Commentary: Court Threatens First Amendment Rights of Tennessee Star After Release of Covenant School Shooting Documents

Judge I'Ashea L. Myles

The editor-in-chief and publisher of The Tennessee Star was ordered to appear in court last week and threatened with charges of contempt after his newspaper reported on an anonymously leaked collection of documents authored by Nashville mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Michael Patrick Leahy was joined by his attorneys in court on Monday for a “show-cause hearing,” where the journalist was asked by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles to demonstrate why his outlet’s reporting does not subject him to contempt proceedings and sanctions.

On March 27, 2023, Hale (born Audrey Elizabeth Hale) entered the Covenant School armed with three semiautomatic guns and murdered six people, including three 9-year-old children. Hale, who was eventually shot and killed by police in the school, was a transgender man and former student at Covenant who harbored extremist sentiments on race, gender, and politics. The massacre remains the deadliest mass shooting in Tennessee history.

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Arrest of Transgender Former Student Who Allegedly Threatened Nashville’s Christ Presbyterian Academy Raises Troubling Parallels to Covenant Killer

The recent arrest of McKenzie McClure, the biological female and former Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) student federal authorities accused of cyberstalking following alleged threats to CPA in Nashville, shares concerning similarities with the circumstances which preceded the tragic Covenant School shootings by former Covenant School student Audrey Elizabeth Hale last year.

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Illinois Sheriff Says Trans Woman Who Threatened to Shoot School Children Repeatedly Referenced Covenant Killer

The 47-year-old transgender woman charged with multiple felony counts of threatening to shoot and rape school children seemed to draw inspiration from Nashville’s Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, according to the Illinois sheriff involved in the arrest.

An earlier report suggests the school shooting threats were a call to action to the transgender community.

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Star News Challenges FBI’s Assumptions in Covenant Killer Manifesto Lawsuit

Attorneys for Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of The Tennessee Star, asked a federal judge to order the Federal Bureau of Investigation to respond to a motion for limited discovery as part of a nationally watched public records lawsuit.

Star News Digital Media Inc. filed the lawsuit in May, demanding the FBI release the manifesto and related writings of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer.

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FBI Cites ‘Ongoing Criminal Investigation’ in Refusing to Release Hunter Biden Gun Records, Just as the Agency Is Doing in The Star News Network FOIA Lawsuit

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is citing an “ongoing criminal investigation” in refusing to turn over records on Hunter Biden’s trashed gun.

It’s the same suspect blocking argument the FBI is trying to use in The Star News Network’s lawsuit demanding the agency turn over the Covenant School killer’s manifesto in Nashville.

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Man Charged in Alleged Threat Against Journalist Seeking Nashville Shooter Manifesto

A Tennessee man has been charged in connection with a threat against conservative journalist and talk radio show host Michael Patrick Leahy over Leahy’s lawsuit to obtain the Nashville school shooter manifesto, allegedly telling Leahy, “I’m willing to go to prison to end you.” 

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DOJ’s Shadowy ‘Community Relations Service’ May Be Behind Covenant Killer Manifesto Coverup, Sources Say

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Metropolitan Nashville Police Department have refused to release the manifesto and related documents of the Covenant School killer, citing spurious reasons for their denials. 

But is a shadowy Department of Justice unit billing itself as “America’s peacemaker” behind the information freeze? Some say the disclosure dance has all the markings of the Community Relations Service. 

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The Star News Network Sues the FBI Over Agency’s Refusal to Release Covenant Killer Manifesto

The Star News Network is suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleging the law enforcement agency has broken a critical First Amendment guard in repeatedly denying Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the Covenant School killer’s manifesto. Filed Wednesday, the federal lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee to order the FBI to release Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto and related documents and to issue a declaration that the agency violated FOIA in denying the request for the information.

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Trans Activists Say They Are Victims of ‘Violence’ of State Laws Protecting Minors from Transgender Drugs and Surgeries

Radical transgender activists claimed the Nashville police’s identification of Christian school shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale as transgender is serving to continue the “targeting” and “demonizing” of transgender individuals, which, to them, includes their victimization of “violence” at the hands of state laws protecting children and teens from a predatory transgender industry.

Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a former student at the Christian Covenant School, stormed into the school last week, killing three nine-year-old children and three adults before she was shot and killed by police.

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NBC News Uses Nashville Christian School Murders to Incite Sympathy for Transgenders

NBC News published a report that appeared to use the horrific murders of three children and three adults at the hands of a transgender shooter to draw sympathy for transgender individuals with claims of “widespread fear” by “members of the LGBTQ community in Nashville” who say they received death threats in the wake of the shooting. Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a former student at the Christian Covenant School, stormed into the school last week, killing three nine-year-old children and three adults before she was shot and killed by police.

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Winsome Sears Confronts Bill Maher Over School Drag Queens, Transitions

Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears told HBO host Bill Maher to “read more” about drag queens in schools and childhood gender transitions on “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday night.

“Nobody’s talking about the opposite side of the equation, because we’re not finding that these children want to detransition and they can’t, they’re adults now,” Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears said. “And unfortunately, the breasts were cut off, their parts were cut off.”

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AG Merrick Garland Refuses to Investigate Nashville Shooting as Hate Crime

On Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland refused to commit to using federal resources to investigate Monday’s shooting in Nashville as a hate crime, despite the perpetrator’s clear motivations against the Christian victims.

The Daily Caller reports that the Nashville Police Department discovered “writings” in Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s home after the shooting, which suggested a “calculated and planned” attack. Addressing these reports, Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) noted during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that the 28-year-old Hale “could have had collaborators.”

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Commentary: In the Mind of the Fervent Left, ‘Aiden’ Hale Was Driven by … Pronouns

Audrey Hale attended the Covenant School in Nashville as a child before returning Monday morning as Aiden Hale to murder three 9-year-olds, the principal, a substitute teacher, and a custodian.

In some dark but loud corners of the internet, it’s not about the children, the teachers, or the janitor. It’s about them — they/thems to be precise. More significantly, this multiple-victim public shooting, like all multiple-victim public shootings, becomes about blaming them. Who are they? Not us, not our side, not our tribe.

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