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U.S.|Mississippi Judge Lifts Order That Forced Newspaper to Remove an Editorial
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/27/us/mississippi-judge-clarkdale-press-register.html
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The judge’s order against The Clarksdale Press Register in Clarksdale, Miss., had alarmed press advocates, who said it was a violation of the First Amendment.
Feb. 27, 2025, 11:44 a.m. ET
A Mississippi judge on Wednesday lifted an order she had issued that required a newspaper to remove an editorial from its website, ending a case that had drawn national attention from press advocates who said the order was a blatant violation of the First Amendment.
The judge, Crystal Wise Martin of Hinds County Chancery Court, lifted the order after Clarksdale city officials voted earlier this week to abandon their libel lawsuit against the local paper, The Clarksdale Press Register.
On Thursday, Wyatt Emmerich, the president of Emmerich Newspapers, which owns the The Press Register, said that he planned to republish the editorial at the center of the case.
“As I warned them, it blew up in their face and it created a national outcry,” he said. “It embarrassed the city, and they realized what they had done was a mistake.”
Originally published on Feb. 8, with the headline “Secrecy, deception erode public trust,” the editorial accused city officials of failing to notify the news media before they voted to push for a tax increase in the Mississippi Legislature. It suggested they might have advanced the proposal because they “just want a few nights in Jackson to lobby for this idea — at public expense.”
Clarksdale city officials sued The Press Register for libel on Feb. 14, saying that the editorial “chilled and hindered” the mayor’s ability to lobby for the legislation in Jackson, the state capital.
