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Striking a serious blow at constitutional protections, Department of Justice prosecutors got a federal grand jury in Florida April 18 to indict three members of the African Peoples Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement on trumped-up charges of being foreign agents. This pretext has been used by the government for decades to go after militant workers, Black rights fighters, the Socialist Workers Party and others.

Omali Yeshitela, Penny Joanne Hess and Jesse Nevel are charged with acting as an agent of a foreign government and foreign officials, to wit, the Russian Federation, and doing so without prior notification to the Attorney General. Along with former APSP member Augustus C. Romain, now a member of Black Hammer, they are also charged with defrauding the U.S.

Three Russians no longer in the U.S. are named in the indictment. Federal prosecutors claim Aleksey Sukhodolov and Yegor Popov work for the FSB, Vladimir Putins political police. A third, Aleksandr Ionov, is alleged to have worked with the APSP to advance Moscows interference in an election in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2019. The APSP ran Eritha Akile Cainion for City Council there.

Founded in 1972, the Black nationalist party runs a range of small businesses and has engaged in constitutionally protected political activity for decades.

The indictment says Ionov gave money to APSP members to build support for Moscows agenda in the U.S., especially Putins seizure of parts of Ukraine. APSP leaders have never made any secret of their support for the Kremlins attempt to crush Ukraines independence. And that opinion is shared by others, including a number of Stalinist-trained groups here. All of them collaborate with forces abroad who share their views, as is their right.

Prosecutors lost no time making clear their real target is the Constitutions protections of free political expression. Russian spies weaponized our First Amendment rights, complained Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Departments National Security Division. Whenever the government says someone is weaponizing the First Amendment, it means theyre voicing opinions it wants to shut up.

Throughout the indictment prosecutors target APSP members political activities. These include campaigning for reparations for descendants of slaves, and publishing articles by Ionov. It also cites a visit by Yeshitela to Moscow in 2015. Prosecutors charge the groups members because they didnt sign up as Moscows agents with the U.S. attorney general. If convicted, they face up to 15 years in prison.

Heavily armed FBI agents raided the APSP and Uhuru Movements offices in St. Petersburg last July, battering down the doors, throwing flashbang grenades inside and handcuffing those there at gunpoint, as they seized computers, financial records and files. They also raided the homes of APSP and Uhuru members.

This case is not about whether or not I have a position around the war in Ukraine that was the same as what the Russians had, Yeshitela, chairman of the APSP, wrote late last year. This attack was perpetrated against us because we have always fought for the liberation of Africa. The group also supports the Cuban Revolution and one of its members is currently on a delegation from the U.S. to Havana to take part in activities around May Day.

Foreign agent laws are a key part of the governments national security arsenal a direct attack on First Amendment protections. If any of your political positions are similar to some other countrys government, youre fair game to be spied on, disrupted and prosecuted.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act was adopted in 1938 by the Democratic Party administration of Franklin Roosevelt. It was part of a package of laws attacking political rights in preparation for crushing opposition to Washingtons entry into the second imperialist world war.

The FBI launched an assault on the Socialist Workers Party for building opposition in the labor movement to the U.S. rulers imperialist war drive in the late 1930s. The attack began under the Foreign Agents Act. It led to the frame-up and conviction of 18 SWP leaders and Teamsters union members under the thought-control Smith Act in 1941.

For decades afterward, Democratic and Republican administrations have used foreign agent and a raft of other witch hunt laws as weapons to spy on, harass and disrupt the SWP, Communist Party, opponents of Washingtons wars and others.

Acting as unregistered foreign agents was one of the charges against five Cuban revolutionaries who had come to the U.S. to gather information about counterrevolutionary groups plotting violent assaults on Cuba. The Cuban Five were targeted by the FBI, framed up and imprisoned for up to 16 years. The last of them won their freedom in 2014.

Months before Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, the FBI tried to cook up a case claiming he too was a threat to national security, operating in collusion with Moscow. It raided the homes and offices of Trump supporters.

The FBI broke into Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate last summer under the ruse of protecting national security. The government claimed he improperly took secret documents when he left the White House. It turned out later that many presidents do the same, including Joseph Biden. This assault was a part of the Democrats six-year effort to drive Trump out of politics or to prison.

Whenever one ruling-class party attempts to criminalize its differences with the other, their assaults batter constitutional protections and inevitably come back on the working class. The raid at Mar-a-Lago and against the APSP were followed by another FBI operation, where agents attempted to interrogate some 60 people in Puerto Rico who had taken part in a solidarity brigade to Cuba. So far no charges have been issued.

Defending constitutional freedoms against government assault remains central to advancing the common struggles of workers and the oppressed.

Drop the charges against the APSP!

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Drop all charges filed against the African People's Socialist Party ... - The Militant

I want you to be the first to know I intend to run for some high political office in the near future.

(I know, I know. I have falsely claimed in the past that I was going to run for office and didnt. And I said last August I had quit writing forever, due to popular demand. So, I lied. That is nothing new in either politics or fringe journalism. Get over it.)

I havent decided what the office will be only that the office will be at the state or national level and will be very powerful. Voters will back me because I know the secret to solving all of our national problems.

Best of all, I will not run as either a Republican or a Democrat. Both of these historic political parties are too much of a mess for even a brilliant person like me to salvage.

Republicans have worked hard at turning their Grand Old Party into a Less Than Adequate New Party. They have been somewhat successful at promoting enough red herrings to distract voters even those who have read more than door hangers from real issues. Yet efforts to become the answer for the world of the 20s seem to be more about the 1920s.

Democrats have risen to the challenge by proving over and over they cannot organize a one-float parade. They continually focus on being a big tent party that embraces the views of both the common folk and the elite egg heads, while never noticing the tent has no center pole.

I will create a new political coalition called the TeePee Party. (Liberals will claim this name is racist and conservatives will see it as a reference to illegal public urination on golf courses. But, I digress.) TeePee will be short for the Thoughts and Prayers Party.

Every patriotic American should be able to get behind T&P as the only solutions to our national woes. Yet, while government leaders say thoughts and prayers solve every problem from gun violence to insurrections to hang nails, no bill has been introduced in either Washington or Indianapolis to turn the solution into enforceable law.

Imagine what our nation would be like if everyone were required by law to both think and pray to think before they pray or pray before they think? And this law needs to have teeth with penalties for violators.

Someone who shares their thoughts in a coffee shop while forgetting to pray before they eat the donut would be fined. Those who bother the deity with a thoughtless, ill-conceived prayer or meditation would likewise pay for the transgression in either civil or religious court.

I predict both learned Republicans and prayerful Democrats will flock to my party.

Democrats likely will complain the new law violates First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom but Republicans will overlook the problem as long as prayers are Christian and the Second Amendment right to own and carry military-type weapons while praying is upheld.

Please support this new party with your donations to build a strong financial war chest. The party will accept cash, checks, electronic transfers, stocks, bonds, bit coin, unredeemed Green Stamps, gently worn MAGA hats and unopened cans of Billy Beer from Jimmy Carters 1980 campaign.

The time has come to end the culture wars. We cannot continue to sidestep our responsibility to solve the pressing problems that threaten the future of our nation. Thoughts and prayers are the proven solution already used extensively and successfully by a wide range of political leaders.

Lets write it into the law.

Bud Herron is a retired editor and newspaper publisher who lives in Columbus. He served as publisher of The Republic from 1998 to 2007. Contact him at [emailprotected]

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Bud Herron: A new political party? Hallelujah! - The Republic

Tennessee lawmakers completed their annual session April 21, approving Gov. Bill Lee's $56.2 billion budget, which includes a$3.3 billion road planthat allows the state to use private companies to build, operate and run toll lanes in urban areas, branded as choice lanes by the governor because people can choose not to use them.

Amid protests throughout much of the session centering on gun control and transgender rights, the Republican supermajority was able to pass legislation shielding gunmakers from liability, criminalizing drag shows with minors present and banning transgender medical procedures for Tennessee children, among other priorities.

Here's a rundown on some of the major actions state lawmakers took this year, including votes cast by Southeast Tennessee lawmakers:

Number:Senate Bill 1

Topic: Transgender medical procedure ban for children

Transgender health care bill bars most transgender medical procedures for children and teens under age 18 in Tennessee. Prevents access to transition treatments such as surgery, puberty blockers and hormone therapies, in addition to surgeries for gender dysphoria, a term used to describe anguish and other symptoms as a result of the disparity between someone's assigned sex and their gender identity.

Votes:Senate: 26-6. House: 77-16.

Status:Gov. Bill Lee signed into law March 3. The ACLU, Tennessee ACLU, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP filed a federal lawsuit April 20, challenging the law. Litigation pending. On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department filed suit in U.S. District Court in Nashville challenging the new law, which is set to take effect July 1.

How Southeast Tennessee lawmakers voted:

House Ayes: Reps. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga; Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain; Esther Helton-Haynes, R-East Ridge; Greg Martin, R-Hixson; Greg Vital, R-Harrison; Dan Howell, R-Cleveland; Kevin Raper, R-Cleveland, Ron Travis, R-Dayton.

House Nays: None

Senate Ayes: Sens. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga; Bo Watson, R-Hixson; Adam Lowe, R-Calhoun, Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma.

Senate Nays:None

The debate: House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland: "These children do not need these medical procedures to be able to flourish as adults. They need mental health treatment. They need love and support, and many of them need to be able to grow up to become the individuals that they were intended to be."

Rep. Bo Mitchell, D-Nashville: "It has nothing to do with protecting children from unnecessary medical procedures. Some children can get their breast enhancements, their nose jobs, that's OK, but these children can't have any medical procedures?"

Number:Senate Bill 12

Topic:School vouchers for Hamilton County

Voucher bill sponsored by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, brings Hamilton County into the state's Education Savings Account program and will provide taxpayer-funded vouchers worth about $8,100 a year per student that can be used to send a student to a private school willing to accept the voucher.

Votes:Senate: 19-6, four members present and not voting on the bill. House: 57-27, five representatives present and not voting on the bill.

Status:The bill has been transmitted to Lee.

How Southeast Tennessee lawmakers voted:

House Ayes: Hazlewood, Helton-Haynes, Martin, Vital, Howell

House Nays: Hakeem

House present and not voting:Raper

Senate Ayes: Gardenhire, Watson, Bowling, Lowe

The debate:Gardenhire: "I want to give the parents and the students the opportunity to have a choice and not be trapped in failing schools. Whether you like the ESA bill or not, it's here and passed its legal challenges."

House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis: "Here again, we're in a situation where we're going to be taking even more funds from our public systems. We said this was going to happen with the first legislation they agreed there'll be only X number of students, X number of areas. And we knew they had plans to expand this ESA program."

Number:Senate Bill 3

Topic:Drag shows, minors

Creates an offense for a person who engages in an "adult cabaret performance" on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult. Applies to adult-oriented performances that are "harmful to minors" and references Tennessee Code Annotated 39-17-901. The code section contains a provision stating an average person applying contemporary community standards would find the performance appeals predominantly to the "prurient, shameful or morbid interests of minors." Applies to topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators or similar entertainers.

Votes:Senate: 26-6. House: 74-19.

Status:First-in-the-nation law signed by Lee on March 2. Federal judge temporarily blocked law after Memphis-based Friends of George's, an LGBTQ+ theater group, sued saying the law violates the First Amendment. Lawsuit still pending.

How Southeast Tennessee lawmakers voted:

House Ayes: Hazlewood, Helton-Haynes, Martin, Vital, Howell, Raper, Travis

House Nays: Hakeem

Senate Ayes: Gardenhire, Watson, Lowe and Bowling.

The debate:Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin: "I would encourage you to direct (constituents) to the obscenity statute."

House Rep. Torrey Harris, D-Memphis, the Tennessee legislature's only openly gay member: "We have three other, nonopenly LGBTQ Republican colleagues of mine who can't really open up their mouth and speak freely about their situation because they're hiding as well. And so I say that because there's young people who are uncomfortable with who they are and can't speak on behalf of themselves because of people like us in this legislature."

Number:Senate Bill 446

Topic:Pronouns

Specifies that a teacher or other employee of a public school or LEA is not required to refer to a student using the student's preferred pronoun if the pronoun is not consistent with the student's biological sex.

Votes:House: 72-22 with one person present but not voting on the bill. Senate: 25-7 with one person present but not voting on the bill.

Status:Has yet to be signed by House and Senate speakers

How Southeast Tennessee lawmakers voted:

House Ayes: Hazlewood, Helton-Haynes, Martin, Vital, Howell, Raper, Travis

House Nays: Hakeem

Senate Ayes: Gardenhire, Watson, Bowling, Lowe

The debate:Sen. Paul Rose, R-Covington: "Senate Bill 446 will help protect the First Amendment right of teachers should they choose to establish a pronoun policy in their classroom. This bill will protect them from any adverse disciplinary action."

Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis: "I think ... we give teachers a license to essentially bully a student and someone who identifies in a certain way. It's about respect and decorum."

Number:Senate Bill 1440

Topic:Defining term "sex" for birth certificates, driver's licenses

Defines the term "sex" for use throughout Tennessee code, unless the context otherwise requires, as a person's "immutable biological sex" as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth. Requires a person's sex be listed on the original birth certificate and driver's license. A fiscal note says the law could jeopardize $1.29 billion in federal education funds coming to the state and another $750 million in grants to the state Department of Health and lead to civil litigation.

Status:Has yet to be signed by House and Senate speakers

Votes:House: 71-21. Senate: 27-6

How Southeast Tennessee lawmakers voted:

House Ayes: Hazlewood, Helton-Haynes, Martin, Vital, Howell, Raper, Travis

Nays: Hakeem

Senate Ayes: Gardenhire, Watson, Lowe, Bowling

The debate:Rep. Rusty Grills, R-Newbern: "God created man, He created woman. He put them in this world to procreate and to read and replenish the world. And when we continue to spit in the face of God as a nation, we're going in the wrong direction."

Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis: "You are saying the government is the decider of someone's sex and the 'immutability' that you mention. Not only is it a bad piece of legislation, the message that's being signaled to people particularly in our LGBTQIA community that you were signaling is really strong. And it's harmful and it's hurtful."

Number:Senate Bill 269

Topic:Juneteenth

Designates Juneteenth, the date on June 19, 1865, in which a Union general issued an order freeing remaining enslaved people in Texas and ending slavery in America, an official Tennessee holiday. Provides time off for state employees. Juneteenth is already a state Day of Special Observance. A fiscal note estimates an annual $691,890 cost for state employees whose jobs require they work that day.

Votes:Senate: 24-4. House: 61-18 with 10 present and not voting on bill.

Status:Lee supported the bill, which has yet to make it to his desk.

How Southeast Tennessee lawmakers voted:

House Ayes: Hakeem, Hazlewood, Raper

House Nays: None

House present and not voting: Helton-Haynes, Vital

House not listed as voting: Martin, Howell, Travis

Area Senate Ayes: Watson, Lowe

Senate Nays: Bowling

Senate present and not voting: Gardenhire

The debate: Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis: "It marks the emancipation of enslaved people in America. ... This is an important celebration for not just African-Americans but for folks all across the state of Tennessee."

Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, in Senate Finance Committee: "I asked several people in my district if they knew what Juneteenth was, and very few did. I don't think we need to be making a holiday for something that happened in Texas. This is going to cost the state $700,000. It's a holiday that most people don't know what it is."

Number: House Bill 1189

Topic: Firearms lawsuit protections for gun manufacturers

Provides special protections for firearms manufacturers against lawsuits. The House passed the bill prior to the March 27 deadly shooting of three children and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville. Senators gave final approval April 18, shortly before another planned mass protest the same day by students, parents and others over the shooting and gun violence.

Votes: House: 71-24. Senate: 19-9

Status:The bill as of Thursday was awaiting the signature of House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, before going to Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, the Republican Senate speaker. It would then go to Lee for his consideration.

How Southeast Tennessee lawmakers voted:

House Ayes: Hazlewood, Helton-Haynes, Martin, Vital, Howell, Raper, Travis

House Nays: Hakeem

Senate Ayes: Gardenhire, Watson, Bowling, Lowe

The debate:Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald: "This is just to try to help businesses in this state that have chosen to come here, to give them a little civil liability" protection.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville: "There are people that we should be going out of our way to protect this week. And we've been receiving emails and calls, people are holding up signs, telling us to go out of our way to help those people. Not one of those signs says to protect the gun manufacturers."

Number:Senate Bill 1012

Topic: Prohibits mandatory 'implicit bias' training for educators

The bill, sponsored by Gardenhire, prohibits a local education agency, public charter school, public institution of higher education, State Board of Education, and Department of Education from requiring implicit bias training for employees. Defines "implicit bias training" as training or other educational programs designed to expose an individual to biases of which one may not be consciously aware, against a specific group.

Votes:Senate: 24-5. House: 71-22

Status: Awaiting House speaker signature before going to the governor

How Southeast Tennessee lawmakers voted:

House Ayes: Hazlewood, Helton-Haynes, Martin, Vital, Howell, Raper, Travis

House Nays: Hakeem

Status:Has not reached House speaker as of Thursday

The debate:Gardenhire: "It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with this type of training or searching your soul or accusing you of being something that you are or not, what this bill says is if you fundamentally disagree with what you're being forced to take or agree to, you don't have to. And what's more, they can't hold it against you if you don't want to take it or you fail to take it."

Akbari: "Those types of thoughts affect our judgment," Akbari said, using as an example that if she sees someone from a rural area, "I automatically assume they're uneducated, or I see someone from an urban area and I automatically assume they're a criminal, and I make my decisions based on those beliefs."

Number:House Bill 1545

Topic:State's FY 2023-204 $56.2 billion budget

Tennessee lawmakers approved the annual spending plan that injects a record $3.3 billion into national highway projects and premises as well as other large investments, including nearly $1 billion for Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology and $223 million to enhance security at public and private schools.

Read more from the original source:
What did the Tennessee General Assembly do this year? - Chattanooga Times Free Press

CASE PREVIEW ByAmy Howe on Apr 17, 2023 at 10:12 pm

The court will hear the First Amendment case Counterman v. Colorado on Wednesday. (R Boed via Flickr)

There is no dispute that the Facebook messages Billy Raymond Counterman sent to local Colorado musician Coles Whalen made her feel afraid. For years, Counterman sent increasingly menacing messages in which he suggested that he had seen Whalen who is identified only by her initials in court documents, but who has discussed the case on her website while driving and made comments such as Die and Fuck off permanently. Whalen told a family member that she was extremely scared after receiving these messages. She canceled appearances and her mental health declined. In 2017, Counterman was convicted and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for stalking.

On Wednesday the Supreme Court will take up Countermans appeal to consider how courts should determine what constitutes true threats, which are statements not protected by the First Amendment. Should they use an objective test, that looks at whether a reasonable person would regard the statement as a threat of violence? Or should they instead use a subjective test, that requires prosecutors to show that the speaker intended to make a threat?

Both sides in Wednesdays case agree that the issue is an important one. Counterman stresses that the notion that a person can spend years in prison for a speech crime committed by accident is chilling. But the state of Colorado, which prosecuted Counterman, counters that Countermans messages frightened their recipient and disrupted her life. This is precisely why threats of violence are not protected by the First Amendment, the state says: to shield individuals from the fear of violence, which follows from the threats no matter what the person making the threat intends.

Colorados intermediate appeals court upheld Countermans conviction. It ruled that to determine whether Countermans statements qualified as a true threat, courts should apply an objective test that considers whether a reasonable person would regard the statement as a threat of violence. Because Countermans statements were true threats, the appeals court concluded, they were not protected by the First Amendment and his conviction for stalking therefore did not violate the Constitution.

Counterman came to the Supreme Court last summer, asking the justices to take up his case which they agreed to do earlier this year.

In his brief in the Supreme Court, Counterman stresses that the First Amendment protects speech from government interference even when others may regard it as offensive. There is a presumption that restrictions on the content of speech are invalid, he says. If the government wants to regulate speech, it must show that there is a long tradition of doing so. But there is not such tradition of holding someone criminally liable for speech that he did not intend as a threat, he argues.

The test for determining whether speech is a true threat that is not protected by the First Amendment must consider the speakers intent, Counterman contends. A purely objective test, like the one used by the Colorado court, runs the risk of criminalizing inevitable misunderstandings and good-faith miscommunications particularly when so much speech occurs on the internet, where the evidence of criminal conduct consists of bare words on a screen.

There is also a real risk that the state courts objective test will restrict even legal speech as well, Counterman continues. Not wanting to risk criminal liability, speakers will refrain from any speech that, although legal, might nonetheless be construed as threatening in nature. This is particularly true, Counterman suggests, for members of unpopular political groups or ethnic or religious minorities, whose beliefs might differ from the police, prosecutors, and jurors who enforce the reasonable person standard and who may worry that restrictions will be selectively enforced.

Under a subjective test, Counterman concludes, his conviction cannot stand. His speech was constitutionally protected because Counterman, who suffers from mental illness, did not intend to threaten the musician. The trial judge appeared to recognize as much, Counterman notes, calling Countermans statements delusional and saying he thought that most people would give Counterman the benefit of the doubt that he is doing it through a lack of understanding, as [o]pposed to a malicious intent. But prosecutors told the jury that they only had to show that a reasonable person would be disturbed by Countermans statements not that he knew that they would cause distress for the woman herself.

Colorado disputes Countermans characterization of the history of government regulation. In early English and U.S. history, threats were punished regardless of the speakers intent, the state contends. That approach continued into the 20th century, the state says, and it is reflected in the Supreme Courts First Amendment cases involving other kinds of speech, such as incitement, defamation and false or misleading commercial speech.

Although the ultimate inquiry is whether an intended or foreseeable recipient would reasonably perceive the statements as a serious expression of intent to commit physical violence, the state continues, the test must also look at the entire context in which the statements are made including the platform on which the statements were communicated and whether the statement was made publicly or privately. This approach, the state reasons, acknowledges that, when viewed in context, words may not always convey the meaning that they would standing alone; it also accounts for the unique challenges posed by communications over the internet.

At the same time, the state adds, because the test does not hinge on the reaction of a statements recipient, it protects political hyperbole, art, other valuable expression, and even poorly chosen words by requiring that the entire context be considered.

Finally, the state emphasizes that any test that requires prosecutors to show that the speaker intended to make a threat does not provide enough protection for the targets of the speech. Even if a speaker does not realize that the target of his statement feels threatened, the state tells the justices, the speech can still have debilitating impact. Moreover, the state adds, the harm from threats can affect not only individuals but also institutions, such as schools and houses of worship sometimes prompting them to close down.

Applying the proper context-driven objective test to this case, the state writes, underscores just how threatening Countermans messages were. Using the First Amendment to immunize harmful, aggressive, and repeated behavior, like Countermans here, would distort the protections our Constitution provides by enabling more harm and less speech.

The question before the court in Countermans case is a familiar one. Nearly a decade ago, the court granted review inElonis v. United States, involving the same issue, but ultimately decided that case on a different ground.

See the original post:
Colorado mans First Amendment challenge will test the scope of protection for threatening speech - SCOTUSblog

In the midst of the demonstrations at the state Capitol, hundreds of protesters packed into the confines of the old building, creating walls of shoulders and walls of sound as they chanted their support for the three Democratic lawmakers facing expulsion that day.

The ceiling rattled with chants and the floor shook with the stomping as the crowd undulating like an oversized snake coiled and hissed with each vote broadcasted on the TV monitors.

The overwhelming turnout on April 6 was just one snapshot of the demonstrations following The Covenant Shooting and subsequent expulsion of two Democratic lawmakers that placed the First Amendment in all its power, complexity and even limitations on full display for the nation to see.

Following the mass shooting at The Covenant School, demonstrations against gun violence sprang up across the state, but most prominently in Nashville. Reps. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, Justin Pearson, D-Memphis and Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, led their own protests on the House floor, breaking the chamber's rules to speak in support of stricter gun control measures during a House session on March 30.

The politics of expulsion: How Republicans handed Democrats a major win with historic vote

The pushback on the three Democrats came swiftly: a historic expulsion vote left Jones and Pearson ousted from their seats and Johnson left standing by merely one vote.

Its a great First Amendment argument, said Aftyn Behn, a local activist and demonstrator, wiping rain from her drawn hood as she stood with demonstrators outside the Capitol. We have three democratically elected officials who used their First Amendment rights on the floor, supporting others using their First Amendment rights, and yet theyre being expelled. Its not right.

Although Jones and Pearson have been reinstated via interim appointments, Tennessee Republicans received national criticism for the expulsion, along with mounting questions regarding the First Amendment rights of the lawmakers and whether they were violated by the GOPs retaliation.

Before his expulsion, Pearson sent a letter to his House colleagues, explaining he was using his First Amendment rights to help "elevate the voices in our community who want to see us act to prevent gun violence."

"We must always stand up for what we believe to be right and just, we must say no to more gun violence," he wrote.

Related: A week after expulsion, Justin Pearson of Memphis returns to Tennessee House

Related: Justin Jones returns to state legislature after unanimous Nashville Council appointment

But the First Amendment rights of a lawmaker speaking inside the legislature is more complex, legal experts say.

David Hudson, a Belmont University law professor and First Amendment expert, said a key case to study is a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1966.

Bond v. Floyd is an extraordinary case that sets strong First Amendment precedent for legislators, even from 57 years ago, Hudson said.

Julian Bonds case holds similarities to todays case of the Tennessee Three, as they've become known. Bond, a young, Black, newly elected representative in the Georgia House of Representatives, was blocked from taking his elected seat from the majority-white body following statements made on a hot political issuein his case, his opposition to the Vietnam War.

The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Bonds favor and the action against him a violation of his First Amendment rights as well as those of his constituents.

The manifest function of the First Amendment in a representative government requires that legislators be given the widest latitude to express their views on issues of policy, wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren, who issued the courts opinion on the case. The central commitment of the First Amendment is that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open. Just as erroneous statements must be protected to give freedom of expression the breathing space it needs to survive, so statements criticizing public policy and the implementation of it must be similarly protected."

Legislators have an obligation to take positions on controversial political questions so that their constituents can be fully informed by them, and be better able to assess their qualifications for office, Warren added. Also so they may be represented in governmental debates by the person they have elected to represent them.

But a key difference between Bonds case and the Tennessee Three is the timing of their statements. Bonds comments were made in a news interview outside the House chambers. Jones and Pearson broke House rules to use a bullhorn to lead the gallery in chants for gun control, resulting in a recess in legislative business.

The facts are different, but the larger principle is you cannot remove someone from a state legislature because of their political viewpoints, Hudson said. The GOP could try to claim that they (removed Jones and Pearson) because of the disruption. And that argument may succeed. But still, you're still doing the same thing. So I do think while Bond v. Floyd is not exactly on point for this case, there is a strong precedent that argues that the Tennessee leaders in the House overstepped their authority. I think that at least symbolically, this was an assault on First Amendment.

Kevin Goldberg, a First Amendment specialist at the Freedom Forum, said the difference between the two cases is vital to deciding if the expulsion is a historic violation of the First Amendment rights of the lawmakers, the GOP enforcing the House rules on decorum and order or an overly harsh punishment.

You hung us out to dry: Leaked audio shows hot tempers inside GOP caucus after expulsion vote

Constitutional rights trump anything else, he said. You can pass all the rules you want but if they attack the First Amendment, the First Amendment wins, even for legislators. But does that mean they can say and do every everything they want, whenever they want? No.

Goldberg said there are many instances where a lawmaker's right to freely speak can be limited, regardless of Bond v. Floyd and especially considering the venue in which they are speaking.

The first limitation would be whether these three are considered public employees, Goldberg said. Because there's a concept called public employee speech that says when you're acting as a public employee, your First Amendment rights are limited because of your association with the government because it might be perceived that you're talking for the government.But Goldberg said that this legal standard determined by the court case Garcetti v. Ceballosin 2006 is unlikely to be used by the state of Tennessee as the reason to limit the legislators speech, considering one of the main arguable exceptions to this rule is the idea of protesting something thats a matter of public concern matters like mass shootings.

Another limitation that Goldberg said could apply to the lawmakers right to speak is rather simple: whether they were engaged in unprotected areas of speech, like inciting violence.

If they engaged in unprotected areas speech, then their rights fall away entirely, Goldberg said. We're talking about incitement to imminent, lawless action. We're talking about fighting words. We're talking about true threats against other members of the legislature. I dont see any argument that can be made that (they did this).

Finally, Goldberg said where the speech took place is also applicable. Whether it is in a non-public or public forums can determine free speech limitations, he said.

The Capitol floor, called the well, is what we would probably call a non-public forum, he said. It's an area owned by the government that has not traditionally been open to free speech for all.

Non-public forums, defined by Perry Education Association v. Perry Local Educators Associationin 1983, are areas that the state may reservefor its intended purposes, communicative or otherwise, as long as the regulation on speech is reasonable and not an effort to suppress expression merely because public officials oppose the speakers view.

This rule, Goldberg said, puts the argument right back where it started the state can claim that the space is non-public, where they have a right to limit the legislators free speech in the interest of decorum. But the ruling, and subsequent punishments, have to be applied evenly which is where Goldberg said he believes the state runs afoul.

I think the argument on the side of the legislators will be that the application of these restrictions, in the form of expulsion and censure, is applied in an overbroad way, he said. What we're talking about here is viewpoint discrimination: you've treated these three on this side of the issue differently than you might have treated people who might be against gun control.

In essence, Goldberg said the state may have an arguable right to limit expression of free speech on the floor but the First Amendment violation comes not in the limitation itself, but in the consistency of punishment for violations of these limitations.

I think that that going from zero to 60, so to speak, and kicking two members out is what we would call overbroad, Goldberg said. There's a whole lot of actions that can, and probably should have been, taken in the middle. And frankly, a whole lot of actions that would probably have been applied to others, and historically have been applied to others, and not applied in this case. So these three could not have predicted they would have gotten in trouble for engaging in a First Amendment-based action. Thats a defense in itself.

One thing that was not up for debate, however, was the overwhelming display of the First Amendment from the thousands of demonstrators that rallied at the Capitol over the past few weeks.

It's just great that so many people come out and use nonviolent protest, and the right of assembly, to try to affect change on an issue, Goldberg said. It was multigenerational, and I love seeing kids protest. Its why we do this work: that the freedom for each generation continues, that this tradition we've had in the country of love of assembly of speech, and of petitionall five rights that came squarely into play here.

The USA Today Network - Tennessee's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners.

Have a story to tell? Reach Angele Latham by email at alatham@gannett.com, by phone at 731-343-5212, or follow her on Twitter at @angele_latham

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A 'symbolic attack': How the First Amendment was front and center during expulsion debate - Tennessean