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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a name for himself trying to censor educators — and now he’s coming for the press. 

We ran an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times responding to his ridiculous roundtable where he and his guests brainstormed how to roll back long-established First Amendment safeguards so the powerful can weaponize the press against detractors.  

The piece explored how DeSantis cynically styles himself as a champion for the “little guys” while promoting policies that “instead help the wealthy and powerful to bully detractors into silence through expensive litigation, leaving those ‘little guys’ less informed — just how he likes them.”

It’s time to codify NYT v. Sullivan

A primary focus of DeSantis’ roundtable was overturning NYT v. Sullivan — the seminal 1964 case requiring public figures suing for defamation to prove their critics either knew their statements were false or recklessly disregarded the truth. 

The standard recognizes that an aggressive press and vibrant public discourse is impossible without some breathing room for hyperbole and unintended errors. It resulted in an immediate reduction in politically-motivated defamation suits at a time when they were commonly used to stifle reporting on the civil rights movement and the Jim Crow South. 

We wrote on our blog about a proposal in a law journal article (PDF) authored by professors Matthew Schafer and Jeff Kosseff to codify Sullivan’s actual malice standard as well as other vital protections against abusive defamation suits. 

With multiple Supreme Court justices joining DeSantis in his skepticism about Sullivan, it’s the only way to ensure that these hard-fought protections for press freedoms are not lost.

Charges dropped against journalist covering derailment press conference

Ohio authorities dropped trespassing and resisting arrest charges against journalist Evan Lambert after he was violently arrested for broadcasting during Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s press conference about the train derailment in East Palestine.  

Sure, it’s great news that he won’t have to face trial for doing his job. But he never should have been arrested in the first place. He was covering a press conference to which the press was, obviously, invited, and the governor himself said he had no problem with Lambert broadcasting. 

Law enforcement tried to justify the arrest by claiming Lambert became enraged and aggressive when confronted, and that officers felt physically threatened. But numerous videos of the incident show no such thing. 

It’s another instance of officers acting as if their own unconstitutional orders are laws that can be enforced with arrests. They’re not, and Lambert should sue.

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