Minnesota Gag Law
In the summer of 1925, Sen. Boylan worked with Rep. Lommen to draft several bills that would allow the suppression of scandalous newspapers. Senator Freyling Stevens, a powerful lawyer, introduced the Senate version of what would become known as the “Minnesota Gag Law,” which made publishers of “malicious, scandalous and defamatory” newspapers guilty of creating a public nuisance, and allowed a single judge, without jury, to stop a newspaper or magazine from publishing, a practice known legally as "prior restraint", since it in effect declares the publisher to be guilty of libel even prior to the allegedly libellous material having ever appeared in print circulation, and suppresses its appearance.
In the April 6, 1926, Ripsaw, Morrison attacked Minneapolis Mayor George Emerson Leach and Duluth Commissioner of Public Utilities W. Harlow Tischer. A temporary restraining order was quickly placed on the Ripsaw by State District Judge H. J. Grannis of Duluth.
Morrison was set to appear in court on May 15, 1926, but he fell ill. Three days later he was rushed to St. Francis Hospital in Superior at around 1am. Nine hours later, he was pronounced dead. The cause was reported in the Herald to be an embolism, a blood clot on the brain. The Herald reported that Morrison “had been ill for 10 days, suffering from pleurisy following an attack of influenza, a general breakdown and attacks of syncope.”
Read more about this topic: John L. Morrison
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