Johnson & Johnson tried to get a U.S. judge to block Reuters from publishing a story based on what it said were confidential company documents, report Maria Chutchian and Tom Hals of Reuters.
Chutchian and Hals report, “‘The First Amendment is not a license to knowingly violate the law,’ said the company in a filing late Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey, where a unit of J&J had sought bankruptcy protection while defending the Baby Powder lawsuits. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of the press.
“After the publication of the story, Reuters asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan to deny J&J’s motion, claiming it was moot. Less than an hour after Reuters submitted its letter, J&J said in a filing that it was withdrawing a request for an immediate hearing on the matter but was ‘not prepared to agree’ that its request regarding the documents was moot.”
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