First Amendment

Report: Trump Plans UK-Style Attack On Israel Criticism

November 6, 2024 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Donald Trump, First Amendment, Israel, Palestine, Report, State Repression

A second Trump administration could criminalize criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza as support for terrorism, along the lines of the British Terrorism Act, according to a report in Drop Site News. The report says the plan is to “break the pro-Palestinian movement in the U.S.” “The plan, dubbed ‘Project Esther,‘ casts pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S. as members of a global conspiracy aligned with designated terrorist organizations. As part of a so-called ‘Hamas Support Network,’ these protesters receive ‘indispensable support of a vast network of activists and funders with a much more ambitious, insidious goal — the destruction of capitalism and democracy,’ Project Esther’s authors allege. This conspiratorial framing is part of a legal strategy to suppress speech favorable to Palestinians or critical of the U.S.-Israel relationship, by employing counterterrorism laws to suppress what would otherwise be protected speech, legal experts told Drop Site News.”

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.

‘We’re Witnessing This Global Tidal Wave Of Repression’

October 27, 2024 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Educate! First Amendment, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Repression

As media critics, we look to Palestinians to represent Palestinian views, but it’s crucial that we not see the present moment as something happening to other people somewhere else. The repression of simple anti-genocide calls, the censorship, the firings, the disinformation, the malforming of concepts like antisemitism—these are problems for all of us, about all of us, that will influence all of us forever. Defending Rights & Dissent, online at RightsAndDissent.org, have started a project called the Gaza First Amendment Alert, which is going to come out every other Wednesday. Chip Gibbons is policy director at Defending Rights & Dissent. He’s a journalist, researcher and a longtime activist.

Judges In TikTok Case Seem Ready To Discount First Amendment

September 29, 2024 Ari Paul, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Educate! First Amendment, Joe Biden, Legal System, Tik Tok

A US circuit court panel appears ready to uphold a federal law that would effectively ban the popular social media network TikTok because it’s owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. The legal attacks on the video platform—which FAIR (8/5/20, 5/25/23, 11/13/23, 3/14/24) has written about before—are entering a new phase, in which judicial interpreters of the Constitution are acting as Cold War partisans, threatening to throw out civil liberties in favor of national security alarmism. Earlier this year, despite widespread protest (Guardian, 3/7/24), President Joe Biden signed legislation forcing TikTok’s owner “to sell it or face a nationwide prohibition in the United States” (NBC, 4/24/24).

Police Must Respect Journalists’ Rights To Freely Report On DNC Protests

August 19, 2024 Seth Stern and Jimena Pinzon, Chicago Sun-Times. Educate! Chicago, DNC, First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Illinois, Journalism, Journalists, Police, Press Freedom

Hundreds of journalists are expected to converge on Chicago to cover the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19-22 – and they must be allowed to do their jobs unimpeded. The city’s plan to “streamline” mass arrests during the convention, by processing arrestees at a makeshift court at the Area 3 police station at Belmont and Western, does nothing to alleviate the threat mass arrests pose to journalists. The plan, reported by the Sun-Times last week, is supposedly for the arrestees’ convenience: It’ll be easier for them to get home on public transportation that way. But “catch and release” arrests are never convenient for journalists, or their readers.

Big Oil Is Pulling Out All The Stops To Block Lawsuits For Accountability

July 15, 2024 Emily Sanders, Truthout. Educate! Big Oil, Exxon, First Amendment, Fossil Fuels, Legal System

In the face of mounting scrutiny from local, state, and federal officials, fossil fuel companies and their allies are deploying a range of tactics to obstruct ongoing lawsuits and investigations concerning evidence that the industry has misled the public about the harms it knew its products would cause to the climate, environment, and human health. Far-right industry allies with ties to Chevron have mounted an “unprecedented” pressure campaign calling on the Supreme Court to stop a potentially historic climate deception lawsuit against oil majors from going to trial. Republican attorneys general are separately urging the Supreme Court to throw out similar climate fraud lawsuits from five states.

TikTok Takes US Government To Court Over Unconstitutional Ban

May 24, 2024 Andrew Johnson, Workers' World. Resist! China, First Amendment, New Cold War, Tiktok, US Imperialism

In response to the House bill passed on March 13, which requires parent company ByteDance to find a non-Chinese buyer for TikTok in nine months, the company filed a petition on May 7 in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, suing the U.S. government. On May 14, eight TikTok users, all with millions of followers on the social media app, filed a separate lawsuit to stop the ban. ByteDance argues that the ban is unconstitutional and unjustly targets a Chinese company. The Congressional supporters of the bill are attempting to reframe it as a mere call for a sale of TikTok, not a ban. Their feeble arguments are meant to divert attention from the fact that the TikTok ban, a deliberate political and financial attack against China, is indeed a violation of the First Amendment.

Assange Wins Right To Appeal On First Amendment Issue

May 20, 2024 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Extradition, First Amendment, Julian Assange, Press Freedom, United Kingdom (UK)

The High Court in London on Monday granted Julian Assange the right to appeal the order to extradite him to the United States on the grounds that the U.S. did not satisfy the court that it would allow Assange a First Amendment defense in a U.S. court. “We spent a lot of time listening to the United States putting lipstick on a pig, but the judges didn’t buy it,” Stella Assange told reporters outside the court building. “As a family we are relieved but how long can this go on? The United States should read the situation and drop the case now.” Assange has been imprisoned in London’s notorious Belmarsh Prison for more than five years on remand pending the outcome of his extradition.

The Law Firm Helping Big Oil Weaponize The First Amendment

January 5, 2024 Emily Sanders, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, climate crisis, First Amendment, Free Speech

For years, the fossil fuel industry has maintained that the First Amendment protects its right to mislead the public about the climate crisis, but that criticism and protest of its operations violates the law. Now, one of the industry’s preferred law firms — which has long been recognized for its defense of the First Amendment — is arguing both sides of this issue in court. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher represents oil giant Chevron in lawsuits brought by dozens of state and local governments to hold the company accountable for deceiving consumers and the public about its products’ central role in climate change.

US Government And NewsGuard Sued By Consortium News

October 24, 2023 Consortium News. Resist! Defamation, First Amendment, Journalism, Legal System, NewsGuard

The United States government and internet “watchdog” NewsGuard Technologies, Inc. were sued today in federal court in Manhattan for First Amendment violations and defamation by news organization Consortium for Independent Journalism, a nonprofit that publishes Consortium News. Consortium News‘s court filing charges the Pentagon’s Cyber Command, an element of the Intelligence Community, with contracting with NewsGuard to identify, report and abridge the speech of American media organizations that dissent from U.S. official positions on foreign policy.

US Prosecution Of Uhuru Activists Threatens ‘First Amendment Exception’

October 18, 2023 Anya Parampil, The Grayzone. Educate! First Amendment, Legal System, Russia, RussiaGate, State Repression, Uhuru 3

Tampa, Florida – Defense attorneys representing three US citizens accused of operating a Russia-directed “malign influence campaign” to “sow discord” in the United States urged Federal Magistrate Judge Anthony E. Porcelli to dismiss the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) case against their clients this September 28, arguing their continued prosecution threatens to “blow a hole in the 1st Amendment.” “This is a very dangerous case. I have not seen anything like it in 25 years of practicing law. The government is trying to put three of its critics in jail for making political speeches, organizing peaceable rallies and publishing political articles,” Leonard Goodman, an attorney representing one of the defendants, commented to The Grayzone outside the US district courthouse in Tampa, Florida.

Take Action: Drop The Charges Against The Uhuru Three!

July 28, 2023 Popular Resistance. Resist! FBI, First Amendment, Legal System, Uhuru 3

Below is a solidarity statement from the US Peace Council. The USPC and Popular Resistance recently joined the Hands Off Uhuru Fightback Coalition. You can show your support by signing the petition above, asking any organization you are involved in to join the coalition and mobilizing for the November 4 Black is Back March on the White House in Washington, DC to demand the charges against the Uhuru 3 are dropped. For more information, listen to this recent Clearing the FOG interview with Chairman Omali Yeshitela, one of the Uhuru 3. He provides important background on the FBI raids and subsequent indictments against them.

Forest Defender Speaks From Bartow County Jail

June 22, 2023 Ryan Fatica, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Cop City, Criminal Justice and Prisons, First Amendment, Georgia, Police

Bartow County, GA — Over 7 weeks after they were arrested while distributing fliers in a small suburb of Atlanta, Charley Tennenbaum continues to be held in the Bartow County Jail for actions they say are protected by the First Amendment. On April 28, Charley and two other individuals were arrested in the city of White, Georgia and slapped with felony charges for distributing fliers containing information about Jonathan Salcedo, a Georgia State Patrol trooper who has been linked to the killing of Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán. Tortuguita was killed by police during a raid on the Weelaunee Forest on January 18.

Statement On Cheri Honkala’s First Amendment Case Against HUD

June 13, 2023 Margaret Flowers, Galen Tyler, and Matt Pillischer, Popular Resistance. Resist! First Amendment, Homelessness, Housing, HUD

On June 14, the DC Court of Appeals will hear arguments around internationally-recognized housing advocate Cheri Honkala’s appeal of a misdemeanor conviction for seeking an audience in 2018 with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Ben Carson. The case could set an important precedent on the First Amendment right of the people to petition their government for assistance without fear of punishment for doing so, a right that extends back to the 1215 Magna Carta. Watch the hearing live on the court’s YouTube channel: bit.ly/cheritrial. For decades, Cheri Honkala has been a fearless defender of people’s right to have housing.

Atlanta Was A Constitution-Free Zone During ‘Stop Cop City’ Week Of Action

March 15, 2023 Candice Bernd, Truthout. Resist! Atlanta, Cop City, First Amendment, Georgia, Police, police brutality

Southeast Dekalb County, Georgia—Belkis Terán raised her arms wide to welcome the rain now pounding hard over the newly thatched pavilion in the parking lot of the “Weelaunee People’s Park,” a space once known to residents of Atlanta and Southeast DeKalb County as Intrenchment Creek Park. Long before settlers dubbed the South branch of the Ocmulgee River here as simply the “South River,” the Mvskoke tribe, who were forcibly relocated from this area to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, called the river Weelaunee, the tribal word for “green/brown/yellow water.”

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