At least for the moment, Michael Patrick Leahy celebrated his independence when he left a Nashville courthouse on Monday morning.  ,
The Tennessee Star’s CEO and editor-in-chief declared on his X accounts that” I am a free person and can continue to practice my First Amendment right.”  ,
After his Star News Network had covered excerpts of the so-called “manifesto” of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the transgender-identifiable gunman who killed six people at a Nashville Christian class, Tennessee Chancery Court Judge l’Ashea Myles had ordered Leahy to court. The Star reported that officers found photographs of the criminal’s book in her car that it had obtained. The Star reported. The book entries cover the month prior to her fatal shooting of three 9-year-olds and three people at Covenant School in later March 2023.  ,
The show cause hearing was scheduled for last week to determine whether Leahy had face jail time and whether publishing portions of the murderer’s journals violated a law governing Hale’s papers. But the Star did n’t post or link to the papers, it reported on them, a place made clear at Monday’s reading.  ,
Before revealing the origin of the copied documents, which have been verified by the neighborhood police department, Leahy has threatened to go to jail.  ,
” A judge does n’t have the right to force me to do something unconstitutional”, he told free- speech activist Michael Shellenberger in an interview about the First Amendment showdown.  ,
First Amendment researchers have gathered worldwide attention and show of support for Leahy and the Star in response to the legal challenge. If Leahy and his publishing be found in disdain, the CEO had been subject to sanctions, including jail time.  ,
Making Things Up
Monday’s deliberations, the course of which changed after Myles denied the Star’s request to ignore the present cause hear, have left Leahy in a kind of legal purgatory. The Star argues the present cause reading violates Tennessee’s shield law, protecting reporters from being compelled to show sources, and hinders the news outlet’s expected- process rights.  ,
Myles claimed that all she wanted to do was to” check the status and authenticity of any alleged hole” of police records. Before making a decision on whether law enforcement officials are required by public report legislation to relieve the records, she wished to obtain the “lay of the property.” The majority of the files are still in FBI and Nashville Metro prison. Myles even has a version of the data.  ,
Myles sparred with Leahy’s attorney, Daniel A. Horwitz, a nationally recognized First Amendment lawyer, who noted that none of the lawsuit’s parties maintain that Leahy or his publication “violated the contempt statute or violated the order of this court” . ,
” I will decide, based on what I’ve heard now, in a later attempt, whether or not there will be another proceedings”, Myles told the lawyer. ” And so again, I understand your desire to educate the court on your client’s position, but it is simply not ripe yet”.
The judge called Leahy to court to explain why he did n’t break the court’s order, according to Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, and then tried to explain why he had to shut down his attorney.  ,
” It feels like she’s making things up as she goes along”, the First Amendment expert said. The good news is that she did not imprison Michael Patrick Leahy.
I Will Die a Shooter,
The Metro Nashville Police Department ( MNPD ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are the defendants in a lawsuit filed by Leahy and Star News Digital Media, The Tennessee Star’s parent company. I previously served as the news organization’s national political editor, and I’m also a defendant in the FBI’s Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The law enforcement organizations have argued that the release of Hale’s writings would harm their “ongoing investigation.” But the transgender killer, the only identified suspect in the case, is dead. A recent FBI memo to Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake suggests what many have long been persuaded: President Joe Biden’s identity politics-stretched Department of Justice is stifling a cover-up of one of the most fatal transgender-directed shootings in U.S. history.  ,  ,
” Public access to legacy tokens ]journals, videos and other mass shooter communications ] will also facilitate false narratives and inaccurate information”, the FBI claimed, adding that making mass shooter manifestos public will lead to “pontificators” and” self- professed’ experts ‘” who” will proffer their perspectives” in the press, “potentially inflaming the public”.
A deeply troubled 28-year-old woman who identified as a man is depicted in the documents released in recent weeks. Hale appeared to be immersed in trans indoctrination, self- loathing, and rage.  ,
” I am of no society. And I hate society]because ] society ignores to see me”, Hale concluded one of the 80 pages of writings obtained by The Tennessee Star. ” I’m a queer, I am meant to die”, she wrote and signed the entry” Aiden”.
According to the news outlet, Hale had a dream of notoriety in a journal entry that compared her life to Paige Averianna Patton, a Nashville radio personality who shared a middle school with Hale. The two played basketball for the school.
She will live a legend, and I will pass away, with the goal of becoming notorious. No one will forget neither of us”, Hale wrote. She ended the essay by saying that Patton” will be the blessing, and I will be the horror inflict pain” on the world.
Hale also wrote about her “imaginary penis” and said she would “kill” herself to get her hands on puberty blockers less than two weeks prior to her fatal errand, according to the Star.
” My penis exists in my head. In one of the numerous journals that police recovered, the killer wrote,” I swear to god I’m a male.”  ,
The phrase” Process Is the Punishment”
Leahy and the Star has been defended by Tennessee’s lawmakers and First Amendment advocates, with one state representative calling Myles an “activist judge.”
” The TN legislature wo n’t support an activist judge who uses their courtroom as a weapon.” Lee is the press, and he is not required to prove his innocence in court. I will file the proper resolutions to remove judges engaging in abuse like this”, state Rep. Jeremy Faison, R- Cosby, wrote on X.  ,
In interesting ways, Stacey Cameron, a news reporter for Nashville TV, called the judge to ask for a comment. He contacted Myles to respond to the claim that the Star had allegedly published “leaked ] documents in violation of” Myles ‘ order.  ,
” However, Judge Myles was unaware of the supposed leak, until WSMV4 Investigates ‘ Stacey Cameron called the court asking for a reaction to the leak, wanting to know if she was considering holding the Star or anyone else in contempt”, WSMV reported.  ,
Fisher, from the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said the proceedings are” strange”, and they’re not over yet. A special investigator could still be appointed by Myles to investigate the alleged violations. She could find Leahy in contempt. The Star and its CEO, who filed a lawsuit to expose the motivations and mindset of Nashville’s most notorious school shooter, are now themselves victims of the legal system.  ,
” In this case it seems like the process is the punishment”, Fisher said. ” She wanted justification for the contempt proceeding. She’s still thinking about it. If a court speaks through its orders, she was upset about the leak”.
Matt Kittle covers The Federalist’s senior elections coverage. An award- winning investigative reporter and 30- year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
