Thuggish LA Sheriff Told 1st Amendment Still Applicable in America in 2022

Hurry, quantities are limited:

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Tuesday that his department was targeting a Times journalist in a criminal leak investigation for her reporting on a departmental cover-up, but after a barrage of criticism from politicians, the newspaper and press freedom groups, he backed off his announcement and denied that he considered the reporter a suspect.

The sheriff lashed out at Times staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian during a morning news conference in which he suggested two longtime foes leaked her a surveillance video showing a deputy kneeling on the head of a handcuffed inmate.

Detailing an ongoing criminal probe of the leak, Villanueva displayed a poster with large photographs of Tchekmedyian, his political rival Eli Vera and sheriff’s Inspector General Max Huntsman with arrows pointing from the two men to the reporter.

“The three individuals that we want to know a lot about,” Villanueva said. “These three people have some important questions to answer.”

Villanueva exhibited a list of possible felonies under investigation, including conspiracy, burglary and unauthorized use of a database. When pressed by reporters on whether he was investigating Tchekmedyian specifically, the sheriff replied, “All parties to the act are subjects of the investigation.”

Nice little newspaper you’ve got there.

Villanueva termed the video stolen property, but Loy said if the reporter was given a copy of the video and reported on it, that would be “exactly what the 1st Amendment gives the press a right to do.”

“I’m flabbergasted at some level, because what the sheriff is doing reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of basic 1st Amendment law. This has been settled for decades,” Loy said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that journalists generally cannot be held liable for publishing leaked materials that are about matters of public concern, even if the reporter knew or should have known that they were obtained through illegal means.

This is the kind of legal doctrine that authoritarians really hate, so look for a Federalist Society symposium soon on how James Madison was a big fan of prior restraints and the Pentagon Papers case is just as wrong-headed as precedents that claim it’s not legal to criminalize the purchase of contraceptives.

Also too, I find it pretty interesting that LA county’s aspiring caudillo wants to position himself as some sort of authentic Latino leader:

 After Times columnist Gustavo Arellano mocked his decision last fall to let deputies wear cowboy hats, Villanueva called him a “vendido” — a sellout — on his weekly Facebook livestream. This spring, he used the same forum to go after the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer, Robert Greene, after a meeting in which Villanueva made a bizarre accusation that Huntsman was a Holocaust denier.

It’s been pretty obvious for awhile now that when Latin America sends us its ideologies, it’s not sending its best.