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First Amendment

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

August 19, 2024 Seth Stern and Jimena Pinzon, Chicago Sun-Times. , , , , , , , ,
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. , , , ,
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. , , , ,
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. , , , ,
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. , , ,
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. , , , ,
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. , , , , ,
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. , , ,
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. , , , ,
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. , , ,
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. , , , , ,
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.”

Defending The First Amendment

May 9, 2022 Paul Ortiz, Portside. , , ,
Speaking as a historian, I believe that the work of UFF-UF officers, delegates, volunteers, and allies during the global pandemic will be remembered as among the finest moments of unionism this nation has ever witnessed.  Under duress and constantly bullying by forces outside of our campus, we continued to grow as a union. We also continued to support a plethora of causes that the membership believes are essential to sustaining a democratic society. I believe that UFF’s consistent and public support of academic freedom was a factor in the federal court’s preliminary injunction against UF’s repressive speech policies in January. Our struggles are far from finished. Members of the Florida State Legislature continued their assault on the First Amendment by passing House Bill 7, the so-called “Stop Woke Act.” 

Board Must Consider First Amendment In FBI Terrorism Investigations

April 26, 2022 Defending Rights & Dissent. , , ,
Defending Rights & Dissent (DRAD) is a national civil liberties organization founded in 1960 and based in Washington, DC. Our mission is to strengthen our participatory democracy by protecting the right to political expression. The right to free speech faces enumerable threats, but we have long identified FBI counterterrorism authorities as a significant detriment to the First Amendment. In 2019, we published a report, Still Spying: The Enduring Problem of FBI First Amendment Abuse, documenting FBI abuses of First Amendment rights since 2010. The overwhelming majority of abuses documented were carried out pursuant to counterterrorism authorities. More often than not, these were related to domestic terrorism, not international terrorism.

New Anti-Protest Laws Cast A Long Shadow On First Amendment Rights

December 23, 2021 Carrie Levine, Center for Public Integrity. , , ,
Tiffany Crutcher was worried. Oklahoma lawmakers had passed a new measure stiffening penalties for protesters who block roadways and granting immunity to drivers who unintentionally hit them. The state NAACP, saying the law was passed in response to racial justice demonstrations and could chill the exercising of First Amendment rights, filed a federal lawsuit challenging portions of it. But the new law was only weeks from taking effect. Crutcher, an advocate for police reform and racial justice, was moderating a virtual town hall about it, featuring panelists who brought the lawsuit. At the end, she asked a question that went directly to the stakes. Under the new law, “is it safe for the citizens of Oklahoma to go and do a protest?” The three men on the panel were silent.

Over 100 Anti-Protest Bills Have Been Introduced Since George Floyd Rebellion

June 22, 2021 Ella Fassler, Truthout. , , ,
This June, a dangerously low-flying helicopter operated by the Department of Homeland Security descended on the largest civil disobedience action yet against the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota. In an attempt to disperse the crowd, hundreds of demonstrators were pummeled with debris — and misdemeanor trespassing charges. If Minnesota Republican House Members Shane Mekeland and Eric Lucero had their way, demonstrators and anyone involved in the organizing process would have been hit with serious felony charges, a $5,000 fine, and liability for any damages incurred by the multibillion-dollar company Enbridge. Mekeland and Lucero, who introduced these measures in a bill in late February, aren’t alone in their repressive ambitions.
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