A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit in which journalist William Kelly sued Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, accusing her of using a false pretense to illegally revoke his press credentials rather than face his questions.
In an opinion issued Oct. 27, Judge Sharon Coleman dismissed the complaint, granting a win to Lightfoot and Police Superintendent David Brown, who argued Kelly’s City Hall ban was a result of his conduct, including a skirmish with the mayor’s security detail.
Kelly, who hosts the Citizen Kelly radio show, was the subject of an Aug. 5 police report detailing the events of a July 19 city press conference at which police said Kelly “became irate and aggressive” and yelled at Lightfoot.
“The report further states that Kelly followed Mayor Lightfoot’s security detail and the mayor while he continued to yell and insert himself between the security officers to get closer to the mayor,” Coleman wrote. “The report also stated that Kelly ‘deliberately bumped’ one of the officers while he attempted to push past the officer. Kelly then breached the safe zone around the mayor.”
According to court documents, Brown revoked Kelly’s credentials after the altercation. Kelly insisted the revocation was intended “to prevent him from asking about the mayor’s multiple failures and because his embarrassing questions hurt the mayor’s chances of being re-elected next year,” Coleman wrote.
On Sept. 2, eight days after Kelly filed his lawsuit, Coleman denied his motion for a temporary restraining order, finding he failed to establish his claims were likely to succeed.
Regarding Kelly’s First Amendment freedom of the press claim, Coleman explained a mayoral press conference, unlike a town square or a school board meeting, qualifies as a nonpublic forum because the government establishes access based on selective criteria.
Kelly referenced a 2021 U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals opinion, MacIver Institute for Public Policy v. Evers, in which the panel agreed the communications staff for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers developed an acceptable list of criteria for press conference access and gave weighted consideration to neutral factors. By contrast, he alleged, the general order allowing Chicago police to revoke press credentials was unreasonable and not applied neutrally.
Coleman said her task wasn’t to review criteria used to issue credentials but to analyze the circumstances surrounding revocation. Even so, she said, the police order’s language allowing revocation of credentials for “improper use or abuse” is neutral with regards to a journalist’s viewpoints.
Coleman further agreed Kelly’s allegations don’t rise above speculation and said Kelly himself submitted a video of the July 19 meting that “confirms the report’s statements that Kelly followed the mayor and tried to get past security who attempted to block Kelly’s path to the mayor while he continued to ask questions.”
She dismissed his viewpoint-based retaliation claim without prejudice and granted Kelly two weeks to amend his pleading.
Coleman then dismissed Kelly’s 14th Amendment equal protection claim, writing he “merely repackages his First Amendment freedom of press claim” and said he failed to address the way the Evers opinion established a framework for such complaints. She likewise tossed his 14th Amendment due process claim, explaining Kelly can’t support his argument of a protected interest in a press credential.
Kelly has been represented in the case by attorney Laura Grochocki, of Chicago.
This isn’t the first time Kelly has tangled with the city in court. In June 2020, Kelly and three other Chicagoans sued Lightfoot and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker over allegations the government violated the constitution by using Covid mitigation rules to stamp out protests from people who challenged those measures, while declining to exercise the same authority over others participating in racial justice demonstrations.
That case was dismissed in 2021, according to Cook County court records.