There has been a lot of talk about rights lately, especially with the recent infringements around the COVID-19 virus, but if we want to keep our rights, we must be willing to defend and assert them. The question for Americans is: Will we stand up and defend our rights or will we let them die of neglect?
I came across an AP article and a complaint filed on behalf of a teenage girl who was threatened with arrest and jail time if she did not remove certain Instagram posts. The details are not only chilling, but should be a call for all good citizens to stand up to tyrannical members of government. If not, those rights we say are so important to us will disappear like dew on a sunny summer day.
Background
Amyiah Cohoon is a student at the Westfield School District in Marquette County Wisconsin. Earlier this year she was hospitalized with a severe respiratory illness. Her doctors told her and her parents that although testing negative for COVID-19, she likely did have the virus and the negative result was due to limitations of the tests available at the time. While hospitalized, and later recovering at home, Amyiah did what most teenagers seem to do these days: She posted on social media about her experience. The parents notified school staff about her condition so they could warn other parents whose children had been on a recent trip to Florida with Amyiah.
It is alleged that the district administrator, one Robert Meicher, complained to Sheriff Joseph Konrath, who sent a deputy, Patrol Sergeant Cameron Klump, to the Cohoon’s home on March 27th. On the Sheriff’s orders, Sergeant Klump went to the Cohoons’ home and demanded that Amyiah remove her Instagram post or the family would face citations for disorderly conduct, arrest, and incarceration. While Mr. Cohoon initially refused to comply, Amyiah agreed to remove the posts out of fear that her parents might be taken to jail.
Subsequently, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty first sent a demand letter, then filed a complaint on behalf of the Cohoon family, claiming a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
U.S. Constitution, Amendment I
While courts have repeatedly claimed that the First Amendment has been “incorporated” against the states, the plain language says otherwise. While heinous, nothing the sheriff or his deputy did was in response to any law or other act of Congress. What they did was a clear violation of Article I, Section 3 of the Wisconsin Constitution.
Every person may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right, and no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press…
Article I, Section 3, Wisconsin Constitution
Every person in Wisconsin is free to speak, write, and publish (including posting on social media), on any and all subjects. And both the Sheriff and his deputy have sworn or affirmed an oath to support the Constitution of Wisconsin. The Sheriff’s claim that Amyiah’s post was disorderly conduct is ludicrous. Both state and county law define disorderly conduct as:
“violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, unreasonably loud or otherwise disorderly conduct under circumstances in which the conduct tends to cause or provoke a disturbance.”
Marquette County Ordinance § 50.03; Wis. Stat. § 947.01(1)
Amyiah’s post was not violent, abusive, indecent, or profane. As a social media post, it could not be boisterous or unreasonably loud, nor did it intend to cause or provoke a disturbance. Furthermore, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has held that disorderly conduct statues may not be applied to protected speech.
Fourteenth Amendment
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
U.S. Constitution, Amendent XIV
Clearly Sheriff Konrath and Sergeant Klump deprived Amyiah Cohoon of the liberty to publish freely, and did so without due process of law. It appears that the sheriff, the deputy, and the school district administrator did not check into the veracity of Amyiah’s post before declaring it disorderly. Even when Mr. Cohoon offered to produce the records for Sergeant Klump, the deputy refused, claiming he was not there to gather information, but only to complete Sheriff Konrath’s orders. It appears no process was used to make sure Amyiah and her family got what they were due: A process that protected their rights.
The District Administrator
Left out from the demand letter and the complaint was any action against Westfield District Administrator Bob Meicher. According to the complaint, after their run in with Sergeant Klump, the Cohoons discovered that Administrator Meicher had earlier sent an update to families in the school district. This update included a statement about Amyiah’s post:
It was brought to my attention today that there was a rumor floating out there that one of our students contracted Covid-19 while on the band trip to Florida two weeks ago. Let me assure you there is NO truth to this. This was a foolish means to get attention and the source of the rumor has been addressed. This rumor had caught the attention of our Public Health Department and she was involved in putting a stop to this nonsense. In times like this, the last thing we need out there is misinformation. I asked her to prepare a short statement for the purpose of this update. I’ve pasted it below.
Administrator Meicher’s update
Apparently without any investigation, Administrator Meicher has not only decided that the information the Cohoons received from Amyiah’s doctors was untrue, but that Amyiah’s purpose was solely to get attention. While not referring to Amyiah by name, her teachers and classmates would certainly have been aware of her condition, especially if they had seen her Instagram posts.
Mr. Meicher has libeled Amyiah.
Libel: a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Defamation: the act of communicating false statements about a person that injure the reputation of that person
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Furthermore, what is to prevent Mr. Meicher from punishing Amyiah or further defaming her character? As a government employee, Mr. Meicher is under the same restrictions under the constitutions of Wisconsin and the United States as any other governmental actor. He has infringed on Amyiah’s right to freedom of speech and the press, and done so without due process of law. The only nonsense and misinformation the people of Marquette County needs to stop is that coming from Mr. Meicher and the school district.
Conclusion
I’ve come to expect lawyers and judges to jump to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States when the violation is actually of their own state’s constitution. Sadly, that’s what happens when law schools teach judicial opinion over the actual law, including the Constitution.
To the people of Marquette County Wisconsin I ask: Is Sheriff Konrath the person you want protecting your rights? If he is willing to threaten a teenage girl with jail time based solely on a complaint from a school administrator, he is unqualified for the job. And to employ a deputy that would follow such an illegal order is just as disturbing. What would happen if some school official complained about child-abuse? Would the sheriff and the deputy lock people up and investigate later? We invest those in law enforcement with great powers, but we should demand better character from those we give such powers.
And to the people in the Westfield School District I ask: Is Mr. Meicher the person you want to entrust with your children’s education? If he could not recognize the wrong that he was perpetrating on the Cohoon family, what is he teaching your children? If Mr. Meicher expects someone to delete social media posts simply because he thinks they are wrong, does that mean he is teaching your children to be obedient little serfs and to bow the will of whatever government official is before them? What chance do your children have to grow up to be free citizens when they are being taught by an organization run by such a man as Mr. Meicher? Your tax dollars should be used better.
So when Mr. Konrath and Mr. Meicher are next up for reelection, I think you should throw them both out on their ears. Regardless of what happens with the Cohoon’s complaint, these men have proven to be failures as agents of your sovereign authority. And if you neglect to punish them for their bad actions, you should expect further infringements on your rights . . . until you have no rights left at all.
