First Amendment Win Against United States

Six J20 protesters win First Amendment case in D.C

Congrats and thank you to defendants Jennifer Armento, Oliver Harris, Brittne Lawson, Michelle Macchio, Christina Simmons and Alexei Wood 

The First Amendment won today in Washington D.C., (Washington Post, Huffington Post).

But this is a war that should not have been waged by a tyrannical United States Attorney's Office and unthinking police against Americans protesting and chronicling a demonstration on Jan 20, 2017.

This is a trial that the cowardly Judge Lynn Leibovitz, the presiding judge, should not have allowed to proceed.

From the Independent:

Six defendants facing decades in prison for protesting Donald Trump’s inauguration have been found not guilty, in a trial that raised serious questions about First Amendment rights in the age of Trump.

A jury in Washington, DC, cleared the defendants of all seven charges against them, which included rioting and multiple counts of property destruction. The defendants were the first of nearly 200 people due to stand trial for their involvement in the 20 January protests.

Jude Ortiz, a member of the Defend J20 team that mobilised to support the defendants, called the decision “a victory for political organising”.

"The prosecutor was trying to claim political organising was conspiracy,” Mr Oritz told The Independent. "And these acquittals show that that logic is not being bought."
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Criminalizing free speech is actually not the American way.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's office vows to proceed with nearly 200 more prosecutions against other protesters.

You see why people demonstrate for freedom?