By Jeremy Kohler
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Publisher Larry Flynt is at the center of yet another court fight -- this one over the right of an interested third party to intervene in a court case.
Several media and consumer watchdog organizations, which are keenly interested in lawsuits with potential consequences for government transparency, have filed briefs to support him.
Flynt, the iconic publisher of the pornographic magazine Hustler, tried to intervene in a Missouri death penalty case in November, invoking a First Amendment right to view sealed documents that might identify an anesthesiologist on the state execution team. That information is confidential under Missouri law.
Flynt argued he had an interest because he was one of the victims of the white supremacist Joseph Paul Franklin. The state of Missouri executed Franklin on Nov. 20 for the 1977 sniper killing of Gerald Gordon, 42, outside a Richmond Heights synagogue. (Franklin, upset that Hustler published pornographic images of an interracial couple, also shot Flynt on the steps of a Georgia courthouse in 1978, paralyzing him.)
In December, Nanette Laughrey, a judge in the Western District of Missouri, denied Flynt’s petition with a one-sentence order: “A generalized interest in a subject of litigation does not justify intervention.”
That riled a coalition of media companies, which joined an appeal by Flynt and the American Civil Liberties Union to the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
“Concerned citizens and the media are watchdogs of our government and often seek access to sealed court documents,” said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri. “If the district court’s decision is allowed to stand, it would be nearly impossible for any member of the media or the general public to challenge a decision to keep court records secret.”
The organizations signing their names to briefs in support of Flynt include media organizations such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, POLITICO and the Missouri Press Association, an organization whose members include 250 newspapers, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Public Citizen, the consumer watchdog group founded by Ralph Nader, also added its support.
“In sum, third-party intervenors like Mr. Flynt, Public Citizen, and the hundreds of daily and weekly newspapers in the Missouri Press Association play a crucial role in safeguarding the public’s ability to oversee the work of the courts,” the lawyers for Missouri Press Association and Public Citizen wrote.
In the underlying case, Flynt argued the public had interest in knowing the identity of an anesthesiologist working for the state execution team.
His motion notes that while the Missouri Department of Corrections says its doctor is certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology, that organization’s rules say a member “should not participate in an execution.”
Flynt wrote that the doctor is therefore “either lying about being board certified, or lacks the professional standing required to maintain certification.”
The Missouri Department of Corrections had not filed a response to the case late Monday, and a spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.