[UPDATE: The judge dissolved the order today.]
From the AP:
In a rare move, a Wyoming judge has blocked two newspapers from publishing stories on an internal report about a college president’s trip to Costa Rica, saying the report was improperly taken and that releasing details could prompt the federal government to cut college grant money [under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act].
District Judge Peter Arnold on Friday ordered the Wyoming Tribune Eagle newspaper and a local biweekly paper, The Cheyenne Herald, not to disseminate information about the report for at least 10 days.
According to the Tribune Eagle, the report concerns a school-sponsored trip taken by Laramie County Community College President Darrel Hammon to Costa Rica in 2008. He served as a student chaperone on the trip….
I can’t see how this can be constitutional, especially given the Pentagon Papers case, which also involved allegedly illegally leaked documents, and which held that a preliminary injunction against the publication of such documents violated the First Amendment. Thanks to Bryan Gividen for the pointer. I have to run, and thus can’t give more detailed analysis here, but I thought I’d quickly note the case.