An Arizona mother won a First Amendment case after a justice of the peace dismissed the suit.
The mom, Rebekah Massie, was recently arrested after publicly criticizing a Surprise, Phoenix city official. Massie’s 10-year-old daughter was also in attendance.
Mayor Skip Hall said Massie’s criticisms of city attorney Robert Wingo violated a policy on public comments at city council meetings. According to the rule, “oral communications during the City Council meeting may not be used to lodge charges or complaints against any employee of the City or members of the body.”
Justice of the Peace Gerald Williams said the policy “regulated not just speech; but political speech.”
“It regulated not just the time, place, and manner of the speech. it regulated the content of political speech,” Williams wrote. “In any constitutional law analysis, the government’s actions would trigger strict scrutiny.”
“No branch of any federal, state, or local government in this country should ever attempt to control the content of political speech…In this case, the government did so in a manner that was objectively outrageous,” he continued, adding, “The Defendant should not have faced criminal prosecution once for expressing her political views.”
“The Court agrees that she should never face criminal prosecution, for expressing her political views on that date at that time, again,” Williams decided. “Nor should she be forced to encounter additional attorney fees should this matter be re-filled, as she would not likely be entitled to a court-appointed attorney.”
“For more than two months I’ve been living with the threat of punishment and jail time — being taken away from my kids, even — for doing nothing more than criticizing the government,” Massie said in a statement to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). “Free speech still matters in America, and I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have people on my side standing up for our rights with me.”
