"Return To Sender" by Daniel Guss
UPDATE: LA City Council returned from a lengthy closed session on Tuesday, sending its censorship motion back to committee. Its bad situation is now likely to get much worse. And costly.
As predicted…
Before it went into closed session on Tuesday to discuss its controversial and ill-advised censorship motion, the Los Angeles City Council underhandedly did not allow the usual gadflies to speak while letting a bunch of school kids participate… and read from the same script in favor of what the City Hall critics oppose: censorship at its meetings.
Apparently, they do not teach the First Amendment in school anymore…
That maneuver could get costly, since Jonathan Groat, the Deputy City Attorney who runs the meetings, keeps vascillating between (a) calling members of the public to speak at the podium randomly on some days, and (b) in the order they signed-up on other days.
Can you say damages claim?
When the Councilmembers got back from their closed session, they decided to send the motion back to committee, implying that they know it is un-constitutional and that it cannot afford the litigation that it would almost certainly invite.
As predicted… except even costlier than I figured.
Colorful language at its meetings may soon get much, much worse.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards in June ‘23. In June ‘24, he won its “Best Commentary, Non-Political” award. He has contributed to the Daily Mail, CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)