Guest post by
Here’s a very interesting case in which Bergen County Superior Court Judge Jane Gallina-Mecca issued an order directing the Bergen Dispatch to remove a news article. The newspaper refused the demand. Techdirt reports:
This seems to happen all too often, but a local judge has forgotten about the whole 1st Amendment thing. Last week, Bergen County Superior Court Judge Jane Gallina-Mecca ordered the Bergen Dispatch to take down a news article. The article was about a specific family court case, involving custody of a child. It’s not surprising that there might be some concern over privacy rights in such cases, but even so, that does not allow a judge to flat out order a newspaper to take down an article — even more so when the order came out of a closed hearing where no one from the newspaper was even present. In response, the Bergen Dispatch posted a fairly snarky article that reiterates some of the details from the case, and concludes with this wonderful paragraph:
While the Bergen Dispatch reviews its options we have confirmed that Bergen County does currently remain part of the State of New Jersey and that currently New Jersey is still part of the Union of states that is governed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As such, Bergen County citizens continue to enjoy the right to freedom of speech and the right to a free press.
Informed of this little tidbit of information, the judge has since vacated the original order, but it’s still astounding that it had to go that far in the first place.
The key takeaway here is a very important one: Know Your Rights. The status quo depends on a mass of ignorant serfs in order to get away with much of what it does. See:
Know Your Rights – How to Respond When Police Tell You to Stop Filming
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
PROBLEM:
Very few take the time and effort involved to “Know Their Rights”.
They are too busy starring at the screen on their ‘personal’ communication device.
Is it even possible for the celebrity enamored, twerked out, tattooed, super size me, populace of America to organize an effective opposition to their ruling oligarchy slave masters?
@OLI, Just because someone does not KNOW their rights does not give ANYONE else, including govt., the right the trample them.
Happy ending here, but if the newspaper had been pulled over at the side of the road late one night, it would be dead with 27 bullet holes, after “resisting arrest” while the dashcam mysteriously malfunctioned.
How this simian twit ever ascended to the bench of a court of law is beyond me, and I’m referring to Bergen County Superior Court Judge Jane Gallina-Mecca. She was appointed to her seat by none other than NJ Governor Chris Christie. Another feather in fatso’s fedora.
We’re not talking about some rookie here as she got her JD from Seton Law School in 1986, which gives her about 30 years experience in practicing law. In issuing the order for the newspaper to withdraw the article, she cited a 1980 NJ law which was later repealed!!!!
If that’s not bad enough, WTF about the Constitution, lady? Didn’t they teach you in law school that the Constitution trumps all other laws, all of them, that may afoul of the dictates of that document? Well, didn’t they, punk? Damn, reading shit like this makes me want to puke.