UPDATED: ABINGDON, Va. – A federal jury this afternoon ruled that the Buchanan County School Board violated a newspaper publisher’s constitutional rights when it restricted his access to school grounds in 2006.
The jury composed of nine women and three men deliberated for about three hours before delivering the verdict, which declares the school board’s 2006 resolution against Earl Cole unconstitutional and awards the publisher $200,000 in damages.
“We are very pleased that Earl Cole was vindicated, that the First Amendment was vindicated, and that substantial damages were imposed,” Michael Bragg, Cole’s attorney, said after the verdict. “This will teach [the school board] a lesson that they cannot do this to members of the press and citizens of Buchanan County.”
Cole, who just hours ago said he would be happy with a verdict in his favor and attorneys’ fees, was almost speechless.
“I can’t explain it in words,” he said.
Jim Guynn, the attorney for the school board, said he was disappointed with the jury’s verdict, and will recommend his client appeal.
Read Friday’s Bristol Herald Courier for more details and reaction to the verdict.
ABINGDON, Va. – Attorneys in the federal civil trial of a newspaper publisher suing the Buchanan County School Board this morning made their closing arguments, and the case is now in the hands of a jury.
Earl Cole, publisher of the bi-weekly The Voice, claims that the school board violated his First Amendment rights by passing an October 2006 resolution banning him from school grounds in the county, as retaliation for his critical articles. The school board contends that it acted reasonably, without animus and in the interest of protecting students.
Jurors will have to determine if retaliation was a substantial factor motivating the school board’s action, and if that action would create a “chilling effect” on a person of “ordinary firmness” in Cole’s position.
Jim Guynn, the attorney retained by the school board, has repeatedly challenged the legal sufficiency of Cole’s evidence, arguing that the First Amendment is not even an issue.
“This case isn’t about the Constitution,” Guynn said. “It’s about [Cole] not doing what school officials asked him to do,” referring to Cole’s two reporting visits to Riverview Elementary and Middle School in October 2006. The principal testified she told Cole he needed to sign in upon setting foot on school grounds.
Michael Bragg, Cole’s attorney, argues that the school board singled Cole out for retaliation because of his critical articles about schools and school board members, and likened his client’s suffering to that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
“He has suffered slings and arrows,” Bragg told jurors. The school board, Bragg argued, “tried to kill The Voice.”
Cole, for his part, said he would be happy with a verdict that the school board’s resolution is unconstitutional, and an award of attorneys’ fees which, he said, are in the $25,000 to $30,000 range.
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