{"id":559207,"date":"2021-06-10T11:51:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T15:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=559207"},"modified":"2021-06-10T11:51:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T15:51:16","slug":"dcnf-reporter-discusses-lawsuit-against-chicago-mayor-ahead-of-major-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dcnf-reporter-discusses-lawsuit-against-chicago-mayor-ahead-of-major-deadline\/","title":{"rendered":"DCNF Reporter Discusses Lawsuit Against Chicago Mayor Ahead Of Major Deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdcnf-reporter-discusses-lawsuit-against-chicago-mayor-ahead-of-major-deadline%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=559207&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1180689711-scaled-e1610730033265.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Thomas Catenacci discussed Thursday his pending discrimination case against Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, saying that he was happy with how it has played out so far.<\/p>\n<p>Catenacci, appearing on \u201cFox &#038; Friends,\u201d outlined how U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee ordered Lightfoot\u2019s office to file a declaration clarifying a policy stating that she would only grant interviews to journalists of color.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys for Lightfoot said during a hearing Monday they would provide a sworn declaration to clarify it.<\/p>\n<p>Catenacci and Judicial Watch first <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/27\/daily-caller-news-foundation-lori-lightfoot-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">brought the suit<\/a> on May 27, just over a week after Lightfoot announced the racial policy via Twitter on May 19.<\/p>\n<p>Catenacci attempted to secure an interview on May 20, 21 and 24, according to the lawsuit, and was met with repeated non-responses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we saw on Monday \u2026 was a really encouraging sign,\u201d Catenacci said. \u201cEssentially, the judge ordered the mayor and the city to state on the record and present to the court its [clarified] policy. What that means is that the city will have to say, \u2018Yes, for one day we did discriminate based on race.\u2019 And then from that point forward we\u2019ll see what they give the court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom that point forward the trial can proceed and we can argue that when I requested an interview on that day that they said they were discriminating, I was, in fact, discriminated against,\u201d Catenacci added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey seem to think they can get a day pass for the mayor for racial discrimination,\u201d said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. \u201cThis is a basic lawsuit about the First Amendment, about civil rights and about a mayor standing in the city hall door and telling some reporters they can get in on the basis of race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Judicial Watch sought an <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/03\/chicago-judicial-watch-lori-lightfoot-first-amendement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">injunction<\/a> last week asking the court to immediately end Lightfoot\u2019s policy, but the mayor\u2019s lawyers argued in Monday\u2019s hearing that it was unnecessary, saying the policy is not currently in effect. The plaintiffs disagreed, arguing that the mayor has not provided any evidence of that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no evidence that this policy is not in effect,\u201d an attorney for Judicial Watch said, adding that Lightfoot\u2019s office \u201chasn\u2019t provided any non-racial reason as to why the interview has not been granted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An attorney for Lightfoot\u2019s office responded that \u201cthe plaintiff has no evidence this policy is in effect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for Judicial Watch replied that \u201cthere have been no statements or sworn testimony that the stated policy was rescinded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to Mayor Lightfoot\u2019s filing on Friday,\u201d Michael Bekesha, senior attorney at Judicial Watch, said in a statement. \u201cThe Court is requiring the Mayor to file a statement under oath about whether her racially discriminatory policy still applies to Catenacci\u2019s and the DCNF\u2019s interview request. More than two weeks later, we still haven\u2019t seen any evidence that it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lightfoot\u2019s policy has been widely condemned, including by journalists of color.<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/28\/daily-caller-news-foundation-lawsuit-discuss-lori-lightfoot-chicago\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: DCNF Reporter Discusses Lawsuit Against Lori Lightfoot)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One Latino reporter at the Chicago Tribune who was set to interview Lightfoot\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/05\/20\/gregory-pratt-cancels-interview-lori-lightfight-discrimination\/\">backed out of the interview<\/a>\u00a0after the mayor refused to rescind her policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked the mayor\u2019s office to lift its condition on others and when they said no, we respectfully canceled,\u201d Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/royalpratt\/status\/1395025840946262017?\">wrote on Twitter<\/a>. \u201cPoliticians don\u2019t get to choose who covers them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Thomas Catenacci discussed Thursday his pending discrimination case against Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, saying that he was happy with how it has played out so &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2279868,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1180689711-scaled-e1610730033265.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"DCNF Reporter Discusses Lawsuit Against Chicago Mayor Ahead Of Major Deadline","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-559207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1180689711-scaled-e1610730033265.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"DCNF Reporter Discusses Lawsuit Against Chicago Mayor Ahead Of Major Deadline","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}