A federal court largely upheld a nearly $2.5 million jury verdict Friday against a group of anti-abortion activists who secretly recorded Planned Parenthood employees and later edited the videos to suggest the organization was illegally profiting off the sale of fetal tissue.
The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the notion, put forward by the activists, that they were acting as undercover investigative journalists and therefore shielded from paying such damages by the First Amendment and other publishing protections.
Rather, the court found, the activists were guilty of trespassing, fraud, conspiracy, breach of contract, unlawful and fraudulent business practices and other federal and state laws — which are applicable to everyone, including journalists.
