A national news organization with operations in Tennessee has filed a federal lawsuit against the director of Tennessee's court administration, claiming the blanket closure of upcoming judicial conference meetings violates First Amendment rights of access to courts.
Governing bodies such as school boards and county commissions should be careful about their rules on public comment. They may regulate the public comment period to protect the safety and the orderly flow of a meeting. But barring someone just because they are critical or express antagonistic views violates free speech rights and is repressive.
A citizen cannot be thrown out of a public meeting simply because he or she offends, antagonizes or harshly criticizes a governing body or members of a governing body during public comment period, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said this month.
A federal district judge is scheduled to hold a bench trial in Nashville late this summer to decide if a ban on livestreaming meetings of the Montgomery County Commission violates the First Amendment. His decision could turn on whether the ban is narrowly tailored enough to address the government’s concern about security of commission chambers.
Nonprofit online news organization MLK50 in Memphis has told a federal judge overseeing a consent decree against the city that the city has violated its journalists' First Amendment rights and the court order by repeatedly refusing to add its editors to the city's media advisory list. The city of Memphis has refused to add MLK50 founder and editor Wendi Thomas to the media advisory list after taking her off in 2019. The city has complained she is not "objective" when it comes to her coverage of the mayor. In a letter written on May 4, attorney Paul McAdoo told U.S. District Judge Jon P. McCalla that the city of Memphis [...]