National Roundup

Mississippi
Judge dismisses Brett Favre defamation suit
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday dismissed Brett Favre’s defamation lawsuit against fellow retired NFL player Shannon Sharpe, ruling that Sharpe used constitutionally protected speech on a sports broadcast when he criticized Favre’s connection to a welfare misspending case in Mississippi.

U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett ruled that Sharpe, a former tight end, was using “rhetorical hyperbole” in saying on air that Favre was “taking from the underserved,” that the former quarterback “stole money from people that really needed that money” and that someone would have to be a sorry person “to steal from the lowest of the low.”

Favre sued Sharpe in February, saying that the fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame member made “egregiously false” statements about him on the Fox Sports talk show “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed.” The case was moved to federal court in March, and Sharpe left the sports show in June.

Discussion of Mississippi welfare spending on “Undisputed” took place after extensive news coverage about allegations of Mississippi’s largest public corruption case.

Mississippi Auditor Shad White has said that from 2016 to 2019, the Mississippi Department of Human Services misspent more than $77 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program — money that was intended to help some of the poorest people in the U.S.

Prosecutors have said the department gave money to nonprofit organizations that spent it on projects favored by wealthy and well-connected people, such as a $5 million volleyball facility at the University of Southern Mississippi, a project for which Favre agreed to raise money.

Starrett wrote in his ruling Monday that Sharpe’s references to “taking” and “stole” referred to diverting TANF money “for purposes other than helping the underprivileged.”

“Similarly, Sharpe’s use of the words ‘people that really needed that money,’ the ‘lowest of the low,’ and ‘the underserved,’ again are examples of protected, colorful speech referring to needy families in Mississippi,” the judge wrote.

“Here, no reasonable person listening to the Broadcast would think that Favre actually went into the homes of poor people and took their money — that he committed the crime of theft/larceny against any particular poor person in Mississippi,” Starrett wrote.

Monday night on X, formerly known as Twitter, Sharpe noted the dismissal of the lawsuit and thanked his legal team for handling the case.

The Associated Press sent an email to Favre attorney Michael Shemper late Monday to seek comment about the dismissal of the lawsuit.

Favre is not facing criminal charges, but he is among more than three dozen people or businesses the state is suing to try to recover misspent welfare money.

In addition to suing Sharpe, Favre filed defamation lawsuits earlier this year against White, the auditor, and sportscaster Pat McAfee, who is a former NFL punter. Favre ended his lawsuit against McAfee in May, after McAfee apologized for on-air statements that Favre had been “stealing from poor people in Mississippi.” Favre’s lawsuit against White is still pending.

Favre has repaid $1.1 million he received for speaking fees from a nonprofit group that spent TANF money with approval from the Mississippi Department of Human Services.
White said Favre never showed up to give the speeches.

In December, the department made a new demand of up to $5 million against Favre and a university sports foundation, saying welfare money was improperly used to pay for a volleyball arena at Favre’s alma mater, the University of Southern Mississippi.

Favre’s daughter started playing volleyball at the university in 2017. Filings in the state’s civil lawsuit show text message exchanges between Favre and others about directing money to the volleyball facility from a nonprofit organization that had Department of Human Services contracts.


California
Judge blocks ban on gun shows at county fairs
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday blocked California’s ban on gun shows at county fairs, ruling that the state is violating the rights of sellers and would-be buyers by prohibiting transactions for firearms that can be bought at any gun shop.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Holcomb halts enforcement of two state laws, both written by Democratic state Sen. Dave Min, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The first, effective Jan. 2022, barred gun shows at the Orange County Fair, and the other, which took effect this year, extended the ban to county fairgrounds on state-owned land.

“California’s interest in stopping crimes committed with illegal weapons, as important as it is, cannot justify prohibiting the complete sale of lawful firearms at gun shows,” Holcomb wrote.

Min called Holcomb’s injunction “shocking,” and predicted it would be overturned on appeal.

“California’s vital ban on gun shows at state properties, encompassing even our iconic fairgrounds sites, serves as a critical line of defense against the unchecked proliferation of firearms, including ‘ghost guns’ that circumvent essential background checks and traceability,” Min said in a statement Monday.

Gun shows attract thousands of prospective buyers to local fairgrounds. Under a separate state law, not affected by the ruling, actual purchase of the firearm is completed at a licensed gun store after a 10-day waiting period and a background check, the Chronicle said.

But gun-control groups insist the shows pose dangers, making the weapons attractive to children and enabling “straw purchases” for people ineligible to possess firearms.

Another state law, also unaffected by Monday’s decision, has prohibited gun shows since 2020 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in San Diego County. The Cow Palace in Daly City, which formerly held five gun shows per year, ended them in 2020 after multiple legislative measures to ban those shows were vetoed by Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown.

Challengers to the statewide ban on gun shows at county fairs included the California Rifle & Pistol Association, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association.

“Anti-gun-owner politicians are trying to eliminate the ‘gun culture’ for future generations by, among other things, banning folks from getting together at a gun show to learn about guns, gun safety and gun-control politics,” Chuck Michel, the Rifle & Pistol Association’s president, said Monday

Since the Orange County Fair had previously hosted gun shows for three decades, Holcomb said, there was “no historical basis” for the state’s ban in 2022.

Attorney General Rob Bonta, who defended the laws in court, could appeal Holcomb’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bonta’s office asked Holcomb for a stay that would leave the law in effect for at least 10 days. But the judge refused, saying state officials had not shown a likelihood of either a successful appeal or any interim danger to the public from gun shows that would take many months to schedule.