NewsLanc enjoys a small victory
Gov. Tom Corbett’s Office of Administration has overruled the Liquor Control Board and will allow staff attorney Alan Kennedy-Shaffer to write a column for a trade journal.
We reported last month that LCB staff attorney Kennedy-Shaffer was told by the LCB’s counsel that he could not write a column on liquor law for the Legal Intelligencer (see Gov. Corbett writes newspaper column, but state worker gagged, June 28).
As he sat at his desk at the LCB in June, Kennedy-Shaffer says a supervisor came to his desk and angrily “slammed down” a formal notice forbidding Kennedy-Shaffer from writing his planned column for the Legal Intelligencer.
“The activities … are in conflict with your normal work duties and professional obligations as an Assistant Counsel (Attorney 2) and a violation of the Liquor Code and the PLCB Code of Conduct,” the order stated.
In a column I wrote for NewsLanc at the time, I pointed out that Gov. Corbett himself was writing a column for philly.com. As well, the Harrisburg Patriot-News had just run a column written by the acting secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The Patriot-News soon thereafter took up this same line of defense, and also pointed out that Corbett was writing a column for philly.com.
Kennedy Shaffer appealed to Corbett’s Office of Administration.
On July 25, Kelly Powell Logan, secretary of the Office of Administration, wrote Kennedy Shaffer that, “I have decided to approve your request to engage … as a contributing writer to The Legal Intelligencer.”
As part of the stipulations allowing him to write his column, Sec. Powell Logan instructed Kennedy-Shaffer, “You must provide the proposed final draft of any article you intend to submit to The Legal Intelligencer to your chief counsel for review by the PLCB prior to submission for publication. Any such draft must be submitted so as to provide the PLCB with sufficient time to review the column before you give it to The Legal Intelligencer.”
As we reported last month, isn’t the first time the state has tried to muzzle Kennedy-Shaffer.
In 2012 Kennedy-Shaffer was told he could not host community forums. Kennedy-Shaffer hosts the evening forums with his group Harrisburg Hope. He appealed that decision to the governor’s office of administration, and won.
Kennedy-Shaffer called to thank NewsLanc’s for defending his right to free speech.
“I’m thrilled that Gov. Corbett made the right decision on this,” Kennedy-Shaffer told me. “This is a victory for free speech and freedom of the press. Hopefully this will send a message that we all have a right to express our personal opinions on matters of public concern.”
