EDITORIAL: The First Amendment applies, even in Kansas

Nevada officials over the years have regularly subverted open meeting and public records laws, but — to date — they haven’t attempted to criminalize news gathering. Let’s hope they don’t get any ideas from their Kansas counterparts.

Last week, police officers and sheriff’s deputies raided a small weekly newspaper in the Jayhawk State as part of an investigation into how reporters obtained a document related to a local businesswoman. Law enforcement seized documents, computers and cellphones. The incident at the Marion County Record, circulation 4,000, brought issues of press freedom and the First Amendment to the forefront.

As The New York Times, reported, “It is extremely rare for law enforcement authorities in the United States to search and seize the tools to produce journalism.” And for good reason. The Bill of Rights guarantees press freedoms precisely because a vibrant Fourth Estate plays a vital role in a democratic republic by informing taxpayers and holding accountable those who work for them. Tyranny flourishes in darkness.

The authorities in Marion County — about an hour north of Wichita — have other ideas, unfortunately. According to the Times, the dispute centered on whether the paper had violated a local restaurant owner’s privacy by obtaining a government record that included information about a DUI incident. The paper had also recently investigated the local police chief, according to the Kansas City Star.

In other words, the raid was akin to using a jackhammer to kill a fly. Vindictiveness and small-town parochialism are no excuse for trampling the First Amendment.

The Marion police chief tried mightily to spin the fiasco to his advantage, explaining that “when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated.” But that dodge blew up in his face on Wednesday when the local prosecutor said evidence was lacking to justify the police action against the newspaper. He ordered the items confiscated during the raid to be returned.

“You cannot let bullies win,” the owner of the paper told the Times, “and eventually a bully will cross the line to the point that it becomes so egregious that other people come around and support you.”

The newspaper probably has a good legal case to seek damages.

Officials with the Kansas Bureau of Investigations said they have taken over the investigation of the newspaper, the Star reported on Thursday. More information will no doubt emerge. But at this point, it would seem appropriate for the bureau to expand its probe to include the police agencies involved and the judge who signed the warrant.