The left-leaning Iredell Free News seeks a court order preventing email communications between members of the I-SS school board, claiming such communications constitute illegal closed meetings. The complaint also requests unredacted copies of all text messages between board members from Dec.19, 2022 to the date of the court hearing.
Is this a legal action or a violation of free speech and an invasion of personal privacy? Being elected to the school board does not eliminate an individual’s constitutional rights. The critical question here is whether text messaging between individuals can actually be considered to be an official meeting. Does the court order provide precedence for this claim? If the texts between individual board members did not record that motions were made and voting took place, then those discussions probably cannot be considered to be actual official meetings.
Interestingly, the court order also requests that the defendants pay both court costs and fees to the plaintiff’s attorneys, Kenneth Darty and Gary Thomas. One wonders whether this tactic is meant to intimidate the board members who have been accused of wrongdoing by this newspapers staff.
– Ed Mimnaugh
