By Jim Newell
Review Editor
In a case that has lasted more than a year, the battle between Orion Township and the Detroit Free Press has come to a resolution, with both parties selecting to settle the case of littering versus First Amendment Rights.
“The residents should know that we did not lose,” said Supervisor Chris Barnett. “We are not paying them a penny.”
Residents who do not want Select delivered to their homes must still contact the Free Press to have the delivery discontinued. If that doesn’t work, they can call the township, which has a direct line to a designated individual who is supposed to resolve all Orion complaints.
At issue is the Free Press weekly publication Select, a mix of editorial content, advertising and coupons, that arrives in a plastic bag along driveways on a weekly basis and is delivered free of charge to households, including about 2,500 homes in Orion Township since 2012.
Barnett said he’s received hundreds of complaints from residents who don’t want Select delivered to their homes, and that the Free Press opt-out option isn’t working.
As part of the settlement, the township is agreeing to give the Free Press another chance to put an effective system in place so that residents who want to opt-out of Select being delivered to their homes can do so.
During its meeting on Monday, the township board of trustees passed a resolution accepting terms, on the condition that the Free Press would dismiss its case upon passage of the resolution.
According to the resolution, “The Detroit Free Press has now agreed to dismiss the cause of action in its entirety without payment of any money or reimbursement of any fees or cost…”
The Free Press had sued Orion Township and each member of the township board for $5 million, alleging violations of the Free Press’s First Amendment rights. The Free Press had also sought damages for economic losses, attorney’s fees and costs and interruption of business.
“I’m certainly satisfied that the lawsuit has been dismissed, that they’ve stopped suing us. I’m happy that I’m no longer being sued personally for $5 million, but I can never get back all the time I spent on this,” Barnett said. “Personally, I’m frustrated. I feel like they bullied us throughout the lawsuit.”
And while the township does not have to pay any damages or Free Press attorney’s fees, it does still have to cover its own attorney costs.
Current trustees Ron Sliwinski and Brian Birney were not on the township board when the lawsuit was filed and were not named in the lawsuit.
As part of the agreement, the Free Press agreed to provide Orion Township with a specific contact person to handle any problems regarding the delivery of Select to Orion residents.
“What that means is that if there are any problems, if our residents call me and complain, I can call a specific person at the Free Press and say, “Hey, you need to take care of this,’” Barnett said.
Treasurer Donni Steele praised Barnett for refusing to back down from the lawsuit.
“I commend you for not being afraid to take on a project that affects our residents and standing up to the Free Press,” Steele said.
Barnett said residents’ concerns are that they go on vacation, the paper piles up in the driveway and it says to thieves, “Hey, come take a look at my house if you’re up to no good.”
He also said that residents have complained about the paper ruining snow blowers when the papers become buried in the snow, and that the papers pile up in driveways, blow into streams and lakes and are a general nuisance.
“I literally spend dozens and dozens of hours, mostly in the wintertime, dealing with residents’ concerns,” Barnett said. “People don’t want them.”
“So we sent them a warning letter saying please stop delivering to the people who don’t want them, we never said don’t deliver at all in Orion, and that’s what they’re trying to make this case now … that we’re violating their first amendment rights,” Barnett said.
The township warned the Free Press in a letter Feb. 4, 2016 that the “leaving of unrequested and undesired newspapers and/or flyers circulated by your company” would result in the township fining the newspaper for littering.
The township issued two littering tickets to the Free Press on April 20 and May 26 of 2016. The Free Press then filed a $5 million lawsuit against the township.
The Free Press had requested a partial summary judgement and a preliminary injunction motion during a hearing on Sept. 22 before Judge George Caram Steeh, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division, according to a document provided to the Lake Orion Review.
Orion Twp., Detroit Free Press select to settle lawsuit added by James Newell on
View all posts by James Newell →
I just discovered this feed back from other homeowners. I live in Waterford and for many yrs I’ve had this problem. I thought I was alone. I often have to walk out to the end if the driveway to retrieve this nuisance bag of circulars. I’ve called countless times to have it stopped. Attention needs to be brought to this. I’m calling channel 7.
This is beyond annoying. Last year one of the bags got caught in the snowblower. I had no idea it was under the snow. I nearly had a heart attack not knowing what it was!
Why don’t they just send those adds in the mail along with the rest of the weekly circulars. I’m sure the post office can handle certain customers opting out.
Wow! So, by a sham reference to the 1st Amendment, the Freep gets to scatter litter all over the Detroit Metro area? So, does this mean all other manner of printed matter can now be strewn on the public portion of the city as an expression of free speech?
I would say that the Free Press is using its lawyers as a weapon, and that Lake Orion should have pressed the suit. Telling them not to throw unwanted refuse at the end of people’s driveways hardly curtails their 1st amendment rights – no one is telling them to no longer print their BS, just stop violating MY rights by putting their unwanted garbage on my drive.
Jim, I live in Bloomfield Village. I do not subscribe to The FreePress or any other paper because we spend very little time at our Bloomfield address. I just called the FreePress for the third time, asking them to cease and desist throwing “Select” on our driveway as its continual accumulation is a dead giveaway that we’re not home. Each time I’m told my complaint is being “escalated” and nothing happens. I just left a message with our village manager to get some advice/support in this matter. In the meantime, is there a better contact at the FreePress that you could share with either me or our village manager? Why the FreePress continues this practice when it riles so many people is beyond me.
Janet,
Thank you for contacting The Review. The contact information I was given in May for residents who want to opt-out of receiving Select is 586-977-7522. John Morey was, at that time, the special liaison who handled the Orion Twp. opt-out requests. I’m unsure if he is still there, but you can try. Hope this helps. You can also try emailing jmorey@michigan.com.
Since when does a Corporation have first amendments rights ? Look up the legal definition of, “Littering”, and you will see that it is exactly what the FPress is doing.
I live in tiny Beverly Hills and have complained to our Township about this very issue, I cannot get the Free Press to quit littering my property. In my opinion, the Free Press lawsuit against Orion Township is incredibly arrogant and has nothing to do with “First Amendment Rights.” What a stretch – to throw trash on peoples’ property and claim the Free Press has a right of “free speech”, which of course it does, but that hardly extends to the right to litter property. If I took religious or political propaganda and systematically and regularly dumped that propaganda on my neighbors’ driveways, I wonder how long it would be before I would get fined, arrested, or both?? Yet that would exemplify “free speech” more than unwanted ads, wouldn’t you say? Every local incorporation is concerned about the appearance and maintenance of property. The Free Press Select is rolled up in plastic and proclaims nothing except a stunning disregard of the environment and people’s properties. And, as this article pointed out, those who actually want the thing can continue to get it. But I digress.
I have decided to turn to advertisers to help with this problem. I am notifying all advertisers and marketing organizations within this shameful publication that the Free Press is repelling, not drawing, my business. I am only one person, but if every township collected signatures to be sent to advertisers, perhaps something would actually happen. Maybe the “Select” would cease to make money, which of course the whole thing is about, not free speech, in my opinion.
Congratulations for getting a special hotline for calls to stop delivery of this nuisance. In all my calls to the Free Press about this delivery issue, I have talked to only one person who cared and even gave me her name in case I continued to receive the unwanted thing. When I called back and asked for her, a rude person told me it was not possible to connect with a specific person. When I asked for a supervisor, my name and number were taken, but alas, I was never called back. Big surprise. I’m so sorry that a routine matter turned so ugly when it seems to me the Free Press should have been civil and responsive. Instead they flexed their monetary muscles and became the consummate bully, in my opinion.
I’m guessing that the Free Press tells their advertisers how many homes (based on tossing the thing on driveways) their ads are reaching. The advertisers should hear first hand what many if not most recipients think of this form of advertising.