'The Sun' Asks Judge to Lift Ban on State Workers Speaking to Reporters

By: Joe Strupp The Sun of Baltimore has asked a judge to order Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich to immediately lift a month-old ban on state employees that prohibits them from talking to two Sun writers.

Attorneys for The Sun, a Tribune company paper, filed a motion Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Maryland seeking a temporary injunction against the ban issued by Ehrlich on Nov. 18, which bars state employees from speaking with Sun state house bureau chief David Nitkin and Columnist Michael Olesker.

The motion is part of a lawsuit filed by the Sun last month that challenges the ban, claiming it is unconstitutional. Judge William D. Quarles is hearing the case and has yet to rule on the temporary injunction request.

"Ordinarily, when a case is pending, the status quo stays in place," said Stephanie Abrutyn, in-house counsel for the Sun. "But lawsuits sometimes take a long time to get resolved, so we asked that the court lift the ban while the case is pending."

The Sun's motion follows a motion to dismiss the case filed on Dec. 27 by the Maryland Attorney General's Office, which is handling the case for Ehrlich. The governor's press secretary, Shareese DeLeaver, declined to comment on the Sun's motion, saying only that the governor's office stands by its request for dismissal.

"I can't speak to that because it is still under review," she told E&P. Assistant Attorney General Cynthia Peltzman, one of those handling the case, also declined comment.

Mireille Grangenois, a spokeswoman for The Sun, said the paper chose to file the motion after recent talks with Ehrlich's office about the ban failed to resolve the situation. The governor met privately with Editor Tim Franklin, Publisher Denise Palmer, and several newsroom leaders on Dec. 17 but did not arrive at a settlement.

"There have been ongoing conversations since then and we would have hoped we would have been able to resolve it through those means," Grangenois said. "The reality is that we have not gotten to closure in this way."