The Region - News from April 17, 1985

The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal appeals court to invalidate a gag order imposed on lawyers in the Richard W. Miller spy case banning them from commenting publicly about the case outside the courtroom. ACLU attorney Paul Hoffman filed an emergency appeal on behalf of Miller and his defense lawyers, Stanley Greenberg and Joel Levine, challenging the constitutionality of the restraining order issued March 5 by U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon. Hoffman asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule Kenyon on grounds that his order was an unnecessary prior restraint of free speech and an unfair restriction on media coverage of the case. Miller, the first FBI agent ever charged with espionage, is accused of conspiring with Russian emigres Svetlana Ogorodnikova and Nikolai Ogorodnikov to pass government secrets to the Soviet Union.