First Amendment Watch Releases a Citizen’s Guide to Recording Police

The First Amendment right to record public officials such as the police performing their official duties in public is central to our democracy. Without the ability to document and disseminate such information, citizens would lack an indispensable tool for keeping the public informed, and for holding their leaders accountable.

ACLU Sues City of Seattle For Using Excessive Force On Protestors

On June 9th, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington filed an emergency lawsuit demanding that the City of Seattle immediately stop using chemical agents on protestors. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court of Western Washington on behalf of Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County and individual demonstrators, comes in response to the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) continued use of chemical agents for crowd control.

Lawmakers Call for the Drug Enforcement Administration to End Its Surveillance of Protesters

“The DEA’s narcotics interdiction tactics are not appropriate measures to address the limited violence that has taken place over the past few days or to monitor peaceful protests,” the letter said. “The expansion of the DEA’s law enforcement authority, including the use of ‘covert surveillance’ and collection of intelligence, is unwarranted and antithetical to the American people’s right to peacefully assemble and to exercise their Constitutional rights without undue Intrusion.”

D.C. Circuit Upholds Injunction Blocking White House From Revoking Reporter’s Press Pass

While the White House had a legitimate interest in maintaining a degree of control over media access to the White House, U.S. Circuit Judge David Tatel wrote that the administration could not do so in a way that interfered with a reporter’s due process rights.

Black Lives Matter Sues Trump and Barr Over Use of Force in a D.C. Protest

On June 4th, Black Lives Matter and four named protestors sued President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of Defense Mike Esper, and four other federal officials for the violation of First Amendment rights, Fourth Amendment rights, and for conspiring to violate civil rights.

ACLU Sues Minneapolis Police for Deliberate “Indifference” to Press Freedom

The complaint cites six incidents of arrests, 14 incidents of the use of physical force, five incidents of the use of chemical agents, and five incidents of threatening language and gestures, made by police officers against reporters, often without warning.

Tech Group Sues Over Trump’s Executive Order that Targets Social Media Platforms

On June 2nd, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s executive order that authorizes federal agencies to review Section 230, a law that protects social media companies from lawsuits over the content published on their sites. 

D.C. Circuit Rejects Laura Loomer’s First Amendment Lawsuit Against Tech Giants

The D.C. Circuit refused to revive a lawsuit filed by the conservative blogger Laura Loomer against Twitter, Facebook, Apple, and Google for allegedly conspiring to censor conservative views.