July 20, 2010 12:52 AM UTC

Civil Rights Suit v. Greeley Deputy DA Moves Forward

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• by: ohwilleke

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

A federal court case against a Deputy District Attorney in Greeley who reviewed and approved a search warrant in a criminal libel case alleging that an online parody of a professor was illegal will move forward due to a ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals today.

The court held that prosecutors are liable for money damages if they are involved in issuing search warrants for criminal libel cases involving communications that are protected by a clearly established free speech right under the U.S. Constitution.  This includes a broad protection for parodies such as the one in question here.  (Colorado’s criminal libel statute remains constitutional in the proper circumstances, however.)

Calls to invoke Colorado’s criminal libel statute come up almost every election season and are usually ignored by prosecutors.  This decision gives prosecutors one more reason to say no to requests to bring these kinds of charges.