The newspaper investigated the police chief before the raid

Joan Meyer’s death: Law enforcement authorities raided the newspaper’s newsroom in Marion county, Kansas, during a case of identity theft

According to several media law experts, the raid appears to violate federal law which protects journalists from such actions. The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 broadly prohibits law enforcement officials from searching for or seizing information from reporters.

The warrant published by the Kansas Reflector allows officers to seize documents and records related to a case of identity theft. The warrant links the search to “lawful acts” on computers used to access the Kansas Department of Revenue records website.

Eric Meyer, the owner and publisher of the Marion County Record, told NPR that it took several hours. “They forbid our staff to come into the newspaper office during that time.”

The local authorities were investigating the newsroom for identity theft. The restaurant’s owner had her privacy violated when journalists obtained information about her driving record.

Joan Meyer died one day after police raided her home, according to the Record. She was the newspaper’s co-owner.

Joan Meyer was 98 and was “otherwise in good health for her age,” the newspaper said. She had not been able to eat or sleep after police entered her home.

Police stole Joan Meyer’s computer and a smart speaker from her, and also took Eric Meyer’s personal bank and investments statements in order to take pictures of them, according to the Record.

Without the devices, she was left unable to stream shows onto her TV or use devices if she needed help, the newspaper said. According to the report, some of the devices that were seized by police were not related to their apparent investigation.

The newspaper said another injury happened when the police chief forcibly grabbed a cellphone from a reporter and injured her finger.

Marion County Sheriff’s Office: A police raid raises alarms about violations of press freedom based on the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment

“I can’t imagine a scenario in which all of these other protections would be overcome to allow a raid on a newsroom,” Kosseff said, referencing the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment and the Privacy Protection Act. “This raid has been more than just potentially compromising sources. This has threatened the ability of the newsroom to operate altogether — and that’s why we have these protections.”

“It is true that in most cases, [the Privacy Protection Act] requires police to use subpoenas, rather than search warrants, to search the premises of journalists unless they themselves are suspects in the offense that is the subject of the search,” Cody said.

Oberlander said it raises concern for him. “It normalizes something that shouldn’t be happening — that Congress has said should not happen, that the First Amendment says should not happen.”

Ken White, a First Amendment litigator, said police raids of newsrooms used to be more commonplace in the U.S., which led to Congress bolstering federal protections against such searches.

Meyer, the Marion County Record’s publisher, said local restaurateur Kari Newell accused the paper of illegally obtaining drunk-driving records about her.

Meyer said the paper decided not to publish this information because it was independently verified by the Kansas Department of Revenue’s Division of Vehicles website. The paper instead opted to notify local police.

Jeff Kosseff, a law professor at the United States Naval Academy who specializes in the First Amendment, said he was surprised the county judge found there was sufficient probable cause to sign off on the search warrant. Kosseff said there was more that needed to be done to be a correct decision.

“There’s lots of precedent for bad behavior of local officials against the press,” Risen said. If we want to protect the First Amendment, it has to be stopped in each case.

Source: A police raid of a Kansas newsroom raises alarms about violations of press freedom

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Meyer said the confiscation of the paper’s computers and phones makes it difficult to continue operations — but the paper, which has five full-time staffers, still plans to publish its weekly edition this Wednesday.

We can’t let it stand. They cannot put us out of business over this,” Meyer said. It is too bad of a precedent to set in the US for that to happen.

The raids sparked coast-to-coast outrage among journalists and advocates for freedom of speech, including a letter of protest signed by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and the Wall Street Journal, among others.

“The U.S. Supreme Court, over the years, has said that people in authority — government officials — have to suffer a free press,” says Sandy Banisky, a lawyer who taught media law at the University of Maryland’s journalism school and also former senior editor at the Baltimore Sun. “Incidents like this need to be reexamined and exposed thoroughly in order to be sure that the kind of raid that happened inMarion, Kansas doesn’t happen around the country.”

Prior to Cody’s tenure as police chief, the Marion police department had upheld a decades-long practice of releasing a list of the department’s routine activities each week, Meyer said. The weekly edition of The Record would have a list of general areas where officers conducted investigations or responded to complaints.

After retiring from the Kansas City Police Department in April,Cody was sworn in as the police chief in Marion on June 1st.

Investigating the NPR News Room Investigation of a New York Times Associated with a Wall-String Report on Eric Meyer’s ‘Beat-The-Wise” Report

“It was alarming, to say the least, the number of people who came forward, and some of the allegations they made were fairly serious,” Meyer said. We were just looking at the question.

NPR reached out to Cody, who declined to confirm whether he threatened to sue the paper, or whether the raid was linked to the newsroom’s reporting on his background.

Meyer said the police chief “has reason to not like us,” but he stressed that he didn’t know if there was a connection between his paper’s reporting and the raid.

The officers seized computers during the raid and the records reporters’ communications with each other are stored on them. The newsroom currently does not have access to these documents.

The probable cause affidavit, a document that would explain why the judge felt it was necessary to authorize the raid, was requested from the District Court by the Record.

“This Court is unable to respond to this request as there is not a probable cause affidavit filed,” judge Viar wrote in response to the newsroom’s request.

But there’s broad consensus among media lawyers that the police department’s legal reasoning doesn’t hold up, since the alleged crime is linked to news gathering — which is protected by federal law.