First Amendment
ACLU/NCA condemns congressional censorship
February 02, 2012The ACLU condemned the arrest of journalists attempting to film a public hearing of a House subcommittee, apparently because the journalists were known to have a viewpoint different from the Republican leadership's.
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- Topics: Freedom of Speech, First Amendment
ACLU-NCA FILES NEW CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE TO PORTION OF FEDERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN ACT
October 18, 2011ACLU-NCA filed suit on October 19 challenging a federal campaign finance law that favors corporations over citizens. 2 U.S.C. § 441c makes it a crime for any person who has a contract with any agency of the federal government to make a contribution to any candidate for federal office or any political party or committee that is involved in federal elections. By contrast, large corporations that have federal contracts can set up PACs to make contributions, but individuals cannot -- and the officers, employees, and stockholders of corporations with government contracts are bot barred from making political contributions using can their earnings from those contracts, but individual contractors cannot make contributions even from other sources of funds. Moreover, federal employees are free to make political contributions (subject to the same statutory limitations that apply to everyone), but contractors who work alongside them and perform the same functions cannot.
We represent three individuals who have contracts to provide personal services to federal agencies, and are therefore prohibited from making political contributions. We ask the court to declare the statute unconstitutional as a violation of their rights under the Equal Protection Clause and under the First Amendment.
A Draconian Injunction Against Free Speech
April 18, 2011On April 18 we filed an amicus brief supporting local animal-rights protesters in seeking to vacate a DC Superior Court injunction that broadly prohibits their ability to bring their message to their desired audience, the DC office of Goldman Sachs and the home of its Managing Director.
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- Topics: First Amendment
Arresting people for the crimes of others
September 11, 2010We filed this class action on behalf of about six dozen people who were falsely arrested in the Adams Morgan neighborhood on the evening of Inauguration Day 2005, when other people engaged in vandalism along the route of an impromptu protest march after leaving a “Counter-inaugural Ball.” The police pepper-sprayed and arrested many people who were guilty only of walking or standing in the street.
In June 2008, Judge Huvelle ruled that because the police could not identify which of the people it arrested had actually broken the law, all the arrests were unconstitutional.
