Judge Blocks Entergy's Attempt to Silence Reporters on Google Deal

A nearly four-hour emergency hearing exposed both the legal weakness of Entergy's position and the very human cost of dragging a citizen into federal trade-secret litigation. Citizen Jessica Kivell filed a routine FOIA request with the Arkansas Public Service Commission, obtaining documents marked confidential by mistake. Those documents revealed that Google would pay approximately $526 million upfront for their West Memphis data center, while the remaining $1.074 billion would be covered by Arkansas ratepayers through a proposed $6/month utility rate increase.

Entergy's response was to sue everybody: the Democrat-Gazette, the Arkansas Times, reporter Sasser, managing editor Byron Tate, and Kivell herself. However, U.S. District Judge Lee P. Rudofsky denied their temporary restraining order (TRO) the next day, citing the First Amendment. In his written opinion, he called Entergy's request 'actually or the equivalent of a prior restraint.'

The dispute over who actually pays for Google's power reveals a gap between corporate messaging and the financial details buried in regulatory filings. Google executive Ruth Porat said at the 2025 groundbreaking that they would 'cover the full cost of powering the facility.' However, the documents obtained by Kivell contradict this claim.