Maricopa County agreed last week to pay The Gateway Pundit (TGP) and its reporter Jordan Conradson $175,000 to settle their lawsuit over refusing to provide Conradson with a press pass to cover elections. An Obama-appointed trial court judge sided with the county in November, but after an injunction from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals followed by oral arguments that revealed the three-judge panel was likely to reverse the lower court fully, the Maricopa County Supervisors voted to settle.
The controversy began in September 2022 when the county implemented a press pass regulation blocking journalists from election press conferences if they showed “conflicts of interest” and were not “free of associations that would compromise journalistic integrity or damage credibility.” The county cited Conradson’s attendance at Republican events as a conflict of interest and told him, “[Y]ou are not a bona fide correspondent of repute in your profession.”
Conradson has written numerous articles critical of Maricopa County’s handling of elections. TGP filed the lawsuit alleging violations of the First Amendment in November, TGP Communications, LLC v. Jack Sellers.
After U.S. District Judge John Tuchi denied relief in November, the Ninth Circuit temporarily reversed him. It granted an injunction, allowing Conradson a press pass pending appeal, since “At least at this preliminary stage, Appellants have shown a likelihood of success on the merits.” The court warned in its order, “A restriction on speech is unconstitutional if it is ‘an effort to suppress expression merely because public officials oppose the speaker’s view.’ In evaluating claims of viewpoint discrimination, ‘[w]e thus look to the government’s purpose as the threshold consideration.’”
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times