BATON ROUGE, LA – The East Baton Rouge Parish Attorney’s Office formally asked a judge this week to clarify whether the First Amendment includes an exception allowing government officials to silence any news coverage they find unhelpful to their cases.
In a filing related to an ongoing Metro Council lawsuit, parish attorneys argued that certain reporting has crossed the line from constitutionally protected speech into what they described as “words we strongly dislike.” The office suggested that while freedom of the press is important, suppressing articles that make officials look bad during active litigation is “importanter.”
“This isn’t about censorship,” a source close to the filing explained. “It’s about accuracy and preventing the public from forming opinions too early.”
Legal observers noted the argument appears to rely on an interpretation of the Constitution in which rights remain fully intact, except in situations involving scrutiny or public embarrassment. Attorneys reportedly asked the court to consider whether the Founders intended press freedom to extend this far.
Legal experts confirmed the First Amendment does not, in fact, contain an “except this article” clause, though officials appeared hopeful one could be added prior to their court date.
