‘Objectively outrageous’: Judge makes inspiring decision after woman arrested for criticizing government official
Officials in the town of Surprise, Arizona, have been humiliated by a public scolding from a judge in Maricopa County in a case in which they ordered a woman at a public meeting arrested because they didn’t like what she was saying.
The Constitution’s First Amendment, of course, was written in order to protect speech that someone doesn’t like, and in this case the comments were about the ability – or ineptitude – of a tax-paid city official.
Rebekah Anne Massie came to the public meeting to express her displeasure, and got arrested for her words.
Judge Gerald Williams now has dismissed the charges fabricated against Massie, with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled, ever.
The issue pending before him was whether the charges would be dismissed without prejudice, meaning the city could pursue the case again, or not.
His conclusion was definitive: “IT IS ORDERED THAT this case is dismissed with prejudice, in the interests of justice,” he wrote. “The defendant should not have faced criminal prosecution once for expressing her political views. The court agrees that she should never face criminal prosecution, for expressing her political views on that date, at that time, again. Nor should she be forced to encounter additional attorney feeds should this matter be re-filed…”
He continued, explaining the city’s actions “regulated not just speech; but political speech. It regulated not just the time, place, and manner of the speech. It regulated the content of political speech… No branch of any federal, state, or local government in this country should ever attempt to control the content of political speech … In this case, the government did so in a manner that was objectively outrageous.”
Massie, in a statement released by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Express, which is representing her in a lawsuit against the town, said, “For more than two months I’ve been living with the threat of punishment and jail time — being taken away from my kids, even — for doing nothing more than criticizing the government. Free speech still matters in America, and I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have people on my side standing up for our rights with me.”
Conor Fitzpatrick, of FIRE, said, “This is an incredible win for Rebekah and an important message to government bureaucrats around the country that the First Amendment bows to no one. The fight goes on in Rebekah’s lawsuit against the city of Surprise, Mayor Hall, and Officer Schernicoff. We want to make it crystal clear to governments across the United States that brazenly censoring people and betraying the First Amendment comes with a cost.”
WND reported weeks ago when FIRE officials brought an action against the town on behalf of Massie.
And the report was posted when Mayor Skip Hall ordered resident Massie arrested for her speech during a portion of a government meeting set aside for residents’ concerns.
She was opposed to a city decision to give its lawyer even more money.
“I have concerns with allocating the more funds to him specifically for a few different reasons,” she explained. Her public records requests are under “review” regarding the actions of lawyer Robert Wingo, already one of the highest paid city officials in the Phoenix region at $265,000.
The FIRE case challenges the city’s decision to overrule the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution at council meetings.
Hall threatened her for making comments, and Massie responded, “You are violating my First Amendment rights.”
Hall rebuked her with, “That’s your opinion.”
And he threatened, “Do you want to be escorted out, Ms. Massie? Because that’s what’s gonna happen. And it’s gonna happen in the future also,” he responded.
Ultimately, she was arrested, cuffed and accused of trespass, as she shouted: “Are you kidding me?” and “Do not put your hands on me!”
Outrageous: Mayor of @AZSurprise has a resident arrested (in front of her 10-year-old daughter) for criticizing officials. At 2:30, Mayor @skiphall2 warns her from “attacking the city attorney personally” and orders police to remove her. Appalling disregard for First Amendment. pic.twitter.com/03ZJNtFr5o
— Adam Steinbaugh (@adamsteinbaugh) August 23, 2024
The dispute arose because of city officials’ own insistence that an anti-First Amendment rule be imposed on residents. It states, “Oral communications during the City Council meeting may not be used to lodge charges or complaints against any employee of the City or members of the body, regardless of whether such person is identified in the presentation by name or by any other reference that tends to identify him/her.”
The complaint, filed in federal court in Arizona, lists Rebekah Massie and Quintus Schulzke as plaintiffs and the city and officials Skip Hall and Steven Shernicoff as defendants.
It states, “The Supreme Court has made clear that ‘one of the most precious of the liberties safeguarded by the Bill of Rights’ is the sacred promise to every American, enshrined in the First Amendment, that citizens enjoy the freedom to complain about their leaders. … But Defendants Surprise, Arizona and its mayor, Skip Hall, broke that promise, arresting Plaintiff Rebekah Massie in front of her 10-year-old daughter for criticizing a public official at a city council meeting.
“Video of the arrest speaks for itself. On August 20, 2024, during the public comment portion of the Surprise City Council meeting, Massie spoke in opposition to a planned pay increase for Surprise’s city attorney. But Mayor Hall interrupted her remarks, scolding her for violating a City Council policy prohibiting ‘complain[ing]’ about public officials. Massie insisted—correctly—that the First Amendment protected her comments. Mayor Hall didn’t care…”
Hall then ordered a police officer, Shernicoff, to detain and eject Massie, and he did.
The complaint charges, “When Massie exercised her constitutional right to criticize officials at a city council meeting, a right ‘high in the hierarchy of First Amendment values,’ Lozman, 585 U.S. at 101, the Council Criticism Policy and Mayor Hall ensured she left the meeting in handcuffs. That might be how repressive regimes treat government critics, but it’s an affront to our Constitution. Surprise’s sudden move to arrest dissidents and enforce the Council Criticism Policy is casting a cloud of fear over the city. Plaintiff Quintus Schulzke, a frequent speaker at City Council meetings, now fears criticizing Surprise officials, knowing he, like Massie, now risks arrest when he exercises his constitutional rights.”
The complaint charges the city is in violation of the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1871.
And, in fact, state law allows the public “to criticize members of a public body during a public comment period.”
Massie opposed paying the city lawyer more money, expressing her opinion that he had failed to comply with the Constitution, state law, and his duties of professional conduct.
“Defendants injured Massie by silencing, detaining and arresting her because she criticized government officials – an exercise of rights ‘high in the hierarchy of First Amendment values,'” the case charges.
The case accuses of Hall of using government power to “suit his own whims.”
‘Cloud of fear’: U.S. city now gets sued for arresting woman who criticized government official