Month: August 2026

A federal judge has ruled that a jury must decide whether Delaware County officials retaliated against a local newspaper for its critical coverage, sending the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic’s case on behalf of The Reporter to trial and leaving punitive damages on the table. In her July 21 ruling, Hon. Anne M. Nardacci said the factual record precludes summary judgment.

Heather Murray, associate director of Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic and managing attorney of the Local Journalism Project, said, “We are pleased with the decision and look forward to bringing this case to trial to defend the right of The Reporter—and every news outlet—to report critically on government officials. Importantly, the court also found that The Reporter is eligible to recover punitive damages in the event a jury determines that the evidence presented of county officials’ retaliation violated the First Amendment.”

The Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic filed suit in December 2023 with co-counsel Michael J. Grygiel of Foley Hoag LLP in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York on behalf of Decker Advertising Inc., publisher of The Reporter, against Delaware County, members of its Board of Supervisors, and County Attorney Amy Merklen. The suit alleges that County officials violated The Reporter’s First Amendment rights when the Board revoked the newspaper’s designation as an official county paper in retaliation for its coverage of county government, stripping the paper of critical advertising revenue from government-funded legal notices.

Under New York County Law section 214, counties designate “official” newspapers to publish legal notices. A 1973 amendment to the statute ensures that politically independent newspapers like The Reporter are eligible for designation. Until its de-designation in March 2022, The Reporter had published the County’s public notices virtually since its founding in 1881.

A year after the de-designation, County officials sent an unprecedented letter to the publisher of The Reporter, signed by 39 County officials, demanding that the publisher “make immediate changes” to its coverage of the County.

The Complaint also alleges that The Reporter’s constitutional rights were violated when the County Attorney issued a “gag directive” prohibiting county employees from freely communicating with the newspaper’s staff.

session privilege shielded testimony about the Board’s de-designation deliberations.

The Reporter is seeking, among other things, a permanent injunction reinstating it as an official county newspaper through the calendar year following the court’s order, requiring the Board to award future designations based solely on articulable, content-neutral criteria, and ordering Defendants to immediately rescind the directive that prohibited County employees from speaking to The Reporter’s staff.

In addition to Murray, Clinic Director Mark Jackson, and Grygiel,  Kelly L. McNamee and Christina N. Hernsdorf at Foley Hoag LLP and Cynthia E. Neidl at Greenberg Traurig LLP worked on the summary judgment briefing. Starting in 2023, several generations of Clinic students and summer fellows have worked on the case.

For further background and coverage of the case, see:

Free Speech Test Case Over Newspaper Retaliation Heads Toward Trial Law.com

Catskills newspaper’s case claiming retaliation from county government headed to trial – Times Union

Click the link below to read J. Dale Schoemaker’s Investigative Post article that quotes Associate Director Heather Murray and Local Journalism Fellow Kyle Clauss.

ICE refuses to say who works for them in Buffalo, upstate NY : Investigative Post

OKLAHOMA CITY – This week, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the Oklahoma Riot Statute’s definition of a “riot” is neither vague nor overbroad in violation of the United States Constitution, due in large part to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals’ recognition of an intent element of “willfulness”.

In May of 2020, a horrifying 10-minute-long eyewitness video of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police sparked the largest protests in U.S. history. And in Oklahoma, communities throughout the state demanded police reform and racial equity. During protests, advocates faced many efforts by the City of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County to chill their free speech. One such effort included charging protesters with Incitement to Riot, relying on the broad definition of “riot” in Oklahoma statute to criminalize racial justice protesters criticizing the police.

The ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation and Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic challenged the constitutionality of the Riot Statute, arguing that it violated Oklahomans’ free speech and due process rights because it lacked an intent requirement. Without the requirement that the speaker intended to threaten violence, the statute criminalized speech protected by the First Amendment, like the protest speech of Oklahomans standing up against police brutality. With this week’s decision in Terry, et al. v. Dummond, et al., the Tenth Circuit found that the threats provision of the Riot Statute requires the State to prove that a person intended to threaten violence.

The following is a joint statement by ACLU of Oklahoma Foundation and Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic:

“The murder of George Floyd by police ignited nation-wide protests and renewed demands for racial justice and law enforcement accountability. We see the same demands made today, as law enforcement attempts to silence and criminalize protesters demanding accountability for our immigrant communities. This ruling helps protect the safety of Oklahomans as they take to the streets to demand better from our government, as the State may no longer leverage the Riot Statute against speakers with whom it disagrees. The threats provision of “riot” now requires the State to prove that a person intended to threaten violence, an even higher standard than required by the First Amendment. The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy and enshrined in the Constitution. The ACLU of Oklahoma and our partners will continue to fight against any attempts to violate the First Amendment rights of all people. Dissent is patriotic.”

View more about the case here.

Clinic’s Local Journalism Attorney Adam Tragone’s letter raising concerns about Ligonier Township’s practice of holding committee and subcommittee meetings in private is detailed in this July 31, 2026, Latrobe Bulletin article: Ligonier Township supervisors discuss Bulletin letter about Sunshine Act concerns | News | latrobebulletinnews.com.