Heard by the Bird

“I’m proud of my tattoo. It may be a little nerdy, but it’s an ever-present reminder that the work journalists do is important.” 

Amie Just, j’18, New Orleans Saints beat writer for The Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, on a tribute to the First Amendment she has inked on her right arm: “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press.” The tat caught the eye of NBC sportswriter Peter King, who featured it in his popular “Football Morning in America” column.

Just said her inspiration was a class taught by Associate Professor Genelle Belmas. “Her passion for the First Amendment definitely rubbed off on me,” she told King. “Her class made me passionate about sunshine laws and the rights journalists have.”

“How great is that?” King wrote. “I hear things like that and meet people like Amie Just and I think that in such a turbulent time in journalism and in newspapers and in our country, we’re going to be OK.”