by Eileen Korey
Mark Jackson ’85 remembers theframed newspaper article prominently displayed in the house where he grew up. It told the story of his father, a journalist, being “thrown out” of a Long Beach, Long Island city council meeting after he publicly objected to the council going into executive session. Mark’s father, Paul Jackson, cited the First Amendment and the public’s right to know what its local government was doing. The story is poignant and relevant to some of the work Mark oversees today as director of Cornell Law School’s First Amendment Clinic.
“My father was a noble soul,” says Jackson. “He wanted me to be a lawyer. I was inspired by his journalism to do the kind of law that I do.” Jackson spent his forty-plus year career representing the press, culminating in his position as executive vice president and general counsel at Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. His father wrote for many news outlets, but it’s the work Paul did as editor and publisher for the weekly Long Beach Independent that is most germane. The newspaper was forced to close after the city yanked its designation as its official newspaper—depriving it of valuable revenue from paid public notices.
Today, the clinic’s groundbreaking Local Journalism Project is battling in court to save The Reporter, a community newspaper in Delhi, New York, from a similar fate.
In the case of The Reporter, the publication was stripped of its designation as an official Delaware County newspaper for what it claims is retaliation for reporting that county officials found objectionable.
“What we are experiencing is part of a larger crisis facing community journalism across the country,” says Kim Shepard, publisher of The Reporter. “Small independent papers are financially fragile, and when political leaders retaliate against reporting they dislike, the consequences can be devastating. Retaliation is meant to silence, but we have continued to cover matters of public concern, even knowing those in power would not welcome it. If we allow that work to be punished or suppressed, entire communities lose their ability to see clearly how decisions are being made in their name.”
Without the clinic’s legal work over more than two years, Shepard says the county “would have put us out of business. Cornell’s decision to step in pro bono has kept us standing, and in every sense, defended the free press.”
Supporting Local Journalism to Support Democracy
“Good journalism supports civic engagement which supports democracy on a local level,” says Jackson. “And good lawyering spawns better journalism.” That fundamental belief has driven the Local Journalism Project’s growing docket of cases as well as the ongoing support the clinic has received from multiple foundations committed to strengthening democracy. During the last year alone, the clinic has received grants totaling $3.5 million from the Knight Foundation, Revson Foundation, Heinz Endowment, Stanton Foundation, Luce Foundation, the New York Community Trust, the Legal Clinic Fund for Local News at The Miami Foundation, and others.
Participants in the First Amendment Clinic’s pre-semester Bootcamp held in August 2025
Foundation support since the clinic’s inception in 2018 now exceeds $8.5 million and growing. “These foundations care deeply about the value of free speech to our democracy and some are focused on shoring up local democratic institutions, recognizing that journalism is a key to that, particularly local journalism by reporters who live in their communities and attend local school board and council meetings,” says Jackson.
“We see strengthening local news as one of the most important routes to advancing the practice of democracy,” says Martha W. King, senior program officer at the Revson Foundation. “Independent journalism can hold government accountable, making it more transparent and responsive to its constituents, which in turn encourages more civic participation. Plus, people who consume local news are more likely to vote and be civically engaged.”
“We believe that people have both the right and the ability to shape change in their communities,” says Marisa Kwiatkowski, director of journalism at the Knight Foundation. “Much of our work is about unlocking that power by ensuring people have access to the high-quality information they need to be active participants in civic life. Local journalism is central to this vision. Without local reporters, communities lose information needed to understand what’s happening around them. That makes it more difficult for people to meaningfully engage in civic discourse and hold institutions accountable.”
“Many local newspapers simply don’t have the resources to access the caliber of legal services we were able to provide, between the students, staff, alumni network, and clinic partnerships,” says Matthew Hornung ’24, who worked on The Reporter case when he was at Cornell Law. Hornung dates his interest in journalism back to childhood when he helped start a fifth-grade newspaper. He later wrote for a weekly paper and served as an elected municipal official before law school, thus appreciating all aspects of the clinic’s work.
“The clinic had the most profound, most tangible effect on my readiness to practice law,” says Hornung, who just completed a clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and now clerks on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire. “The practical skills gained through the clinic, from writing appellate briefs to orally arguing at the trial and appellate levels, sharpen your abilities and give you an edge coming into professional practice.”
Heather Murray ‘13 (center) talking with clinic student Connor Phillips ‘27
The clinic not only helps to ensure that newspapers are able to keep the public informed through access to information, but also that they have the necessary infrastructure. “Soon after the clinic launched the Local Journalism Project, our journalist clients started coming to us with the full gamut of legal needs that any start-up entrepreneur would have, including contract review, copyright issues, corporate governance advice, and hiring and employment matters,” says Heather Murray ’13, clinic associate director and Local Journalism Project managing attorney. “The clinic handles many of these matters in-house, which is unique for a First Amendment Clinic, because supporting the business of journalism is critical to ensuring that local news outlets not only survive but also thrive as an essential pillar of democracy.” The clinic partners with Cornell’s Entrepreneurship Law Clinic to help many of these clients.
Grateful for that kind of support, Maritza Félix credits the clinic for strengthening Conecta Arizona, a media organization she founded to serve the Spanish-speaking community through a website, newsletter, social media, podcasts, WhatsApp, and a radio show—all in Spanish. Trained as a journalist, Félix remains committed to battling misinformation that harms the community “during increasingly challenging times. We are under a magnifying lens because we cover immigration issues. When President Trump issued an executive order that English was the official language of the United States, we were concerned that might impact us.” Félix relies on the Clinic for editorial review, contract negotiations with writers and partners, and ensuring that work visas are secure. Félix says the Clinic ensures “we can safely keep doing the journalism that helps our 150,000 readers and listeners.”
It is the range of services provided by the clinic to local news outlets throughout New York City that allows them to perform their critical function, says Revson Foundation’s King. “In its first three years in the New York City area, the clinic saved at least $5.3 million for more than fifty local news outlets and resulted in award-winning journalism with visible impact.”
King cites the clinic’s work with Documented, a non-profit news site that sought to create a database of companies that have stolen wages from employees. The N.Y. Department of Labor delayed the release of public records until the clinic sued. Following successful court appeals, Documented was eventually able to la unch its groundbreaking Wage Theft Monitor based on the data collected and, in partnership with ProPublica, published articles revealing that more than 127,000 New Yorkers had been victims of wage theft by employers and that the state had failed to recover $79 million in back wages for employees.
“Without the clinic’s work, we know some stories would not have been reported, leaving New Yorkers without critical community information and leaving us without a critical check on government,” says King.
Protecting Free Speech and Diverse Viewpoints
But the clinic work goes well beyond defending journalism. The clinic has an equally active docket of cases defending the free-speech rights of citizens across the political spectrum. It has challenged a so-called “anti-riot” statute in Oklahoma on behalf of Black Lives Matter activists. It has defended the rights of students in a Michigan high school to wear clothing bearing conservative political slogans. And most recently, it has brought a lawsuit in Idaho on behalf of a local library, affected citizens, book authors, and five major publishers, challenging that state’s law limiting certain categories of books to minors.
“Our lawsuit in Idaho is all about protecting the right of people to have access to the books they want and need. And to restore the power of librarians to provide their young patrons with materials that are not only appropriate, but valuable, without the intervention of the state,” says Stanton Fellow Daniela del Rosario Wertheimer. “To be able to work on this critically important case is foundational to the type of career I’m looking to pursue.”
(L to R) Wyatt Massey, reporter, Spotlight PA, Paula Knudsen Burke, student Devin Brader-Araje, and Heather Murray outside
the Commonwealth Court after an oral argument in a public records case in September
Heather Murray ‘13, Paula Knudsen Burke, Connor Flannery ‘23, and Dechert partner Diane Siegel Danoff after an oral argument at the Court of Common Pleas in a court access matter
Jackson also points to “a distinct and disturbing trend by local governmental bodies like city, county and town councils, school boards and other citizens committees, to enact policies or take specific actions that either deny citizens insight into their representative bodies or inhibit the free and full participation of citizens in the working of their public institutions.”
Clinic staff successfully defended a Geneva, New York, resident against retaliation in a free-speech case. “It was a big surprise when I was bumped off the Police Budget Advisory Board,” says Robert Maclean. He and another citizen had been appointed by Geneva City Council to an advisory board to provide input into funding for the police department. “We went over the budget and met monthly to review expenses with the chief.” But Maclean also questioned decisions by the police chief and made public statements on police misconduct on social media. “The police chief asked the mayor to get rid of me, the mayor made the motion, and it was passed by city council. It was both shocking and enraging.”
The clinic argued the First Amendment allows citizens to speak out on issues of public importance without fear of retaliation. “The clinic’s involvement helped us challenge the spirit of local Geneva politics that ‘might means right,’” says Maclean. The clinic negotiated directly with the City of Geneva’s attorney and Maclean and a colleague were reinstated to their board positions. “I do believe that our actions had a chastening effect on government officials who were trying to silence us. I hope that by standing up for our rights we made it possible for others to assert theirs.”
Local Government Project Zeroes in on School Boards
With funding from the Luce Foundation, the clinic recently created a Local Government Project Attorney position to work with students on a pilot project ensuring that school board policies and practices uphold First Amendment rights.
Jackson says by focusing initially on local school boards across New York, the Local Government Project will expose students to a wide range of viewpoints from conservative-leaning rural areas and progressive-leaning urban areas. “School board meetings frequently provide a concentrated snapshot of the cultural debates taking place across a given community,” says Jackson. “Cornell’s work in this sector can demonstrate the value and importance of fostering policies and practices that respect the full spectrum of views in a given community.”
“In these polarizing times,” says Murray, “students who have taken on matters for clients whose views they disagree with have told us that this was one of the most rewarding experiences they had in the clinic.”
“Some clients may have unpopular views, but the First Amendment is about encouraging more speech, not silencing speech, and having a more informed conversation regardless of viewpoint,” says Connor Flannery ’23.
Flannery, who is currently clerking in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, says his work with the clinic was perhaps “the most meaningful thing I did. The clinic takes on so many different things, from litigation to policy work to research, that it provides a really broad view of what you can do with a law degree and all the good you can do. These are great people doing great things for the public good.”
“There’s no question in my mind that the clinic attracts students of greatly diverse background and ideology,” says Hornung ’24. “But they check their personal viewpoints at the door because everyone in the clinic is serious about the higher principles of First Amendment law. If any one individual or entity is allowed to flout its protections, it sets a precedent that cuts both ways.” Jackson says that Cornell students’ appreciation of First Amendment principles makes the clinic a popular one at Cornell, with far more applicants than spots. “The consistently strong number of returning students each semester is a clear indication that we are doing our jobs, providing our students with real litigation experiences within the critical worlds of free speech and free press.” Similarly, foundations that helped build the program continue to support it knowing that their funds are being used effectively to safeguard democracy.
