Several decisions in U.S. courts recently, in Arizona and New Jersey, have recognized the right to blog anonymously. A Dodd-led filibuster in the U.S. Senate pushed back a vote on a bill that would have made more spying on U.S. citizens legal and would have given telecoms who’ve helped in illegal surveillance activities immunity.

smaller courts have swung back in the other direction. First, a Divorce Court judge in Vermont, Thomas Devine, issued an injunction against William Krasnansky, forbidding him to continue posting fictionalized accounts of his divorce. Now, John Mutter, a Family Court judge in Rhode Island has instructed Anne Grant, a retired minister, to stop publishing her blog, which focuses on the perceived failures of her state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Although the wording in this ruling instructs her to remove material and stop blogging material “pertaining” to children in a specific case, it is loose enough that there is significant doubt that general and well established free speech law in this country would not be abrogated pretty easily. It looks like another case of “prior restraint,” a type of censorship which is clearly unconstitutional and against which there is a tremendous amount of case law.

Additionally, a South Florida District Court judge, Joan Lenard, has forbidden an attorney, David Markus, to blog about a case, despite the fact that the attorney is not involved in it!