An official with the Department of Homeland Security recently suggested that following or recording federal law enforcement officers “sure sounds like obstruction of justice.” The statement was given to Reason magazine in response to a direct question, was confirmed in writing and followed by a warning that DHS will prosecute such conduct “to the fullest extent of the law.”

It’s also ridiculous and an affront to First Amendment case law.

As Reason’s C.J. Ciaramella observes, the issue is not whether officers deserve protection from real interference or danger. They do. The issue is that recording or observing officers in public is not — in and of itself — an act of interference. It is a protected form of gathering information about how the government exercises its authority.

Seven federal circuit courts have upheld the public’s right to record police or federal agents, as long as the person filming is not physically obstructing the officers. In one 2017 decision, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that “a First Amendment right to record the police does exist,” subject to reasonable limits. The 10th Circuit echoed that view in 2022 when it allowed a First Amendment claim to proceed after a man was barred from filming a traffic stop. Courts have also protected the public’s right to alert others to police activity, recognizing it as part of public discourse and not a crime.

This principle is not new. In 1987, the Supreme Court struck down a Houston ordinance that made it a crime to interrupt or challenge an officer. Justice William Brennan wrote that the freedom to oppose police action without risking arrest helps distinguish a free country from a police state. Recording officers is simply a modern way of maintaining that freedom.

State attempts to limit filming have largely failed. Mr. Ciaramella points out that Arizona’s 2022 law restricting filming within 8 feet of police was blocked by a federal judge. Other states have passed distance requirements, but these measures face challenges because of vague language and concerns about arbitrary enforcement.

Simply recording officers is not an act of aggression. It is a method of ensuring transparency, reinforcing public trust and creating an independent record of government conduct. It is central to accountability in a democratic society. As Mr. Ciaramella points out, some of the most serious allegations against federal officers in recent years have surfaced only because bystanders had the courage to hit “record.”

DHS officials must be free to go about their business. But bystanders must also be free to document their activities as long as they do not willfully obstruct the administration of justice. The Constitution has already answered the question. The right to observe government power is not subject to the whims of those who carry badges.

— The Las Vegas Review-Journal

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s owners announced Wednesday the paper will be shutting down in a few months, citing financial losses.

Block Communications Inc. announced it will cease publication on May 3. The paper is printed on Thursdays and Sundays and says on its website the average paid circulation is 83,000.

A couple dozen union members returned to work at the Post-Gazette in November after a three-year strike.

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More than five years ago, the newspaper declared it had reached a bargaining impasse with the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh and unilaterally imposed terms and conditions of employment on those workers. The paper was later found to have bargained in bad faith by making offers that were not intended to help reach a deal and by declaring an impasse prematurely.

The announcement that Block was shutting it down came on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court declined the PG Publishing Co. Inc.’s emergency appeal to halt an National Labor Relations Board order that forced it to abide by health care coverage policies in an expired union contract.

Andrew Goldstein, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, said the paper’s journalists have a long history of award-winning work.

“Instead of simply following the law, the owners chose to punish local journalists and the city of Pittsburgh,” Goldstein said. The union said employees were notified in a video on Zoom in which company officials did not speak live.

The Post-Gazette said Block Communications has lost hundreds of millions of dollars over two decades in operating the paper, and the company said it deemed “continued cash losses at this scale no longer sustainable.”

The Block family said in a statement it was “proud of the service the Post-Gazette has provided to Pittsburgh for nearly a century.”

A phone message seeking comment was left Wednesday at Block Communications headquarters in Toledo, Ohio.

The paper traces its roots to 1786, when the Pittsburgh Gazette began as a four-page weekly, and became a leading advocate for the abolition of slavery in the 19th century. It went through a series of mastheads and owners before 1927, when Paul Block obtained the paper and named it the Post-Gazette.

By KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump is seeking more than $6.2 million in attorney fees and costs from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office stemming from the election interference case brought against him and others that was recently dismissed.

Georgia state legislators last year passed a law that says that if a prosecutor is disqualified from a case because of their own improper conduct and the case is then dismissed, anyone charged in that case is entitled to recoup “all reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred” in their defense.

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office were removed from the case over an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship she had with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case. The prosecutor who took over the case late last year dismissed it in November.

“In accordance with Georgia law, President Trump has moved the Court to award reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in his defense of the politically motivated, and now rightfully dismissed, case brought by disqualified DA Fani Willis,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, said in a statement.

The Associated Press has reached out to representatives for Willis seeking comment.

“One way to address the problem is by the city taking on the cost of building new apartment buildings and entering into vertical ground leases with landlords. This would allow landlords to charge tenants less and still turn a profit.”

Buildings in Battery Park City, lower Manhattan. (Shutterstock.com)

To address the housing shortage, the city should make it cheaper for landlords to build new units. A public-private partnership where the city builds the shells of new apartment buildings and leases the interiors to landlords, who in turn develop and rent them to tenants, can increase supply and lower rents.   

Some estimate that the city needs 500,000 more housing units by 2032 to keep up with demand. Rental prices are skyrocketing because of this high demand and limited supply. “Abundance,” a book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, claims that the lack of affordable and plentiful housing is a major contributor to basically all the ills that plague our cities, like homelessness, wealth inequality, and drug abuse. The lack of affordable rent will crush the soul of the city, as aspiring musicians, artists, and actors continue to get priced out. 

As crazy as it sounds, one way to address the problem is by the city taking on the cost of building new apartment buildings and entering into vertical ground leases with landlords. This would allow landlords to charge tenants less and still turn a profit.  

The city could use a mix of public funds and mortgage financing to pay developers to construct the exterior and base structures of the buildings. The expense of building the interiors is left to landlords (more below). Unlike other public-private housing partnerships, like Battery Park City, the city would own the buildings. The buildings should be thoughtfully designed with the same profit-earning mentality of apartment buildings built by the private sector.  

The city could then execute vertical ground leases of 50 to 100 years with landlords. The landlords would be responsible for designing and building the interiors, and have as much control as possible over the layout of each floor. But the city could impose some conditions to ensure that the buildings have a sufficient number of units, and that landlords do not overcharge rent.  

Here is why this plan could be a win-win-win:  

Landlords would have significantly lower up-front costs, allowing them to charge less in rent and still make money. Landlords would only need to recoup their costs from developing and maintaining the interior of the buildings. And since the landlords would not own the buildings, they would not have to pay real estate taxes. This could amount to millions of dollars in savings per year.  

Tenants would benefit because as explained above, the landlords’ lower up-front costs means they can charge less in rent. If the government builds enough of these buildings, it could dramatically increase the supply of rental units which would also lead to lower rental prices across the City.  

The city would earn money in the form of ground rents from the landlords that lease the buildings, creating a long term income stream. As an example, the Battery Park City Authority earned $52 million in ground rents in fiscal year 2023 alone. And the BCPA projects that it may earn over $8 billion in ground rents by 2069.  

Since the city would own the buildings, it would benefit from the value of real estate increasing over time, and the capital improvements that the landlords make to the buildings on their own dime. (Any increase in the value of the buildings from renovations and improvements made by the landlords belongs to the city, since it owns the buildings.) It is like house flipping, except the landlords do all the renovating for the city for free.  

The city must be creative and consider public-private partnerships like this if it wants to fix the housing crisis. Committing public funds in ways that benefit private landlords makes people feel uncomfortable, but it can be effective. The BPCA makes so much money that it was recently able to commit $500 million to other affordable housing projects in other parts of the city.  

This plan would be challenging and expensive. Figuring out how to pay for these buildings, choosing which public property to commit to the projects, finding developers to design and build the buildings, and finding landlords interested in leasing the buildings are just some of the challenges posed by this plan. But no cost is too high to save New Yorkers from astronomically expensive rent. It could revitalize the city.  

Sam Martin is a Brooklyn resident and public interest lawyer.

The post Opinion: Creative Public-Private Partnerships Can Help Tackle NYC’s Housing Shortage appeared first on City Limits.