JEREMIAH RAY BLOCKER, St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners Chairman
Our First Amendment deserves "breathing space." NAACP v. Button, 371 U.S. 415, 433 (1963); New York Times. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1974); Gasparinetti v. Kerr, 568 F.2d 311, 314-17 (3d Cir. 1977)(illegal restrictions on policemen’s First Amendment rights); Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. v. Hepps, 479 767, 772, 777 (1986)(O’Connor, J.)(newspaper entitled to breathing space in defamation case); Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46, 52, 56 (1988) (Rehnquist, J.) (magazine parody of TV preacher entitled to breathing space); Keefe v. Ganeakos, 418 F.2d 359, 362 (1st Cir. 1969)(Aldrich, C.J.)(chilling effect on First Amendment illegal suspension of teacher over Atlantic Monthly article on Vietnam War); Parducci v. Rutland, 316 F.Supp. 352, 355, 357 (M.D. Ala 1970)(Johnson, C.J.)(chilling effect in illegal firing of English teacher over Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House.
In 2021, 230th anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights, do five white male Republican St. Johns County Commissioners have their knees on the neck of citizens speaking at Commission meetings?
First they adopted a vague rule several years ago on public comment, drafted by County Attorney PATRICK FRANCIS McCORMACK and approved by Commissioners, inter alia discouraging free speech with a schpiel at the beginning of public comment, which purports to cabin free speech rights.
Then they moved non-agenda public comment to the very end of meetings.
Now they're misinterpreting their vague rule, sometimes interrupting and insulting speakers, accusing them of falsehood, disruption or being out of orders.
Like by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, they have their knees on our necks.
After watching the April 6, 2021 meeting video, I am ashamed of my St. Johns County Commissioners.
Are our civil and constitutional rights in danger when certain local government bodies hold a meeting?
At the April 6, 2021 St. Johns County Commission meeting, government watchdog Tom Reynolds, calling in by phone near the end of the meeting, expressed his opinions about denial of public comment on an affordable housing ordinance, the firing of County Administrator Michael David Wanchick, scoring Commissioners' alleged lawbreaking.
Commissioners looked anxious and upset.
https://stjohnscountyfl.new.swagit.com/videos/117149
(Click on Public Comment at end of regular meeting agenda).
This looks like viewpoint discrimination and retaliation, two of the subjects of my pending U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Commerce civil rights complaints.
Five all-Republican County Commissioners had earlier voted to explore a $23+ million corporate welfare giveaway of 30 years duration for an unnamed employer represented by attorney Ellen Avery-Smith, partner in the oligopolistic Rogers Towers law firm. Mr. Reynolds and every other public comment speaker was opposed (B.J. Kalaidi and me).
So torqued off are Commissioners at non-agenda public comment that they allowed
Without discussion or debate, Commissioner Christian Whitehurst, a Nease High School graduate, and Fast-Fix franchisee, said that Mr. Reynolds was "out of order."
Without discussion or explanation, Chairman Jeremiah Ray Blocker, a Ponte Vedra real estate lawyer with advanced degrees in Real Estate Development Law and Business Administration from the University of Miami and University of Florida, a graduate of the USAF Command and Staff College, currently Major in the Florida National Guard Judge Advocate General's office, violated Mr. Reynolds's civil rights.
Chairman Blocker sua sponte ruled that what Mr. Reynolds said was "false" and "disruptive."
Chairman Blocker disconnected the call.
Disconnected the call.
There's a disconnect alright,
This is not the first time Chairman Blocker behaved obnoxiously or violated free speech rights.
More here: http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2021/03/county-attorney-mccormack-retiring-bocc.html
Update:
Mr. Reynolds apologized to Chairman Blocker -- public comment was allowed for those in the room, but not for him, who was telephoning in;
Vice Chairman Henry Dean blames himself, for not asking for telephone public comment before the vote on item 8,
Robert Kennedy used to say to his staff, "Don't tell me what I should have done, tell me what I should do now."
May I suggest that in the future:
- Vice Chairman Dean, Commissioner Jeb Smith and Commissioner Paul Waldron speak out, and make their own "points of order" to countermand censorship efforts?
- Commissioners Blocker and Whitehurst show more respect for our freedoms.
- Citizens request a vote on any effort to censor us.
- Citizens report lawbreaking. to prosecutors.
- Commissioners educate themselves and our community on our Bill of Rights, in this 230th year since its adoption December 15, 1991.
Catering to real estate developers and all their works and pomps, our five white male Republican St. Johns County Commissioners lack respect for the Rule of Law.
These thin-skinned donee-beneficiaries of copious quantitie$ of developer ca$h don't like hearing about it from Tom Reynolds, or B.J. Kalaidi, or countless others, including me.
These disgruntled employees earlier this year abolished a First Amendment forum -- they ended a decades-long tradition of non-agenda public comment at the beginning of meetings, when everyone is watching.
They've moved it to the end of meetings, when attention wanes, when there is no set time, as if people should have to wait around all day for a chance to speak.
Where once neighbors concerned about developers could band together and speak close to 9 AM, now they are expected to wait all damn day,
St. Johns County;s Dull Republican Commissioners lack a welcoming spirit.
Is St. Johns County violating the First, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments, or what?
It was wrong for Commissioners Whitehurst and Blocker to disconnect Mr. Reynolds, exercising unconstitutional "prior restraint" on his legally protected exercise of sacred free speech rights.
- Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931).
- Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969).
- Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539 (1976).
- New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971).
The pair of Republican Commissioners never worked with former Assistant County Administrator Jerry Thomas Cameron, who would always tell new Commissioners, "Just because you got elected doesn't mean you gained 20 IQ points."
Snowflake SJC BoCC Commissioners Whitehurst and Blocker may dislike public comment speakers and disagree with them, but they may not censor them or interrupt them without running afoul of First Amendment rights thet will be enforced in federal courts,
There was no legal cause to cut off Mr. Reynolds' telephone call, or pronounce his opinions 'false."
Opinions can't be false in the first place.
Chairman Blocker's claim makes no sense, legally or factually,
In fact, there was no public comment allowed on agenda item 8, "workforce housing" zoning,' which would increase the definition of affordable from $210,000 to $240,000, in response to higher lumber prices (rather than requesting an antitrust and economic evaluation of oligopoly pricing).
Disliking First Amendment protected activity is no legal basis to censor it.
Mr. Reynolds did nothing wrong, and has made similar statements for years without censorship
Government censorship or prior restraint is unconstitutional, illegal and unAmerican.
A brand-new Nixon appointee, U.S. District Court Judge Murray Gurfein (later an appellate judge) famously wrote in The Pentagon Papers case, where the government sought prior restraint, "The security of the Nation is not at the ramparts alone. Security also lies in the value of our free institutions. A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, an ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know." United States v. N.Y. Times Co., 328 F. Supp. 324, 331 (S.D.N.Y. 1971), affirmed, New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971).
Or as the St. Augustine Record editorialized November 19, 2006 about City officials hostility toward me, St Johns County Commissioners need "thicker skins."
“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."
See West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).In the midst of World War II, our Supreme Court reversed an erroneous decision that let Jehovah's Witnesses children. be punished for refusing to salute the flag The decision was written by Justice Robert Houghwot Jackson, who was later our prosecutor at Nuremberg. One more time: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."
That's exactly what Messrs. Blocker and Whitehurest did, with silence by Vice Chair Henry Dean, a lawyer and silence by Commissioners Jeb Smith and Paul Waldron.
The ancient equitable maxim says, "Silence gives consent."
I don't give my consent, and believe that litigation and a civil, criminal and administrative investigation is required,
I decline to state whether Messrs. Blocker and Whitehurst are "high or petty," but they're ill-advised.
Pray for these hasty haughty hobbledehoys in our employ.
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