The ACLU’s problem with speech it doesn’t like

Prof. Volokh has a couple posts about how the ACLU is trying to prevent the press from publishing information about one of its clients. As he notes, one might excuse this on the grounds that the ACLU’s just trying to protect its client. But how does that explain Aguilar v. Avis Rent A Car System, Inc., 21 Cal.4th 121 (1999), cert. denied 120 S.Ct. 2029 (2000)? In that case, the court issued an injunction prohibiting the defendant from uttering racial epithets—an obvious example of a prior restraint which violates the First Amendment. Although the Reason Foundation, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, and other groups argued that even such offensive speech cannot be banned by injunction, the ACLU filed an amicus brief supporting the injunction.