The courts are alive with prior restraints on speech. Judges have enjoined people from speaking online about ex-lovers, from criticizing old business partners, from publicizing that someone was suspended from the practice of law—and most recently, in two cases decided in the last two weeks, one man was enjoined from using the name of a woman he was suing, and another was enjoined from speaking about his doctor. Strange cases, both of them.
In the first, the Montana Supreme Court upheld a no-contact order that read:
Ron Glick shall not utilize the name Angela J. Townsend or The Forlorned in any manner except in his Federal District Court case. This prohibition shall extend but not be limited to any internet communications, postings or social media.
The order arose out of a dispute over whether Glick owned the trademark to Townsend’s book The Forlorned. Things got heated, and Townsend accused Glick of stalking her. She requested a restraining order, which the trial court granted and the Montana Supreme Court affirmed—even though the latter said there was insufficient evidence to find that Glick had stalked Townsend.