The ACLU and the Knight Institute are challenging the 40-year-old ruling that prevents former government employees from writing or speaking publicly without permission from the government. They say the ban prevents the public from hearing from informed former employees on issues of vital importance. In their petition to the court, the groups argue, “Petitioners here, and millions of former public servants like them, are subject to an onerous and far-reaching system of prior restraint that lacks the substantive and procedural safeguards that the Court has insisted on in all other contexts involving the licensing of speech.” (American Civil Liberties Union, November 22, 2021, press release)
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