Anti-protest Bills

Legislating Silence: How Congress Plans To Target Critics Of Israel

November 27, 2024 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. Educate! Anti-protest Bills, Congress, Israel, Palestine, Protests, Suppression

A coalition of civil rights groups is sounding the alarm over three proposed bills that, they argue, represent an audacious attempt to stifle dissent and curb free expression in the United States. The legislation—H.R.6408, H.R.9495, and S.4136—claims to combat terrorism by targeting the tax-exempt status of nonprofits deemed to be in violation. But critics insist the true aim is more insidious: to suppress organizations that are critical of Israel. Championed by lawmakers with deep ties to AIPAC, the bills, if passed, could pave the way for an unprecedented crackdown on dissent under the guise of national security.

DRAD Fights DC’s Anti-Protest Residential Tranquility Act

November 4, 2024 Cody Bloomfield, Defending Rights and Dissent. Resist! Anti-protest Bills, First Amendment, State Repression, Washington D.C.

We’ve been fighting anti-protest bills across the country for years. This week, an assault on the right to protest came to our own backyard, aimed at restricting protests in residential neighborhoods. The bill comes as part of a nationwide wave of anti-protest legislation, with hundreds of bills introduced since 2017. Introduced as an “emergency measure,” Defending Rights & Dissent had 3 days to help pull together a coalition to stop the bill. We successfully brought legal and activist groups into a united front to mobilize against the bill.

American Bar Association Mandates Crackdown On Law Student Speech

October 25, 2024 Fight Back! News. Educate! Anti-protest Bills, Anti-war Movement, Campus Movement, Free Speech, Palestine, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Temple University

Philadelphia, PA – On October 16, over the objections of students, Temple University Beasley School of Law adopted anti-protest policies mandated by the American Bar Association. In the spring of 2024, the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted a mandate forcing all law schools to adopt policies designed to prevent the student protests that have taken place since October 7, 2023. While the student movement has recently surged as a part of the broader pro-Palestine movement, law student protests that have raised concern from the ABA also include the pro-choice and LGBTQ rights activism following judicial attacks on women and LGBTQ people in the courts.

How The Fossil Fuel Industry Helps Spread Anti-Protest Laws Across US

October 1, 2024 Hilary Beaumont and Nina Lakhani, Portside. Educate! Anti-protest Bills, climate crisis, Direct Action, Oil and Gas Industry, State Legislatures

Fossil fuel lobbyists coordinated with lawmakers behind the scenes and across state lines to push and shape laws that are escalating a crackdown on peaceful protests against oil and gas expansion, a new Guardian investigation reveals. Records obtained by the Guardian show that lobbyists working for major North American oil and gas companies were key architects of anti-protest laws that increase penalties and could lead to non-violent environmental and climate activists being imprisoned up to 10 years. Emails between fossil fuel lobbyists and lawmakers in Utah, West Virginia, Idaho and Ohio suggest a nationwide strategy to deter people frustrated by government failure to tackle the climate crisis from peacefully disrupting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure by enacting tough laws with lengthy jail sentences.

Climate Activists Are Learning How To Protect Their Protest Rights

February 11, 2024 Robyn Gulliver, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Anti-protest Bills, Australia, Climate Justice

In November, a significant event unfolded at the world’s largest coal port in Newcastle, New South Wales when 3,000 people gathered to block coal shipments in and out of the Australian port. When activists remained on the water past the approved 4 p.m. blockade cut-off, 109 people were arrested. Rising Tide spokesperson Alexa Stuart explained the group’s rationale, stating that “If the government will not take action on climate change, the people will use civil disobedience. We wish we did not have to do this, but [Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government] needs to understand we are serious.” Fast forward a mere three months and this mass arrest has been met with substantial judicial restraint.

Anti-Protest Laws Are Not About Safety, But About Silencing Dissent

April 10, 2023 Ashley K. Shelton, Truthout. Educate! Activism, Anti-protest Bills, Legal System, State Repression

At least 42 people who have protested the building of an 85-acre, $90 million police training facility in Atlanta, Georgia, have been charged with domestic terrorism. While demonstrators always fear being criminalized for exercising their constitutional right to stage protests, being charged with domestic terrorism has a particularly chilling effect. The move to charge protesters with domestic terrorism comes months after one protester, Manuel Paez Terán (who went by the name Tortuguita), was killed by police. Across the United States, we are seeing a rise in laws that seek to squelch and criminalize protests.

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