Yesterday, independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, along with two other individuals, were arrested after reporting on protest activity last week at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. The journalists were covering demonstrators, some of whom were arrested, who were denouncing a Cities Church pastor’s apparent employment as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official and his purported involvement in the surge of immigration raids and enforcement in the Twin Cities area.
In response, Legal Defense Fund Associate Director-Counsel Todd A. Cox issued the following statement:
“The Trump administration has consistently demonstrated disdain for free and open press, a bedrock pillar of our multiracial democracy. This is made glaringly clear by the recent arrests and attempts to prosecute reporters, including Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, for fulfilling their professional duties to provide pertinent information to the American people.
“This attempt to suppress and intimidate journalists for reporting on facts and events that may be disfavored by the administration is an alarming further descent into authoritarianism. Journalists are watchdogs for our democracy, ensuring those who hold power are never above public scrutiny. The future of our country is entirely dependent on our core constitutional principles that protect that function.
“The acts of violence and surveillance against journalists, as well as protesters, by this administration must come to an end immediately if we are to live in any semblance of a democracy. We call on Attorney General Bondi, Secretary Noem, and other officials within the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to immediately reverse course from their prosecution of journalists and ensure the full protection of people’s First Amendment rights. We also call on Congress to exercise its responsibility to rein in theses blatant violations of civil and human rights and secure restrictions to address these abuses before agreeing to fund the Department of Homeland Security.”
Last night’s actions come after initial efforts to prosecute Lemon were thwarted when a federal magistrate judge rejected the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) attempt to file a criminal complaint against him. DOJ’s highly unusual attempts to circumvent the magistrate judge’s decision, ignoring routine judicial processes, prompted Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz to send two letters to the federal appeals court, expressing grave concerns and criticisms about DOJ’s actions. Last night’s arrests are the latest example of a troubling trend of federal law enforcement violating the rule of law and the First Amendment rights of journalists and lawful protesters, who express criticisms of the administration.
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF’s archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.
