Inauguration Day Protests Case Is Injury to First Amendment Speech, Free Press and Assembly Rights

Alexei Wood stands outside the D.C. Court of Appeals
on Nov. 14, 2017, across from the D.C. Superior Court
where his case is being heard in Washington on Nov. 14,
2017. Wood was arrested while covering the DisruptJ20
protest on Inauguration Day. Copy and image are from
The Intercept.

First Amendment freedoms at trial in D.C. courtroom as journalists and protesters, whom President* Trump regards as enemies, face years in prison for lawful and long-protected activity in J20-DisruptJ20 demonstrations held on Inauguration Day

Day two of jury deliberations today

No, America is not the land of the free and home of the brave.

Certainly not in the courtroom of Judge Lynn Leibovitz, a typically cowardly and less-than-learned jurist gaping in the judicial bureaucracy of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Leibovitz' presiding over this case is a continuing disgrace to American jurisprudence, as this judge has not to this point dismissed this political prosecution against Americans protesting the inauguration of the openly fascist president, Donald Trump.

Report Ryan J. Reilly and Christopher Mathias in an overview of the case in the Huffington Post:

An American photojournalist swept up in a mass arrest of hundreds of demonstrators conducted by security forces in the nation’s capital earlier this year during a protest of a regime change ceremony will face a criminal trial here, (in D.C.), Monday.

Alexei Wood, a 37-year-old freelance photojournalist based in the American southwest, has been charged with multiple felonies. If found guilty, he could face decades inside a mammoth prison system in the world’s most incarcerated nation.

Wood was one of more than 200 citizens captured en masse by police forces quelling demonstrations held at the same time as President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Just weeks before, the tough-talking real estate magnate and reality television star shocked the nation’s political class when his rightward, populist campaign beat out that of a candidate from America’s predominant center-left political dynasty.

The continued prosecution of Wood and nearly 200 protesters has raised alarm among many who worry it will have a chilling effect on dissent in America, a country that holds itself up as a beacon of free speech and political expression.

As police and state disruption of citizens exercising free speech rights has become normalized, the J20 case would in a country dedicated to liberties of its citizens become the focus of saturation media  coverage.

Not so today as First Amendment liberties remain unpopular in the political culture and broadly speaking among those serving in government.

Notes Eoin Higgins in The Intercept:

[The prosecution of Wood and other defendants] is alarming as a reflection of the government’s attempt to define — and criminalize — journalism, but the case as a whole also speaks to the government’s attempt to undermine the First Amendment right to political speech. 'The government is prosecuting this case as though DisruptJ20' — the name given to the protest — 'were a run-of-the-mill criminal conspiracy, where the only objective is criminal in nature, rather than a political demonstration designed to make a statement about the current administration,' Shana Knizhnik, an attorney with the ACLU-DC, told The Intercept in an email. 'This framing undermines the fundamental principles of the First Amendment.'

Stay informed on developments in the Alexei Wood, J20, Inauguration Day First Amendment case.

From the New York Times:

During the protests, the Washington Metropolitan Police seemingly ignored journalists who presented their credentials, including Mr. Wood, who is seen flashing a press badge in the video.

'The police used the actions of a few window breakers as an excuse of a mass roundup,' said Scott Michelman, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington.

The other journalists arrested at K and 12th Streets on Jan. 20 were Evan Engel, a senior producer at Vocativ; Jack Keller, a producer of the web documentary series 'Story of America'; Matthew Hopard, a freelance photojournalist whose work has been published by The New York Times and Fox News; Alexander Stokes, an independent journalist who has a show on a public access news channel in Albany; Cheney Orr, a freelance photographer; Alexander Rubinstein, a reporter with RT America; and Shay Horse, a freelance photojournalist whose work has been published by Rolling Stone, Al Jazeera America and other outlets. 

Land of the free.