Mom scores major free-speech victory after Arizona mayor attempted to silence her
An Arizona mother won a major First Amendment victory earlier this week when a justice of the peace dismissed the case against her after she was arrested in connection with publicly criticizing a city official.
On August 20, 32-year-old Rebekah Massie and her 10-year-old daughter attended a city council meeting in Surprise, a suburb of Phoenix. During the public comment portion of the meeting, Massie stood at the podium and slammed city attorney Robert Wingo for accepting a raise despite poor job performance.
As Massie expressed her views on Wingo, Mayor Skip Hall repeatedly interrupted her, insisting that her criticisms of Wingo violated rules regarding public comments at city council meetings. That rule read that “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.”
Massie did not deny that she was violating that rule but insisted that the rule was unconstitutional. “That’s a violation of my First Amendment rights,” she said during the meeting, as Blaze News previously reported.
After Massie continued speaking in defiance of Hall, the mayor eventually ordered security to arrest her. She was then charged with trespassing, a class 3 misdemeanor, as well as resisting arrest and obstructing government operations, both class 1 misdemeanors. She also claimed the arresting officer threw her to the ground and against a wall during the incident.
At a hearing to formally dismiss the charges on Wednesday, Justice of the Peace Gerald Williams excoriated the city rule proscribing public criticism of officials.
“That policy regulated not just speech; but political speech,” Williams wrote, apparently aghast.
“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,” he continued.
“The Defendant should not have faced criminal prosecution once for expressing her political views.”
Williams ultimately decided to dismiss the case with prejudice so that no prosecutor could refile the charges, claiming “justice” demanded such a decision.
‘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.’
In a statement to Blaze News, Massie expressed “relief” at the ruling and at all the support she has received from other freedom-loving people.
“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,” she said, adding, “Free speech still matters in America.”
Bret Royle of Feldman Royle, who represented Massie in the case, is also gratified by the court’s decision.
“Rebekah should never have been detained, let alone criminally charged, for speaking her mind,” Royle said in a statement to Blaze News. “That’s the kind of thing that happens in tyrannical countries but should never happen here. No American should face jail time for exercising their freedom of speech, and we’re relieved the court agreed.”
It seems the government recognized that Mayor Hall and others likely overstepped their bounds because both sides wanted the charges against Massie dropped, Williams noted in his decision. Surprise has likewise dropped the rule about publicly criticizing officials.
Massie has also joined forces with FIRE, a legal organization dedicated to protecting free speech, which has since filed a federal lawsuit against the city for the now-defunct rule.
“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,” said FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick in a statement in Blaze News. “The fight goes on in Rebekah’s lawsuit against the City of Surprise [and] Mayor Hall. … 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.”
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