Federal Judge Issues TRO Barring AANS from Sanctioning Expert Witness

United States District Judge Ralph Tyson, sitting in Baton Rouge, has issued a temporary restraining order barring the American Association of Neurological Surgeons from sanctioning a Louisiana neurosurgeon for testifying as a plaintiff's expert witness in a Florida malpractice case. The AANS wants to suspend the neurosurgeon for two years because he "demonstrated a lack of adequate subject matter knowledge and acted as an advocate for the plaintiff and the plaintiff attorney rather than as an unbiased witness." The Baton Rouge Advocate has the story.

Update 6/13/06: Here's the actual Temporary Restraining Order. We're not First Amendment lawyers. But the TRO appears to us to go beyond enjoining disciplinary sanctions, and toward the realm of prior restraints.