MISSOURI
Bilgrimage

[SNAP court documents]

William D. Lindsey

At the end of a posting last Thursday, I noted the situation now facing the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Missouri, where subpoenas have been issued in both Kansas City and St. Louis, demanding that the group’s leaders turn over private communications between themselves and survivors of childhood sexual abuse. This weekend, the Kansas City Star published a strong editorial about the situation, which characterizes a recent ruling of Jackson Co. judge Ann Mesle demanding that SNAP turn over to the court private communications with abuse survivors as “harmful and wrong.” The Star editorial notes that the Missouri Press Association has filed an amicus brief regarding Mesle’s court order, which maintains that “[i]t would chill future news gathering. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that news gathering is protected under the First Amendment.”

Here’s a…