Today in the robust Republican commitment to free speech

Who could have thought that the seizure of devices at a newspaper as revenge for an obscure local vendetta would turn out to have nothing remotely resembling probable cause:

The top prosecutor in Marion County, Kan., said on Wednesday that there was not sufficient evidence to support a raid on a local newspaper last week, and that all the devices and materials obtained in the search would be returned.

Joel Ensey, the Marion County attorney, said in a statement that, in light of the insufficient evidence, he directed local law enforcement to return the seized material.

Police officers and county sheriff’s deputies searched the newspaper’s office, the home of its owner and editor and the home of a city councilwoman on Friday — collecting computers, cellphones and other materials. It is extremely rare for law enforcement authorities in the United States to search and seize the tools to produce journalism.

The searches were part of an investigation into how The Marion County Record obtained and handled a document containing information about a local restaurateur — and whether the restaurant owner’s privacy was violated in the process. The episode threw a national spotlight on Marion, a town of about 2,000 people located an hour north of Wichita.

But, hey, at least they helped to get a woman killed, so mission accomplished!

Joan Meyer, a co-owner of the paper, died on Saturday, the day after the raid on the home she lived in with her son, Eric Meyer, the newspaper’s publisher. Mr. Meyer said she was in shock after the raid, adding that she had trouble sleeping. Ms. Meyer, 98, refused food, and kept asking Mr. Meyer whether anyone would put an end to the clash with the authorities. She died midsentence.

Mr. Meyer said the coroner had concluded that the stress of the searches was a contributing factor in her death.

I’m not saying that this is as grave a threat to free speech as law students declining to sit silently while a witless Article III judge screams that they’re idiots, but it’s pretty bad,