BALTIMORE (Legal Newsline) - National Public Radio filed a federal complaint on September 1 in the District of Maryland against state court judges Glenn L. Klavans and Fred S. Hecker for violation of the First and Fourth amendments.
According to the complaint, NPR wishes to protect its constitutional right to publish lawfully obtained recordings from one of the most significant criminal proceedings in Maryland history: the trial of Jarrod Ramos, who murdered five journalists in the offices of the Capital Gazette. NPR has been forced to bring this action because Maryland law forbids anyone, including the press, from broadcasting lawfully obtained official court recordings of state criminal court proceedings, and further provides that violators may be held in contempt of court.
NPR alleges that the broadcast ban is unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution because it punishes the broadcasting of lawfully obtained official court records, which are available to the general public,.
NPR seeks for the court to declare section 1-201 of the Criminal Procedure Article of the Maryland Code unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, as it applies to NPR’s publishing of excerpts from lawfully obtained audio recordings of the trial court proceedings in State v. Ramos; the court to allow NPR to publish excerpts from the lawfully obtained audio recordings of the court proceedings; attorney's fees; and cost of suit. NPR is represented by Charles D. Tobin of Ballard Spahr LLP.
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland case number 1:21-cv-02247-RDB