So I've skimmed DOJ's emergency TRO motion and here are some thoughts:

1) This is all about Trump's ego and his desire for revenge. I have only once seen the government try to halt publication in this manner, and in that case they simply bought up all 10,000 printed copies

of a book they originally had properly cleared but that they later reversed their approval just before the book was set to release. The client was not at fault and the government simply made him go through additional revisions to address things they were now claiming were still

classified.

2) The majority of this motion is largely irrelevant, as Bolton himself can be enjoined by DOJ until they're blue in the face and it won't matter one bit. Bolton no longer has control or authority over the book: his publisher does. So it's a lot of valid legal

arguments that don't mean anything at this point. Yes, Bolton breached his NDA: enjoin him all you want. He's not the controlling party anymore.

3) That brings me to the interesting part: Rule 65(d)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. That is the only part of this motion

that matters because it deals with the publisher and the commercial resellers. DOJ is trying to make a novel legal argument that they can use this provision to enjoin all "third parties" acting in concert with Bolton in terms of publication. That's a nice little way to end-run

the prior restraint standard set forth in the 70s in teh Pentagon Papers case.

Points to DOJ for creativity but I don't think it's going to work. Indeed, to my knowledge they have NEVER used this argument EVER in a prior prepublication review case.

Ever.

/end