fire Department ambulance carrying entertainer Britney Spears, as it leaves her residence in this Jan. 3, 2008, file photo in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)   (Associated Press)

Britney Spears will get no help from LA's family court in dodging the paparazzi, People reports. The commissioner overseeing her custody case today declined her lawyers' request for a gag order. Spears' legal team had requested a media blackout because the hordes of photographers were "dangerous" to the troubled singer "physically and emotionally."

The commissioner agreed that the threat was real but agreed with ex-husband Kevin Federline's lawyers that the pro-gag order arguments "don't pass Constitutional muster." "That's a law enforcement issue and an issue for the kind gentlemen and ladies of the press to deal with appropriately," he said of the camera-wielding throngs. (More Britney Spears stories.)

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