A New Jersey judge on Thursday reversed himself and lifted restrictions that had barred a news organization from writing about and publishing surveillance video of a high school lockdown, the latest turn in a case that had stirred concerns about freedom of the press and student privacy.
While the judge, Thomas D. McCloskey of New Jersey Superior Court, acknowledged that his initial order had been overly broad, he imposed new restrictions on the news site, New Brunswick Today, and other media.
Lawyers for New Brunswick Today said that the new order, while a partial victory, still violates the First Amendment and that they intend to appeal.
The New Brunswick Board of Education had sued the news site in late May after it had published school surveillance video of security officials earlier that month surrounding a 16-year-old student at New Brunswick High School and confiscating what appeared to be a gun. Parents were told it was just a drill and not informed of the weapon, which was later identified as a BB gun.
The same day the lawsuit was filed by the school district, Judge McCloskey ordered the video’s removal from the YouTube account of New Brunswick Today and barred it from writing about the incident. On Thursday, the judge said that he had wrestled with protecting the privacy of the student against the First Amendment rights of the news media.
“Put bluntly, but with profound reverence to both sides: This was a tough call,” Judge McCloskey wrote. “If a higher court disagrees and determines that in fashioning the foregoing remedy, I abused my discretion or somehow or in some way misapplied the law, then so it will be and, of course, respected.”
Judge McCloskey ruled that New Brunswick Today may republish the security footage but only after it had obscured the identities of juveniles and shared the clip with the Board of Education and its lawyers for “review and approval.” The same restrictions would apply to any member of “the press” wanting to publish the video, he said.
He also ordered New Brunswick Today not to identify minors involved in similar but unrelated incidents in the school district, New Brunswick Public Schools.
Bruce S. Rosen, a lawyer for the news site, said on Friday that he believed Judge McCloskey’s ruling violated decades of U.S. Supreme Court precedent against prior restraint of the news media.
The judge should have lifted all of his earlier restrictions without imposing new ones, said Mr. Rosen, who notified the court on Friday that he would file an appeal.
“He’s telling the press what to do,” Mr. Rosen said. “He has basically created new law.”
The editor of New Brunswick Today, Charlie Kratovil, said on Friday that he did not plan to republish the video under the judge’s terms while the case was being appealed. But he was working on a story about the incident, he said.
The superintendent of New Brunswick Public Schools, Aubrey A. Johnson, said that the district agreed with the judge’s decision.
“We hope this ruling serves as a reminder that while a free press is essential, it carries a responsibility to protect the privacy of children,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement.
In his ruling, Judge McCloskey acknowledged that the Supreme Court had never upheld a prior restraint against the news media, even in matters of national security, referencing the Pentagon Papers case. In 1971, that case established the near-prohibition of prior restraint.
The Nixon administration had sought to block further publication of a secret government study showing how the United States had become involved in the Vietnam War. The court allowed publication to resume.
But Judge McCloskey said that he had to consider that the release of the video, which had not been blurred, could cause “lasting reputational and emotional harm.”
The student, whose name has not been made public because he is a juvenile, was arrested on suspicion of causing false public alarm, possession of an imitation firearm and possession of a weapon in a school, the police said. The case has been proceeding in juvenile court, the judge said.
Caitlin Vogus, a senior adviser at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said that Judge McCloskey’s order amounted to censorship. The advocacy group was co-founded by Daniel Ellsberg, who had leaked the Pentagon Papers.
“Judge McCloskey was right to narrow his order against New Brunswick Today, but it’s outrageous that he’s extended it to purport to apply to any member of the press who wants to publish or write about this video,” Ms. Vogus said. “Judges should know better.”
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