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Judge Orders UC Santa Cruz to Seal and Destroy information it Improperly Seized from Anti-Genocide Student Protestor’s Phone

In an important victory for civil liberties and defense of anti-genocide protestors, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Erika Ziegenhorn ruled that UC Santa Cruz was not entitled to the wide breadth of information it sought to access when it…

Protect the Protest Statement on Energy Transfer v Greenpeace International et al SLAPP Verdict

“The verdict against Greenpeace is a threat to the fundamental right to free speech & protest.” The Protect the Protest Coalition, of which we are a member, has released a statement on the verdict reached in the SLAPP against Greenpeace.…

An Open Letter from Civil Rights Groups to the American People

Our Rights Are at Stake. We Will Not Be Silenced. In America, our government cannot do whatever it wants. And we, the people, have a right to ask for what we need, defend ourselves from abuse, and speak our minds.…

PCJF Statement on the verdict against Greenpeace

This week’s verdict against Greenpeace in the lawsuit brought by oil giant Energy Transfer Partners is a profound attack on First Amendment rights and the ability of communities to speak truth to the powerful. This lawsuit sought to punish Greenpeace…

Empire Files Interviews Mara Verheyden-Hilliard on Mahmoud Khalil’s Abduction

Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and constitutional lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard speaks with Empire Files host Abby Martin about the detention and attempt to deport U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil for his pro-Palestine speech.

PCJF Statement on Mahmoud Khalil’s Unlawful Arrest and Abduction

The Trump Administration is pursuing an unconstitutional witch hunt, abusing government authority in order to target, punish and silence viewpoints that it ideologically opposes.

After student protester sued UC Santa Cruz, campus police seized her phone

Excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle. Read the full article here. A UC Santa Cruz student and pro-Palestinian activist whose cell phone was seized by campus police — while she was standing outside her dorm in her pajamas during a…

Trump says he wants to protect free speech. Advocates say he’s undermining it.

In what President Donald Trump says is a move to protect the rule of law and free speech advocates see as an attack on it, the White House is promising tougher punishments for vandalizing public monuments, statues and religious displays.

PCJF challenges Trump’s Executive Order targeting pro-Palestinian protestors as “racist and unhinged” attack on free speech

The Trump Administration’s Executive Order targeting by viewpoint those who have courageously stood against the U.S. backed Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people is a racist and unhinged assault on the fundamental constitutional right to free speech.

PCJF Staff Attorney & former Marine Nick Place spoke to Empire Files’ Mike Prysner on domestic deployment of US military

"Troops actually on the ground, really need to ask themselves if they’ll get the same leeway as Trump and his billionaire bosses for executing the orders Trump gives from the golf course."

Civil Rights Orgs Warn Pomona College: Unprecedented Suspensions of Students Are Unlawful, ‘Punishes the Act of Protest Itself.’

Five legal organizations including Palestine Legal, the Asian Law Caucus, the Center for Protest Law and Litigation, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, and the National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles sent a letter to Pomona College today warning the…

New Motions Demand the Court Dismiss Charges and Disqualify DA Brooke Jenkins in GG26 Case

The legal team for 26 activists who were arrested on the Golden Gate Bridge in April filed a motion in San Francisco’s superior court today, demanding that the court disqualify San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and her entire office,…