A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld (PDF) a lower court's injunction barring anti-abortion activists from distributing video they secretly recorded of Planned Parenthood conferences and of other meetings with women's healthcare providers.

A San Francisco federal judge initially handed down an injunction on the side of the National Abortion Federation in 2015, after being convinced that the activists had signed agreements that they would not disseminate any information from the meetings with women's healthcare providers. The case attracted attention from media rights groups like the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which argued that a prior restraint on publication bears a "heavy presumption against its constitutional validity." (PDF)

Some of the footage, meanwhile, was of activists trying to get fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood.

Parts of the footage have already been published online. That prompted outrage on both sides of the abortion debate and landed two of the activists in legal hot water on Tuesday. They were accused of criminal privacy violations by the state of California for allegedly falsifying their identities, using a bogus bio-research company's credentials to access the women's healthcare meetings, and to record people without consent.

"The right to privacy is a cornerstone of California’s Constitution, and a right that is foundational in a free democratic society," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said of the felony charges. “We will not tolerate the criminal recording of confidential conversations."

The charges were levied against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress in Southern California. They are accused of using fake California driver’s licenses and a made up research company called BioMax Procurement Services to access the National Abortion Federation's 2014 conference in San Francisco. Planned Parenthood publicly apologized for what the secret recordings showed but vowed that it has not, and never would, sell fetal tissue.

"Tyrannical judicial sycophants?"

On Wednesday, the anti-abortion activists at the Center for Medical Progress reacted to the opinion, saying it was their First Amendment right to record and to publish their findings.

The gag order against the release of CMP’s footage of Planned Parenthood leadership discussing criminal conduct at National Abortion Federation Meetings is an attack on the First Amendment and an attack on the constitutional separation of powers. These videos are now unquestionably information the public is entitled to, and they are key evidence in the charges and defense of David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, but the gag order even prevents their release to law enforcement. Planned Parenthood’s barbaric abortion business, and their political cronies and tyrannical judicial sycophants, cannot cover up these videotapes and stifle free and informed public discussion. CMP will continue to fight this unconstitutional abuse of power and vindicate our First Amendment rights and those of all citizen journalists to speak and publish on matters of urgent public concern.

The center's statement came hours after a three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling 2-1, said it would continue barring the center from distributing whatever video it has not already published.

"One may not obtain information through fraud, promise to keep that information confidential, and then breach that promise in the name of the public interest," two of the judges, President Barack Obama appointee Andrew Hurwitz, and President Bill Clinton appointee Donald Molloy, ruled. "The defendants claim that they were released from their contractual obligations because they obtained evidence of criminal wrongdoing. But the district court, having reviewed the recordings, concluded as a matter of fact that they had not. That determination is amply supported by the record."

The footage, however, can be handed over to the authorities with a subpoena, but the National Abortion Federation has the right to challenge it.

In a lone dissent, Judge Consuelo Callahan, a President George W. Bush appointee, wrote that the injunction should be lifted, at least to allow the group to hand over the material to law enforcement.

"I strongly disagree with my colleagues on the application of the preliminary injunction to law enforcement agencies. The injunction against Defendants sharing information with law enforcement agencies should be vacated because the public policy in favor of allowing citizens to report matters to law enforcement agencies outweighs NAF’s rights to enforce a contract," Callahan wrote. "I find no justification for not allowing Defendants to share the tapes with any law enforcement agency that is interested."