Errands of Suppression

The night a Sheriff, States Attorney candidate, and six deputies swept a newspaper edition off of newsstands before citizens could read critical articles of the candidates prior to voting on election day. The result was a landmark First Amendment ruling which is now the law of the land. Rossignol v Voorhaar U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals 2003. Video in this film was taken by deputies themselves as they fanned out to empty news vending machines of the election day issue in order to prevent voters from reading news articles critical of the Sheriff and States Attorney candidate before voting. The video was seized from St. Mary’s Deputies by the FBI and ordered released to the newspaper by a Federal Judge. Clips from the video are interspersed with the Court of Appeals ruling that called the actions of the deputies, Sheriff and States Attorney Fritz unconstitutional and consistent ‘with a society much more oppressive than our own’. Click above to watch the deputies working to suppress the news.