Private: Recent Fifth Circuit Nominee Once Issued Controversial Prior Restraint

Today, President Bush nominated Texas state trial Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.  Elrod is a graduate of Baylor University and Harvard Law School, where she edited the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, the official journal of the Federalist Society.
As a state trial judge, Elrod once issued a controversial prior restraint enjoining an exposé by local news station KTRK about conservative evangelical preacher Benny Hinn.  A third-party acquired documents embarassing to Hinn from Hinn's legal counsel, and passed these documents to KTRK.  Because Hinn enjoyed an attorney/client privilege with his counsel, Judge Elrod held that this was sufficient reason to issue a temporary restraining order forbidding KTRK from broadcasting any information contained in the document.

Judge Elrod's order was subsequently lifted by another judge.  The U.S. Supreme Court has held that "prior restraints on speech and publication are the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights."