A gag order forbidding a disgruntled former client of Johnny Cochran from talking about the late lawyer has been ruled unconstitutional.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday the order was an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.
The high court decided 7-2 that Cochran's death in March -- one week after oral arguments in the case -- did not make the case moot since the gag order against former client Ulysses Tory and Ruth Craft remained in effect.
But the court said Cochran's death did make it "unnecessary" to deal with the question of whether the First Amendment forbids a permanent injunction against speech as a remedy for defamation when the plaintiff is a public figure.
Instead, the court said the rationale for the order -- to prevent Tory from trying to extort money from Cochran -- had all but vanished with Cochran's death.
The gag order, which had been upheld by the California Court of Appeals, prohibited Tory and Craft from saying anything about Cochran or his law firm in any public forum.
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