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A police department in Marion, Kansas, was accused Sunday of violating First Amendment protections after officers raided a local paper and the home of its co-owner.

Driving the news: More than 30 major news organizations and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press condemned in a letter to the chief of the Marion Police Department Sunday condemned the raid on the Marion County Record, which the paper said contributed to the death of its 98-year-old co-owner.

The big picture: The news organizations, along with other press freedom groups, argue the raid not only infringed on the rights of the local newspaper, but it may also have violated federal law that strictly law enforcement’s ability to conduct newsroom searches.

Details: The Marion County Record said in online reports that police seized computers and staff’s file servers and phones in Friday’s raid on the family owned paper’s office and took co-owner and editor Eric Meyer’s phone, computers, and internet router during a search of his home after a search warrant was issued and signed by a local judge.

• The raids occurred following a complaint from restaurant owner Kari Newell, who accused the paper of illegally obtaining and disseminating sensitive information on a drunken driving conviction against her, per nonprofit news site the Kansas Reflector.
• However, the Marion County Record said it had obtained the information legally from a tip and used public online records to verify details. The paper decided against publishing the information and instead contacted police. It did report on Newell confirming the conviction during a city council meeting.

Of note: Newell also removed reporters from a meeting at her restaurant last week with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kansas), according to the Reflector.

• The Marion County Record said co-owner Joan Meyer, who was “otherwise in good health for her age,” collapsed Saturday afternoon and died at her home after becoming “stressed beyond her limits” over “illegal police raids on her home and the Marion County Record newspaper office.”

What they’re saying: “Based on the reporting so far, the police raid of the Marion County Record on Friday appears to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, and basic human decency,” said Seth Stern, director of Advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, in a statement following the raid on the paper, which has a circulation of about 4,000.

• “There is nothing illegal about obtaining or verifying a tip from a source.”

The other side: Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody in an emailed statement to the New York Times declined to discuss investigation details, but said: “I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated.”

Zoom out: Tension between local newsrooms and local law enforcement officials have escalated in recent years, according to data from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

• In 2020, dozens of journalists across the country were arrested and targeted by police during nationwide George Floyd protests.
• More recently, politicians have pushed to block journalists from covering public events. Gov. Ron DeSantis notably barred journalists from covering an event in which he signed a controversial bill into law in 2021.

Read the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press letter, signed by outlets including the New York Times, AP and the Washington Post, via DocumentCloud:

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