(Image by Benjamin Hartwich from Pixabay via Courthouse News)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — A federal judge on Monday ruled against a sports radio host who was fired in 2020 after tweeting "ALL LIVES MATTER...EVERY SINGLE ONE” when asked about his thoughts on the Black Lives Matter movement.
In a 21-page order, U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd granted summary judgment to Bonneville International, the radio station's owner, saying that the media company's decision to fire then-announcer Grant Napear was protected by the First Amendment.
Because the decision of who to cast as its radio host is both inherently expressive and tied to the company’s creative process, the judge found that keeping the host on would compel the company to create or present speech it didn't wish to make.
“As the show’s host, plaintiff’s casting is inseparable from the resulting work of entertainment of the show,” the Barack Obama appointee wrote. “This is so because plaintiff’s speech, including his demeanor and tone, necessarily comprised the show’s speech.”
Napear, a former longtime play-by-play television announcer for the Sacramento Kings, who had his own daily show on KHTK 1140AM, posted the controversial tweet in response to a question about whether he supported Black Lives Matter in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder that sparked a wave of police brutality protests across the nation.
In 2021, Napear sued Bonneville International Corporation, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based media company owned entirely by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for retaliation, claiming that his subsequent firing was politically motivated.
The judge also rejected Napear’s arguments that he wasn’t eligible for a casting decision termination because there was no creative-based reason to fire him. Drozd said it was “undisputed” that Napear's tweets drew critical comments and reactions on X, formerly Twitter, including from current fans and former Kings players, which affected the company’s relationship with its audience.
“In light of these circumstances, defendant determined that plaintiff’s actions were likely to undermine its credibility with the community and its editorial voice, and it no longer wanted to express its message through plaintiff,” Drozd wrote.
For speech reasons, Drozd shot down Napear’s arguments that Bonneville violated California labor code, which prevents employers from making or enforcing policies that control or direct the political activities and affiliations of their employees. Like in his other points, the judge found that compelling the company to retain Napear would alter its intended speech.
An attorney for Napear told Courthouse News he was “disappointed” by the ruling.
“The notion that Bonneville International Corporation and its lawyers are proud of this decision is sickening because Bonneville International Corporation intentionally terminated Grant Napear because of his political expression concerning BLM, and ruined Grant Napear’s life in the process,” Matthew Ruggles of Ruggles Law Firm, who represents Napear, told Courthouse News.
Ruggles said his client intends to appeal the case.
Attorneys for Bonneville didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.
On May 31, 2020, as protests erupted across the U.S. in the wake of the murder of Floyd by Minneapolis police officers days earlier, former Kings player DeMarcus Cousins asked Napear for his take on the Black Lives Matter movement, which challenges police brutality against Black people.
Napear's reply that "all lives matter" is a slogan that may appear racially neutral, but is widely perceived as a conservative repudiation of the Black Lives Matter focus on the disproportionate number of Black people who are killed by law enforcement in the U.S.
KTHK, known as the "Home of the Kings," fired Napear two days later because his comment was likely to discredit the station’s goodwill and reputation with the NBA team and the public.
"The tweet, coming as it did less than a week after the death of George Floyd, predictably ignited a firestorm of negative comments and reactions from the public, as well as past and present NBA players," Bonneville said in its motion to dismiss Napear's lawsuit.
Napear resigned from his TV job with the Kings shortly before KTHK fired him. He sued the following year in 2021, arguing that his termination was the result of religious discrimination, purportedly because "all lives matter" reflects his Christian beliefs, and of retaliation for his political views.
Drozd tossed the lawsuit’s religious discrimination claims in July 2023 after finding there was nothing religious about the tweet.
Categories / Business, Civil Rights, Courts, Entertainment, First Amendment, Sports
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