Impact
Like the Lloyd Lafollete Act protecting communications with Congress, the anti-gag statute has been an effective weapon for lawyers to discredit, negotiate and generally call repressive government bluffs. On the micro level, it is a resource that never has failed for Government Accountability Project (GAP) in challenging gag orders or retaliatory investigations to enforce them.
On the macro-level, however, the anti-gag statute suffers from the same defect as the Lloyd Lafollette Act: it is a right without a remedy. Those victimized by its violation do not have any formal legal access to enforce the right. Further, because it is an annual appropriations rider, the anti-gag statute quietly could be killed as part of the back rooms and late night games involved every year with appropriations laws.
Read more about this topic: Anti-Gag Statute
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