If there has been one overarching theme to the tumultuous politics of this era, it is the repeated reminders of just how fragile America's democratic institutions truly are. The specter of a sitting president and his supporters attempting to overthrow a valid election is the clearest example but by no means the only one.

Missouri has recently seen such dystopian situations as state censorship of public libraries, private medical decisions regarding reproduction and gender being outlawed, and a governor demanding a criminal investigation against a newspaper reporter for exposing a state recordkeeping failure. These aren't things that are supposed to happen in America.

Even against that increasingly ominous backdrop, though, the story out of Kansas this week stands out as a unique Orwellian outrage that demands a forceful rebuke.

Police and sheriff's deputies in tiny Marion, Kansas, on Friday raided the office of the Marion County Record, the local weekly newspaper, confiscating computers, cellphones, the newspaper's file server and other records. They also raided the home of publisher Eric Meyer, which the newspaper claims contributed to the death of Meyer's 98-year-old mother, veteran journalist Joan Meyer, possibly from a heart attack.

The raids were authorized by a search warrant seeking information about a relatively minor (and apparently untrue) allegation that the newspaper had improperly obtained personal records regarding a local businessperson.

Marion County Magistrate Laura Viar hasn't explained the justification for issuing the intrusive search warrant instead of a standard subpoena, which would be the norm in such a situation. A certain ex-president, recall, dodged and defied a subpoena for about three months before a court finally authorized the kind of invasive search that the newspaper was subjected to immediately.

If none of this has yet spawned that uncomfortable tingling of the spine, consider this: The raid was led by newly hired Marion police Chief Gideon Cody, whose professional past the newspaper was in the process of investigating even as he and his officers stormed in. Cody reportedly injured a reporter's finger during the raid when he personally snatched a cellphone from her hand.

Did we mention that this all happened not in some banana-republic military dictatorship but in a Kansas town that is not far from (literally) the geographic center of America?

At least as troubling as the obvious abuse of authority by police and the judge is the muted initial reaction of Kansas state officials. The top law enforcement officer in the state, Kansas Bureau of Investigation Director Tony Mattivi, released a statement defending the raid and declaring, "No one is above the law."

This is true. Journalists are required to adhere to the law like anyone else. But the special constitutional protection of America's free press requires an abundance of caution and restraint when it comes to police interaction with journalists. This appears to have been exactly the opposite of that, for no legitimate reason that anyone involved has articulated.

It is important not to draw conclusions before all the facts are in, but the available information alone makes it difficult to see how this could be anything other than a blatant abuse of power to punish and silence a local newspaper.

The stated trigger for the raid — a reporter's computer search seeking information about a local businessperson's DUI — doesn't even sound like a crime, let alone one that could possibly justify the wholesale hauling of computers and cellphones out of a newsroom by police. Again, why didn't the judge simply issue a subpoena for the information?

Perhaps the local officials who instigated this chilling attack on the free press thought their community was small and remote enough that it wouldn't end up on anyone's media radar. They were, thankfully, wrong. More than 30 news organizations, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, joined press advocates in formally protesting the raid to local officials and, more importantly, publicizing it nationally.

Given the aggressive pushback by the publisher, it's almost certain the higher courts will ultimately review the judge's incomprehensible decision to authorize these raids. That decision should be forcefully overturned, the "evidence" obtained should be returned to the newspaper and rendered inadmissible in court p— and city officials should get a new police chief.

And every American who hears of this and other stories about those in power seeking to undermine the nation's constitutional protections should resist the urge to let it become some kind of new normal. It isn't, and it must never be.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

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