Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, believes any attempts by President Trump’s legal team to block the airing of a CBS News interview with porn actress Stephanie Clifford is likely to fail.

“The odds of Trump getting a court to issue an injunction to prevent CBS from airing this are slim to none,” Calvert said in an interview published Mar. 15, 2018 on Mic.

Calvert explained that an injunction would constitute prior restraint, which is presumptively unconstitutional and used only in extreme cases.  In addition, because CBS was not involved in the nondisclosure agreement between Clifford and Trump, they would be considered an innocent party.

“Whatever agreement Clifford reached, CBS is not a party to that,” Calvert was quoted. “CBS News did not pay her to break that agreement. In this case, they have just lawfully obtained information from her.”

Coincidentally, Calvert interviewed Clifford in 2006 on First Amendment and other issues, one week before the alleged affair.  The interview was part of a research article, “Porn in Their Words: Female Leaders in the Adult Entertainment Industry Address Free Speech, Censorship, Feminism, Culture and the Mainstreaming of Adult Content”, published the Winter 2006 issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law.

Posted: March 16, 2018
Category: College News, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project News
Tagged as: Clay Calvert, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project