On Friday, local law enforcement raided the Marion County Record’s office, seizing personal and company-owned computers, cell phones, and reporting materials. Officers from the Marion police department and the county sheriff’s deputies also raided the home of the Record’s owners, Eric Meyer and his mother, Joan.
Tragically, Joan Meyer, an otherwise healthy 98-year-old, died Saturday. The Record reported that Mrs. Meyer, “stressed beyond her limits and overwhelmed by hours of shock and grief after illegal police raids on her home and the Marion County Record newspaper office,” collapsed and died in her home.
Marion is a small town of 1,900 located about an hour north of Wichita, but Friday’s events have quickly become a global story. All who cherish the Constitution should be furious. And Marion law enforcement has much to answer for.
Such a raid is unprecedented in Kansas and represents a grave threat to the freedom of the press. It cannot stand. A search warrant, signed by Marion County Magistrate Laura Viar the morning of the search, claims probable cause to investigate identity theft and unlawful acts concerning computers. But the police department’s heavy-handed approach is straight out of the authoritarian playbook and nowhere close in proportion to the suspected violations.
IT ALL started with a story the Record didn’t even write. The newspaper received documentation from a confidential source proving local restaurant owner Kari Newell was convicted of drunken driving in 2008 and had later driven without a license, criminal history which could jeopardize her ability to obtain a liquor license for her restaurant. After verifying the information, the Record alerted the police but, as they questioned the motives of their source, did not publish an article on the information.
Marion police have defended the raid, claiming that officers may search a newspaper office if journalists are suspects in the offense that is the subject of the search. On Sunday, Kansas Bureau of Investigation Director Tony Mattivi released a statement that seemed to justify his agency’s involvement in the raid, saying, “No one is above the law, whether a public official or a representative of the media.”
But Magistrate Judge Viar, Director Mattivi and the Marion police department know better. The law is clear. America’s judicial system has consistently shown that only in extreme circumstances can police seize journalists’ property with a search warrant alone. The federal Privacy Protection Act of 1980 unambiguously requires law enforcement to obtain a subpoena prior to any search. The “suspect exception” claimed by Marion police doesn’t apply when it comes to merely possessing information.
It’s well-established legal precedent that information a newspaper has obtained is protected, even if those who passed the materials on to the newspaper obtained it illegally. This is why news outlets were able to report on documents Edward Snowden sent them. It’s why the White House lost its battle to stop the New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers.
The idea is that law enforcement should always seek the least intrusive approach with the press. And with good reason. No government agency has the right to shut down a newspaper, but that, in effect, is what Marion police have attempted in seizing the Record’s work materials. Such government interference threatens First Amendment rights. It sends a chilling message to journalists and the public, one that intimidates and almost certainly instigates self-censorship.
And what does Friday’s raid communicate to those in power? That they can simply swat reporters aside. Sure, they’ll whine about their rights, but we all know who pulls the strings. The press is just a nuisance, transparency and democracy nothing more than lofty words. Take what you can.
SUCH INJUSTICES won’t stand. Meyer is preparing at least one lawsuit, and he’s on rock-solid legal footing. In the meantime, several actions must occur immediately.
First, Marion police must immediately return the seized materials and erase any information their department may have obtained. The warrant Viar signed must be revoked, and any evidence acquired through the search must be declared inadmissible. And if an affidavit was filed by the Marion police to support the warrant, it must be made public.
Champions of a free press should support their local paper by subscribing to it. The Record, and newspapers across this country, don’t need your likes, shares or retweets. Local news is worth paying for, and American journalism needs the public to share that conviction.
The press has rallied. The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press and 34 news organizations, including CNN, the Associated Press and others, sent Marion’s police chief a four-page letter condemning the raid. Reporters and publishers from across Kansas have offered to help the Record lay out its pages, design ads, and even print its paper for free. If Newell thought she could shut Meyer and his crew up, she is sorely mistaken.
WEATHER can roll through the Kansas plains quickly. In the August heat, cells pop up and disappear over the course of an afternoon. Friday’s raid in Marion, however, has the markings of something different. The thunderclouds are big. And in the coming storm, those who protect our Constitution will look up and smile sweetly at the rain. Meyer lost his mother. God willing, he won’t lose his paper.
