VICTORY ON APPEAL: Federal Fifth Circuit Grants Most & Associates’ Client New Free Speech Trial

Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of Most & Associates’ client Dr. Joy Banner, co-founder of the nonprofit The Descendants Project, in her free speech case against St. John the Baptist Parish officials. 

The case involves a November 28, 2023 Parish Council meeting where Banner tried to speak during a public comment period. Parish President Jaclyn Hotard claimed Banner was breaking the law with her words, and Parish Council Chair Michael Wright threatened Banner with imprisonment under a criminal statute. Notably, the statute that the officials threatened Banner with had been declared unconstitutional nine years earlier, and Wright was even reading from a copy of the law that said "Unconstitutional" at the top.

At the time she was silenced, Banner was attempting to address the impropriety of President Hotard using taxpayer money for a private attorney to defend herself against ethics charges. It was later revealed that Hotard's husband had a secret financial interest in an $800 million dollar grain elevator project that Hotard was promoting as Parish President. 

At a federal trial regarding the free speech issues, the Parish officials' lawyer engaged in a range of conduct that the trial court judge determined to have “repeatedly crossed the bounds of proper advocacy.” At the end of the trial, the jury decided in favor of the Parish officials and against Banner. 

But as the Fifth Circuit ruled today, the "sheer volume of misconduct in which defendants engaged at every stage of trial casts a pall over the jury’s deliberations." The Fifth Circuit condemned "defendants’ egregious behavior at trial," and noted that regardless of "of how frequently and aggressively the court declared these prejudicial subjects to be out of bounds, defendants petulantly persisted in tainting the jury with their barrage of ill-conceived statements." 

The Fifth Circuit observed that “you can throw a skunk into the jury box and instruct the jurors not to smell it, but it doesn’t do any good.” The Fifth Circuit granted Banner a new trial. 

Read more here: https://www.nola.com/news/courts/louisiana-st-john-free-speech-federal-court/article_31d5a02c-5243-433a-8173-1b015b8c7a2d.html