PCJF opposes Trump's Dept. of Interior plan to obstruct access to public information; challenges proposed FOIA rules as creating an "Obstructive Shell Game" and a "Political Gatekeeping Maneuver".

PCJF files civil rights lawsuit against the Museum of the Bible after egregious racial profiling, illegal detention and interrogation, and false reporting to the FBI. "Our client's visit to the Bible Museum turned into a Kafkaesque ordeal of humiliation, detention, interrogation and ultimately an FBI counter-terrorism investigation caused by the Museum's false reporting," stated PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard.

‘They’re Going to Pen You In and Charge You for It’. Janine Jackson interviewed Mara Verheyden-Hilliard about Trump’s new anti-protest rules for the Oct. 19, 2018, episode of FAIR's CounterSpin. Read more

A truly amazing effort by everyone who joined together and flooded the National Park Service with over 140,000 comments! This is a powerful push back against the Trump administration's new rules designed to crush protest in the nation's capital. People across the United States have made it clear that they are not going to sit back and allow their First Amendment rights to be eviscerated.

For the first time, the U.S. government wants demonstrators to pay to use our parks, sidewalks and streets to engage in free speech in the nation’s capital. This should be called for what it is: a protest tax. This is a bold effort by the Trump administration to burden and restrict access to public spaces for First Amendment activities in Washington. If enacted, it would fundamentally alter participatory democracy in America. Read more

“When you think about petitioning your government for redress of grievances, this is the nation’s capital -- this is where you come to do it. And now you have the Trump administration that is not only engaging in extreme rhetoric against demonstrators and suggesting that protests should be illegal,” but “taking concrete actions to suppress dissent and suppress free speech.” — Mara Verheyden-Hilliard in Bloomberg News. Click here to read the full article. Read more

On the night of November 20, 2016 law enforcement unleashed specialty impact munitions, explosive grenades, chemical agents, and water cannons in freezing temperatures injuring and maiming water protectors engaged in peaceful First Amendment-protected protest activities and prayer circles. We are proud to be part of the civil team litigating this case.

After months of denial and stonewalling by the General Service Administration (GSA), the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) has uncovered through painstaking and persistent litigation that certain government communications between the GSA and the Trump Organization negotiating terms of the arrangements for the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue have been kept outside agency records, on private email. Read more

The Empire Files' Abby Martin sat down recently with PCJF's Mara Verheyden-Hilliard to discuss assaults on civil liberties taking place around the country.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard: "Police often seem to use these [National Special Security Events], at least in past years, as an opportunity to requisition all manner of new weapons and gear ... It's a spending spree for them, and they can legitimize it by saying 'The demonstrators are coming to town.'" Read more