Chicago reporter files federal suit against Lightfoot over credential revocation

The suit, filed by journalist William J. Kelly to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in late August, alleges Lightfoot and Brown are violating his First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights, saying, “They have done this for the most cynical and contemptible reason that can be imagined, to prevent Lightfoot from being questioned about their failures in the performance of the public offices they currently occupy.” …

The suit continues, “Because Kelly in his role as a reporter and journalist has caused great embarrassment for Lightfoot by asking the hard and embarrassing questions about her obvious failure as mayor, and because this has and would continue to hurt her chances of being reelected, Lightfoot has directed Brown to revoke Kelly’s City of Chicago press credentials which prevents Kelly from attending any more of her press conferences.”

Kelly alleged that upon Lightfoot’s instruction, Brown “directed a police officer assigned to Lightfoot’s seventy officer strong security force to fabricate a report that Kelly had bumped into him on July 19, 2022. Brown then used this false report as a pretext to revoke Kelly’s press credentials on August 8, 2022. In fact the entire episode where this bump was falsely alleged to have taken place was videotaped by Kelly and this video shows no such bump took place.”

“This is blatantly unconstitutional. A public official may not target particular news media organizations or journalists for exclusion from access made generally available to other media. The First Amendment guarantees the freedoms of speech and of the press, and those rights are incorporated against the states. The Fourteenth Amendment also guarantees citizens due process and equal protection of the laws. including equal treatment by their government, and due process, which requires fair notice and consideration before the government may revoke access,” the suit asserts.