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Since Donald Trump began his second term as president this year, we’ve been collectively watching in horror as major institutions either fall over themselves to conform to his agenda or simply give up fighting against it. It’s spreading the aura of authoritarianism all across the country. There was one major bright spot in the battle against authoritarian creep this week, however, in Marion, Kansas. The city is home to the Marion County Record, a tiny local newspaper that two years ago was subject to an unlawful raid for its coverage, an assault that seems to have left one elderly woman dead and, on a national level, coalesced media companies to publicly support the paper’s First Amendment right. On Wednesday, the Record received a $3 million payout, topped with a written apology admitting local officials’ wrongdoing.

“These days, there’s an awful lot of people who get abused, get treated by the bully of government officials, and........

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