Municipal judge shreds argument that free newspapers are trash

By The Associated Press

01.22.03

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NATCHEZ, Miss. — Two publishers aren't violating the city's littering law when they drop off their free newspapers at homes, a judge has decided.

The ordinance bans the distribution of advertising handbills. The publishers of Miss-Lou Magazine and Miss-Lou Buyer's Guide countered that the ordinance violated the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press.

In his Jan. 15 ruling, Municipal Judge John Tipton described the ordinance, as applied to newspapers, as "vague" and "ambiguous."

The city has 30 days to appeal.

"If we can't distribute freely we can't employ people," said Peter Rinaldi, who puts out the monthly Miss-Lou Magazine. "I'm happy everybody has a job tomorrow."

The publications have been delivered to homes and businesses in portions of southwest Mississippi and eastern Louisiana since the late 1980s.

Miss-Lou Buyer's Guide is a weekly published by Natchez Newspapers Inc., which owns the city's daily newspaper, The Natchez Democrat.

Rinaldi said the anti-litter ordinance was retaliation for editorials he wrote criticizing aldermen's handling of the city budget.

Aldermen said they approved the law to help attract tourists, who drive the town's economy. The town has more than 40 plantations, antebellum mansions and Victorian townhouses.

"We have tried our best in the past few years in Natchez to clean up our city. It is a big priority of ours and we try to work on it very hard," said Alderman Jake Middleton.

"Other than that as far as I'm concerned there were no other reasons why the ordinance was changed," Middleton said.

A spokesman for the National Newspaper Association, based in Columbia, Mo., said other courts have upheld home delivery of free publications.

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