By: (AP) The Sun sued Gov. Robert Ehrlich on Friday, saying he violated the newspaper's First Amendment rights by ordering state press officers to stop speaking with two of its writers.
The lawsuit escalates a feud between the newspaper and the Republican governor that has grown increasingly bitter in recent weeks.
Ehrlich has said publicly that his staff issued the Nov. 18 order after what he considered unfair reporting by statehouse bureau chief David Nitkin and columnist Michael Olesker.
"The policy will discourage speech by any citizen of Maryland who disagrees with the governor, and it will leave the door open for any public official to punish any individual who says something the government does not like," the newspaper's lawyers wrote in the lawsuit filed in federal court.
Sun officials said they had tried unsuccessfully for weeks to meet with the governor to discuss his concerns about the paper's coverage.
The governor's staff has said they object in particular to one of Olesker's pieces, in which the columnist wrote that Ehrlich's communications director was "struggling mightily to keep a straight face" at a hearing when saying that political gain was "not a consideration" in making state tourism commercials that feature the governor.
Olesker did not attend the hearing and Ehrlich's staff said he could not have known the expression on the communications director's face. Olesker said the reference was intended to be read metaphorically, not literally.
In Nitkin's case, the governor said last week on WBAL-AM in Baltimore that his problem is "not just one fact or one story, but a series of noncontextual innuendo."
Ehrlich also said that his order to state officials was "meant to have a chilling effect" on "two writers who have no credibility."
Ehrlich has also complained about the paper's coverage of a plan by the governor to sell off land, buildings and other surplus state property.
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