Center for Protest Law and Litigation

Hours before today’s court hearing on the Paramount-WBD consent decree, the Block the Merger coalition filed an emergency motion asking to formally oppose the deal the state AGs struck with Paramount. Read the statement from PCJF ED Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, also on the Steering Committee of Block the Merger coalition member Committee for the First Amendment: "We believe the consent decree fails to address or mitigate the harms that will be caused by this monopoly merger to the entertainment industry, diverse storytelling, independent filmmaking, consumer interests, a free press, First Amendment rights, and fundamentally, democracy. It does not serve to benefit anyone except the owner family of Paramount and those holding political power who will use this corporate consolidation as a proxy force for First Amendment suppression of disfavored expression and viewpoints." https://lnkd.in/gbHUfKVv

The White House press room isn't the only place journalists are being punished for their reporting. This summer a congressional committee subpoenaed the internal records of indie newsroom BreakThrough News, who we represent. The tools are different, but the goal is the same: to penalize reporting the government disfavors. https://lnkd.in/gTVxV6fn Trump's defense as the ban on CNN, MS NOW, & Politico is being challenged in federal court this week is that it's "an assault on the FAKE NEWS." That is viewpoint discrimination, in his own words. The First Amendment forbids punishing journalists for their coverage, by revoking access or by retaliatory investigation. That is true for large establishment networks, and it's true for small independent newsrooms. The PCJF stands with all of them.

President Trump is pushing a plan to permanently fence Lafayette Park, the historic public site for free speech adjacent to the White House — a proposal now before the National Capital Planning Commission is an attack on participatory democracy. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund has spent three decades litigating to protect public space for free speech in Washington, DC, including defeating the first Trump administration's 2018 effort to impose sweeping restrictions on protest across federal land here. Our statement on this plan's threats to free speech: https://lnkd.in/gs5JUmVR

This week over 70 organizations released a joint statement opposing the House Ways and Means Committee's subpoena of our client, The People's Forum. We stand with TPF and every organization facing this modern-day HUAC. Read full coverage on the statement, from City & State NY: https://lnkd.in/gPyC__Dn

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund is representing The People's Forum and BreakThrough News in response to subpoenas issued by the House Ways and Means Committee. We are proud to stand with our clients in critical legal defense of free speech and a free press. "These latest attacks on The People’s Forum are not about our organization alone. It is part of an escalating crusade against all progressive organizations and any group or person who expresses opposition to the ultra-right, racist, and pro-war policies of the Trump White House. Only by standing together can we defeat this assault on Free Speech rights, and defend civil liberties and civil rights." *Read the full statement from The People's Forum here*: https://lnkd.in/gn79AigP "BreakThrough News is a nonprofit newsroom, which already complies with all tax, audits and public reporting requirements. We are not charged with any crime, because our only “crime” has been to tell the truth – by covering the activities of the Palestine solidarity movement, unmasking the truth of ICE’s terror in our streets, and exposing Washington’s crimes around the world, from Cuba to the Congo... This is a political witch-hunt against independent media, pure and simple. It isn’t just an attack on us. It’s an attack on all independent media and the very principles of freedom of the press – from the very politicians who campaigned on the basis of “defending free speech.” *Read the full statement from BreakThrough News here*: https://lnkd.in/gYsmfZUw Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, constitutional rights lawyer, PCJF Executive Director, and counsel to the organizations, stated: "The Committee’s subpoenas are openly targeting organizations based on First Amendment-protected viewpoint and independent reporting. They seek to smear and silence those fighting for change, and to shut down media that tells the truth to the American people about the actions of their government. This is an abuse of authority and a direct assault on democratic rights. We are defending our clients’ First Amendment rights – constitutional rights that cannot be compromised – before this modern day HUAC.”

Trump and his allies are trying to bring McCarthyism back as a political weapon to crush opposition in the United States. Read our full statement on the recent State Department Cuba Report and the New Red Scare here: https://lnkd.in/gsWErM4r

Lafayette Park is not the president's front yard. It belongs to the American people. It is the single most significant site for protest of presidential policies and actions in the United States, where people have assembled to demand justice for more than a century, from the suffragists to the Civil Rights Movement to this day.     The Trump administration now proposes to erect permanent eight- to nine-foot fencing around Lafayette Square, with unilateral authority to seal the park and shut Pennsylvania Avenue at its unbridled discretion. A permanent fence with an on/off switch controlled by the government is not a security measure — it is an instrument for the suppression of dissent, and an overt attack on participatory democracy in the United States.     The administration has tried this before. In 2018, it moved to impose a "protest tax" and close the White House sidewalk to demonstrations. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund exposed the plan, led a national coalition against it, and prepared to challenge it in court. More than 140,000 public comments were submitted into the formal rule-making record, and the administration withdrew its rules in their entirety.     Now the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts is scheduled to review the fencing proposal at its public meeting this Thursday, July 16. This design review is only the first stage of the government's process — and the administration should hear from the American people at the very first opportunity.     Written comments are due Wednesday, July 15, at 4:00 PM ET. Submit yours at https://lnkd.in/gyj26YEF. Urge the Commission to reject this proposal outright. No design refinement can cure a plan whose function is to wall the American people out of their own public forum. We will fight this at every stage. Read our full statement on this important issue on our website: https://lnkd.in/gs5JUmVR. 

This week, PCJF senior counsel Rachel Lederman argued in court that our challenge to SFPD's unlawful 2023 mass arrest of young people must go to a jury. The PCJF is representing 117 children and youth in a class action lawsuit against San Francisco and SFPD commanders. The City is asking the court to rule in its favor without trial. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Cisneros pressed city attorneys on the basis for closing off a city block, kettling and arresting the youth. Lederman argued that the mass arrest, 40 minutes and blocks from where the police had declared an unlawful assembly, effectively criminalized being a youth in the Mission District. The Plaintiffs' opposition to the City's motion detailed how kids who were out getting ice cream were swept up along with kids who had complied with earlier dispersal orders, and then detained until the wee hours without bathrooms. We expect a ruling within the next month or so. If the city’s motion is denied, jury selection is tentatively set for this fall. Read more on this case on the litigation page of our website, and from Mission Local here: https://lnkd.in/g8ZHbxHd

Watch Minnesota movement lawyer Bruce Nestor on DemocracyNow! below. The government, having been forced to retreat in MN by mass organization of the community, is using conspiracy charges "to spread fear and to encourage people not to stand up to ICE... to send a message to other people: Don’t stand up to the brutality, the authoritarianism and the growing fascism of the federal government."     This won't work. People continue to mobilize to defend their neighbors, co-workers, and family members. And as Bruce said: "we stand in their corner."    https://lnkd.in/ghjvyWXv 

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) just won an important victory for free speech. A federal court has dismissed with prejudice all civil rights conspiracy claims in Torres et al. v. Carlson et al., brought against pro-Palestine activists and The People's Forum, Inc. arising from the April 2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall — Hind's Hall — at Columbia University. "Lawsuits like this one are intended to silence organizations like ours by draining the resources of those who speak out." - The People's Forum     "The conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism is a political tactic to shut down and penalize those who, like The People's Forum, stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza and Palestine. This ruling makes clear: TPF is well within its protected rights to stand up for human rights and civil rights and to oppose genocide. This is a ringing victory for freedom of speech," said PCJF Legal Director Carl Messineo.  "This lawsuit is part of an organized ideological attack on the movement for justice for the Palestinian people including opposition to U.S.-backed genocide. We have seen a steady stream of these types of politically driven and meritless lawsuits across the country. We are very glad to see that this assault on free speech through the abuse of the court system was ultimately dismissed. We will continue to litigate in defense of the First Amendment and against this politically motivated onslaught," said PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard.  As PCJF Staff Attorney Sarah Taitz stated: "The Court’s rejection of this act of ideological lawfare intended to silence pro-Palestine viewpoints is a decisive victory for the freedom of speech. There is no Palestine exception to the First Amendment.” Full case information: https://lnkd.in/eBG6Si-m