By: (AP) A federal appeals court has struck down a Florida law that prohibits disclosing information from active internal police investigations.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled in favor of a newspaper publisher who was arrested after he printed articles alleging a cover-up of police wrongdoing.
The court said the state law limits speech based on its content and is unconstitutional.
The decision Tuesday clears the way for Dennis Reeves Cooper, publisher and editor of the weekly Key West The Newspaper, to pursue a civil rights suit against a former Police Chief Gordon ``Buz'' Dillon.
Dillon had obtained a warrant charging Cooper with violating the state law.
``This was just a case of a publisher publishing the truth,'' Cooper said.
The Key West Police Department didn't return a phone message seeking comment after hours Wednesday. There was no phone listing for Dillon in Key West.
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