There is a chilling case of censorship out of Clarksdale, Mississippi, where a court ordered a local newspaper to delete a publication that the city claimed was libelous. It is not clear that The Clarksdale Press Register editorial by publisher Floyd Ingram did constitute libel. Ultimately, the city backed down, but the actions of both the local officials and the court remain troubling.
Ingram’s article, “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust,” criticized the mayor and city council of Clarksdale for the lack of public notice before it passed a resolution to establish a 2 percent tax on retailers selling alcohol, tobacco, hemp, and marijuana.
Ironically, Ingram supported the “sin tax” to support “public safety, crime prevention, and continuing economic growth in the city.” However, he objected that, before the government “sent [the] resolution to the Mississippi Legislature,” it “fail[ed] to go to the public with details about this idea.” He added, “Maybe [city commissioners] just want a few nights in Jackson to lobby for this idea—at public expense.”
The city went ballistic. The city council voted unanimously to sue the Press-Register for libel. Mayor Chuck Espy declared “I would like for the record to reflect, even though I did not vote, I am in full support, and I am fully vested in the decisions that the four commissioners unanimously said.”
Of course, these politicians could set the record straight by simply responding publicly to the allegations. Interestingly, the clerk appeared to confirm that the public notice on the resolution was a snafu. During the litigation, the clerk confirmed that “I customarily e-mail the media any Notice of Special Meeting. However, I inadvertently failed to do so.”
So, the premise of the column was confirmed. While I understand the sensitivity over the suggestion of a desire to travel to Jackson, that line is clearly protected opinion.
On February 13, the city council voted unanimously to sue the Press-Register for libel over its editorial. “I would like for the record to reflect,” added Mayor Chuck Espy, “even though I did not vote, I am in full support, and I am fully vested in the decisions that the four commissioners unanimously said.”
Judge Crystal Wise Martin of the Chancery Court of Hinds County ruled in favor of a temporary restraining order that required the paper to “remove the article…from their online portals and make it inaccessible to the public.”
Epsy celebrated the decision, posting “THANK GOD! The City of Clarksdale WON today! The judge ruled in our favor that a newspaper cannot tell a malicious lie and not be held liable….Thank You, God, for a judicial system.”
The role of the government in bringing a libel action is particularly controversial and chilling. In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court observed that “for good reason, ‘no court of last resort in this country has ever held, or even suggested, that prosecutions for libel on government have any place in the American system of jurisprudence.'”
The Court added that such a role “has disquieting implications for criticism of governmental conduct…A State cannot under the First and Fourteenth Amendments award damages to a public official for defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves ‘actual malice’—that the statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of whether it was true or false.”
Ironically, Clarkesdale ensured that its failure to provide public notice, will now become widespread knowledge, as its infamous act of censorship for a newspaper accurately reporting that failure brought far more attention than the original article.
The judge and mayor are both nonWhite. The reporter was White. Strangely, the racial component isn’t highlighted in the story.
Judge Cyrstal ‘not so’ Wise Martin should not have ruled this way — where did they go to law school?
Proud DEI University grads most likely.
Like Clarence Thomas.
Here is the judge’s professional and legal background. https://trellis.law/judge/crystal.wise.martin
(OT)
You come with what should have been hat in hand for financial and military support, from an administration you campaigned against. You then act like the petulant, spoiled authoritarian you are.
Guess what. You miscalculated. *This* administration does not bend over and grab its ankles.
DOGE should investigate the improper use of the Oval Office as the setting for a reality TV show.
Hating Zelensky is like hating George Washington. It is totally
irrational.
Impressive logic.
If only zalensky was dead like Washington
Wow politics of rage. That sounds pretty threatening. And stupid
Ukrainians have been dying so that Americans don’t have to. Who are the grifters? Trump and Vance are the ones who should show more appreciation to Zelensky and the Ukrainians.
Leave it to Trump to use the Oval Office as the setting for his new sick version of the Jerry Springer show. This is an abuse of power that should be investigated.
What exactly is the crime? What a stupid comment.
That is what the investigation would determine. How is due process stupid?
Being a ham sandwich…
One cannot hold a rational debate with Marxist ideology, the basic tenants of which are to undermine logic, common sense, right versus wrong, good versus bad, because the ultimate aim is not to arrive at any given solution to any particular issue, rather the aim is to sow discontent, confusion, hatred, bigotry, et., al., within the populace with the ultimate goal of destroying Western Civilization, one major pillar of which is, the United States.
Yeah, he should have kept as the massage parlor that Bill Clinton turned it in to. Better yet the Biden brand collection and distribution center…
These judges are really becoming insane. You would think Article 3 branch is over the other two. Were I in charge I would tell them to stick it and then ask what are they going to do about it? They have no enforcement powers.
Which judges are you referring to?
What on earth does the Chancery Court of Hinds County have to do with Article 3?
Not one more penny for Zelenskyy.
Ukraine, send America a new president when you want peace.
Zelensky will be back – soon. He has no choice.
He’s going to be in a box soon I would have to believe. He will follow Samosa, the Shah, Noriega, Khaddafi and all the other failed world puppets. That’s what happens to war mongers and tyrants, even Lincoln. They end up dead or in jail.