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First Amendment to the Constitution | Community | hometownsource.com - ECM Publishers

A federal judge ruled today that four people at a George Floyd vigil on the Common on May 31, 2020 can try to convince a jury that Boston Police officers violated their First Amendment rights by attacking them with pepper spray, fists and a bicycle afterwards and that the city created a culture where such a thing could happen.

Among other reasons to seek dismissal, the cops alleged they did not violate the protesters' First Amendment rights because they did not know the four were on Tremont Street because of the Common protest and so did not know they had a First Amendment right to be there.

That assertion "strains credulity," US District Court Judge Alison Burroughs wrote in a decision today that rejected requests by the cops and the city to reject the First Amendment and civil-rights allegations by the four protesters for what happened after police broke up the vigil and ordered nearby T stops shut, on a night that ended with violence and looting across downtown, the Back Bay and the South End.

Here, the chronology of events, the location of each incident, and all other surrounding circumstances, plainly allow for a reasonable inference that each of the Officer Defendants would have known the Plaintiffs were protestors and that they used force against them for that reason. ... Nothing in the record thus far, which includes photos of the Plaintiffs with their arms up and backing away from officers, provides a plausible non-retaliatory motive for the Officer Defendants use of physical force against the Plaintiffs. Further, because the uses of force against Ackers, Hall, and Chambers-Maher occurred while the officers were being openly recorded, it would be reasonable to infer that the civilians filming of the officers formed an unlawful retaliatory motive for the use of force. ... Put simply, the Officer Defendants argument that they could not have known that the Plaintiffs participated in the protest is untenable. Based on the record currently before the Court, it is evident that each one of these incidents occurred while the BPD was seeking to disperse protesters.

Burroughs added, however, that the officers will be able to better rebut the allegation than they have to date during pre-trial discovery and then at trial;

The point of discovery and then trial will be to sort out whether these particular uses of force did or did not implicate the First Amendment.

But, she continued:

Courts around the country, flooded with First Amendments claims pleaded on similar facts following the May 2020 protests, have agreed that the use of force against non-violent protestors can support the inference that officers meant to intimidate protestors and deter antipolice messaging.

Burroughs also allowed the four to continue their lawsuit against the city itself for allegedly creating an atmosphere that allowed and even encouraged misbehavior by police, in large part by ignoring complaints against officers in the past, but also through "a custom of using excessive force." But as she did with the police on the First Amendment issue, she cautioned the four protesters haven't really made a good, detailed case of this to date - something they will have to do at trial to win against the city.

To be sure, Plaintiffs support for this claim is presently thin, particularly since Plaintiffs have done little to link their allegations together to present a systemic pattern of persistent failure to discipline or investigate, but more is not required at the pleading stage. Plaintiffs have specifically articulated that the City knew constitutional violations occurred and either chose not to investigate or otherwise delayed or discouraged investigation. Taking Plaintiffs factual allegations as true and viewing the Amended Complaint in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs, the allegations allow for a reasonable inference that the City has a custom of failing to discipline police misconduct.

Burroughs continued:

The Amended Complaint contains numerous allegations that officers used OC spray, batons, and other physical force against the four Plaintiffs during the May 31 protest. Plaintiffs sufficiently allege, though just barely, that similar constitutional violations occurred on May 29, giving decisionmakers sufficient notice that officers would continue to use unreasonable force against peaceful protestors in the demonstrations to come. The City's argument that the allegations are not enough to support a Monell claim because they rest only on "one night of civil unrest" is unavailing. In addition to the fact that Plaintiffs have suggested that similar conduct occurred during demonstrations on surrounding days, "egregious instances of misconduct" even when "relatively few in number but following a common design, may support an inference that the instances would not occur but for municipal tolerance of the practice in question." Foley v. City of Lowell, 948 F.2d 10, 14 (1st Cir. 1991). ... Here, Plaintiffs describe four similar incidents of excessive force used against peaceful protesters. Further, Plaintiffs may not know, or cannot know, without discovery the full extent of the unreasonable force used by the City against protesters during the May 2020 protests. This Court, in line with several other district courts presented with similar facts, finds that Plaintiffs have sufficiently pleaded that the City had notice of the unlawful use of force against protestors and was deliberately indifferent to those constitutional violations.

She also pointed to a decision by Police Commissioner William Gross to have riot batons distributed to officers beforehand and to have nearby T stations shut as the vigil was dispersed as legitimate acts for a jury to consider whether BPD had a policy that led to the incidents:

Because three of the four Plaintiffs injuries occurred while they were trying to leave the protest area and some of the alleged injuries were caused by blows from riot batons, it can be reasonably inferred that Commissioner Grosss policy decisions led to the constitutional deprivations. ...

Plaintiffs will have to overcome significant issues of proof if they are to prevail at trial. Nonetheless, the Court finds that, at this stage, Plaintiffs have adequately pleaded municipal liability based on the role that City customs and policies allegedly played in the constitutional violations.

Original post:
Judge rejects request by Boston cops to dismiss First Amendment action over the way they pepper sprayed and hit George Floyd protesters in 2020 -...

The U.S. Supreme Court threw womens rights under the bus yesterday and protests were instantaneous and large. See the Arkansas Capitol last night and you can also see a good crowd at Fayetteville in 40/29s tweet.

Thats good but only symbolic venting. Relief will be a long time coming, if ever.

Also concerning are other trappings of rule by minority that the Supreme Court reversal of Roe embodies along with the minority-favoring Electoral College, states rights only for gun laws with fascist approval, the end of voting rights, political gerrymandering and the end of government regulation (except for that of womens bodies).

Also: what about the First Amendment? There was violence last night. Against speech and assembly, theoretically protected by the First Amendment. Check out:

Arizona:

Or Los Angeles, where police declared an assembly unlawful and broke it up:

Or Cedar Rapids, where a truck drove into a crowd of demonstrators (the second truck-demonstrator collision in Iowa in a week):

And from Rhode Island (the cop has been suspended from duty)

And from a Virginia legislator:

We should be grateful that Secretary of State John Thurston didnt unleash teargas and non-lethal, face-breaking loads against the hundreds who gathered in Little Rock last night.

Count on the Arkansas legislature to join the assault on the First Amendment to further enhance Arkansass status as the most anti-woman state in the country. Interstate travel; advertising for abortion options; medication by mail; advice and financial support by Arkansans for Arkansas women? Expect them all to be under attack. And youll also soon see how empty the assurances were from the Supreme Court majority that same-sex relationships and marriage and contraception are not endangered by Fridays ruling. It provided a road map, as Clarence Thomas made clear, to erode those hard-won rights as well. Trust Kavanaugh or Barrett or Gorsuch not to go along with Thomas, Alito and Roberts on rolling back decisions they opposed? Even Susan Collins might not offer assurances on the next go-round.

Continue reading here:
The abortion apocalypse threatens the First Amendment, too - Arkansas Times

Younger readers probably wont comprehend how important magazines like Sports Illustrated were in pre-internet culture. Most sports news wasfound in local papers and in short segments at 10 p.m. on the nightly news. Sports Illustrated was oftenthough, periodically, competition would pop upthe sole venue in which a sports fan could find deeply reported, well-crafted features and profiles, not to mention often-remarkable photography (the swimsuit issues, naturally, sold best). The magazines circulation hit around 3.5 million in the mid-1980s, with another million copies being bought on newsstands.

In my late 20s, I brieflyworkedfor the company (well, the website, which was then called CNN/SI.comperhaps a portend of terrible things to come), where I occasionally interacted with one of my writing heroes, Frank Deford. What a dream it was. I would have done it for free. I guess I almost did.

Ive largely ignored the magazine for the past decade or so, not for any philosophical reasons or any animosity, but with all the choices it simply fell off my radar. But after running across an astoundingly nonsensical pieceheadlinedWhen Faith and Football Teamed Up Against American Democracy, Im glad I did.

Ostensibly, the feature is about Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a SCOTUS case regarding a school district punishing a football coach named Joseph Kennedy for a 30-second silent prayer on the 50-yard line after every game. The pieces subhead describes the case as so:

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide the case of a football coach at a public high school who was told he wasnt allowed to pray on the field in front of players. The expected result is a win for the coachand the further erosion of the separation between church and state.

In frontof players? Can you imagine? How will our brittle democracy survive an open display of religiosity? Greg Bishop, who could easily have written this piece for The Nation, offers no explanation of how a prayer is eroding separation of Church and State. Even this atheist, after all, understands that the Establishment Clause doesnt ban praying in public placesnot in schools, and not even in Congress, where prayers are recited before every session.

Bishop anoints Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State his proxy, allowing her to frame the debate over Kennedy in the most preposterously hyperbolic, partisan terms imaginable, even though the only thing her organization excels at is losing cases. The bad-faith retelling of Kennedys story is crammed with partisan platitudes about democracy being under attack on issues like voting rights, LGBTQ rights, and the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Now, its unimaginable that a major publication would allow areporter to throw around phrases like voting integrity, religious freedom, and protecting the life of the unbornwithout quotation marks intimating that the ideas arent realand thats probably always been the case. Though the piece brings upRoethree times, no one explains how a court (concerned solely with the constitutionality of laws) is undermining democratic institutions by giving abortion rights, unmentioned in the Constitution, back to voters. Washington State, home of Bremerton High School, sadly, will not be restricting abortion any time soon.

In any event, Bishop also uses appeals to authority, tapping independent scholars or legal experts who hold no vested interest in the outcomeone of the only names offered isconspiracy theoristLaurence Tribe. He warns readers about the nefarious, big-money forces propping up Kennedy. First Liberty($7,255,961in assets), writes Bishop, is a powerful Christian conservative law firm, part of apowerful right-wing machinepowerfulis the key word herewhile Americans United for Separation of Church and State($11,141,577in assets, not counting in-kind contributions from places like the Meredith Corporation, which has $6.727 billion in assets), are simply terrified and transported to an alternate universe of disinformation and propagandaand, in that world, even democracy is in danger.

Disinformation? Its all just progressive mad libs. Thats what happens when democracy is a euphemism for achieving political ends in whatever fashion happens to be convenient. Sometimes, when the numbers are there, it means crass majoritarianism and centralized federal power; and when the numbers arent there, it can mean compulsion or a court dictating rights by fiat.

In this case, a school district, not the coach, is attempting to limit speech. There is no prohibition on praying in public institutions. Such a prohibition has never existed. Any scholarand Bishop claims to have spoken to many for the piecewho claims that the Constitutions authors would have found the act of kneeling after a competition perilous to foundational American ideals is a complete fraud. Then again, When Faith and Football Teamed Up Against American Democracy is a microcosm of the incurious activism that dominates journalism these days. Its one thing to put up with relentless bias thats infected virtually every area of mainstream culture, but another to see once-respected magazines putting out such banal, predictable propaganda.

Link:
Sports Illustrated Is Now A Bullhorn For Attacks On The First Amendment - The Federalist

In a pair of decisions in the past week, the Supreme Court took a major step forward in both education and religious liberty by ruling that states cant discriminate against religion in education in the name of erecting a wall of separation between church and state. If you turn on cable news, youd think the justices had mandated the force-feeding of communion wafers to schoolchildren. In reality, these decisions are the modest culmination of a line of cases undoing glaring judicial mistakes of the 1970s. They come at an opportune time, providing support to parents who are dissatisfied with the conventional education system, which failed their kids during the pandemic.

The First Amendment prohibits laws respecting the establishment of religion. The state of Maine (in Carson v. Makin, decided June 21) and a Washington school district (Kennedy v. Bremerton, on Monday) used this rationale to forbid, respectively, tuition assistance to parents who send their children to religious schools and quiet prayer on the football field by a high-school coach. The justices ruled that these were violations of the First Amendments other religion clause, which bars laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion.

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The Justices Give Education a Prayer - The Wall Street Journal