Judge Lenard v. Markus [1]

David O. Markus, an attorney who writes the Southern District of Florida Blog [2], was silenced by a gag order issued by Judge Joan Lenard of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, in connection with the "Liberty City 7" case (involving an alleged plot to blow up the Sears Tower). Markus had written posts about the case and called into question the gag order that Judge Lenard imposed on Lyglenson Lemorin, his wife, and his lawyer Joel DeFabio after Lemorin was acquitted by a jury.  Judge Lemorin had declared a mistrial as to Lemorin's co-defendants and issued the gag order to help ensure an impartial jury pool for the new trial.

Markus appeared before the court on behalf of DeFabio in order to challenge the gag order. Judge Lenard then extended the gag order to cover DeFabio's "agents," which clearly applied to Markus. Because of the order, Markus could no longer blog about the case.

Markus filed a petition [3] for writ of mandamus with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that the appeals court lift the gag order. Judge Lenard then modified the gag order so that it only applied to the underlying terrorism case, not to statements about Lemorin's impending immigration case in the Southern District of Florida.  As a result of this modification, the Elevent Circuit dismissed Markus's petition.