The First Amendment Sinking in the Gateway to Lake Michigan

​Bangor, Michigan, population 2,113, bills itself as “The Gateway to the Lake.” But the town is anything but laid back lately. Local government officials are speaking loud and clear – prosecutions will continue until morale improves.
 
In January, the Bangor City Council unanimously approved a motion to allow “City Attorney (Scott) Graham to file charges with the court against all parties involved in statements that have caused harm to the city.”
 
The controversy apparently stems from accusations that Bangor resident Justin Weber is receiving two paychecks by virtue of his dual role as city manager and chief of police. City officials deny that this is happening. “This is America,” Bangor Mayor Lynne Farmer said. “You’re free to have your own opinion. But in America, you are not free, under the First Amendment, to keep repeating something that’s false that you knowingly know is.”
 
The city is merely targeting “known untruths,” she said. 
 
Why do so many Americans these days in positions of authority lack an understanding of the First Amendment? Mayor Farmer’s statement should be in law school textbooks as a classic example of getting the First Amendment wrong. As the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression wrote in a letter to the city, “The First Amendment flatly prohibits government entities from bringing defamation actions, even against speakers who make knowingly false statements.” If it didn’t, as the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1972, “every criticism of public expenditure, policy, management or conduct of public affairs would place its utterer in jeopardy. It is difficult to imagine anything more destructive of democratic government than the power in the hands of a corrupt government to stifle all opposition by free use of the public treasury to silence critics by suit.”
 
If this standard were overturned, any bureaucrat could decide what is truth and a “known untruth.” If Bangor city officials want redress, they can always file a defamation lawsuit for themselves. But they cannot have the city lean on their critics for them.
 
The Bangor City Council should revoke Graham’s authority to bring suits against its citizens for speaking their mind. Not long ago, Police Chief Weber was caught on camera calling upset residents “pansies.” It should be enough to dismiss that slur as offensive. But if the city council has its way, the prosecutor could go after the police chief because humans, after all, aren’t flowers; therefore, that characterization is knowingly false. Or we could all just take a civics refresher and step away from the ledge.  

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