Ct. of Appeals granted portion of petition for writ of mandamus filed by Community Futures Trading Commission seeking to preclude Dist. Ct. from requiring various members of Commission to appear before Dist. Ct. to explain their thinking behind language in press release regarding settlement of case that arguably conflicted with court order precluding parties from making public statements about terms of settlement. While hearing before Dist. Ct. was for purpose of determining whether any Commissioner was guilty of contempt, said Commissioners were not parties to instant settlement, and every member of Commission has right to publicly explain his or her vote. As such, instant consent decree seeking to silence members of Commission was ineffectual. Moreover, while Dist. Ct. was free to determine whether Commission itself was in civil contempt of consent decree, Dist. Ct. could only make such determination through examination of four corners of written statements and other documents, as opposed to summoning Commissioners for purposes of seeking their thoughts behind such statements.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Contempt