In this WSJ Law Blog post, Paul Davies of the WSJ Law Blog passes along this Chronicle article about Beaumont plaintiff’s attorney Brent Coon issuing a subpoena to the editor and a reporter of a new weekly paper called the Southeast Texas Record, which is bankrolled by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform in Washington to promote an tort reform agenda (the Chronicle’s Mary Flood has more). Coon’s purpose in issuing the subpoena is that he believes that the editor and the reporter of the newspaper were attempting to taint jurors in one of his pending asbestos cases with regard to the newspaper’s April 2 inaugural issue. “This shameful propaganda machine is deceptive and demonstrates a willingness to misrepresent fact,” Coon complained as he was charging that the editor and reporter might have committed a “criminal act.”
Sounds as if Mr. Coon is better at pursuing plaintiff’s cases than Constitutional Law. The editor and the reporter’s writings are clearly protected free speech under the First Amendment. Not even a close call. Even in Beaumont.